At a Rebel Alliance Photo Shoot: To Smile or Not to Smile
As our group of about 50 lined up to have its picture taken, our photographer said, "Look angry. Climate change is serious. Don't smile."
What a dilemma: we were having fun, being with each other at the once-a-year gathering of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), people from 20+ cities across the globe that are leading the charge on reducing GHG emissions. Also making it hard to frown: we're optimists, "Yes We Can" people.
Being optimistic isn't easy when you contemplate the slowness of the world's response to global warming and the increasingly turbulent and dangerous weather we're experiencing everywhere. And yet... without denying anything about our troubling "climate reality," there's something about being with the climate-change leaders from local governments in two dozen cities that leaves you inspired and energized. These cities--San Francisco, Washington DC, Melbourne, Yokohama, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Toronto, to name a few--are making extraordinary progress in reducing their emissions, while growing their economies and making their cities better.
The CNCA met in Boulder, Colorado, just before the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), at a time when the world is looking to city leadership to reduce GHG emissions. The Alliance's members gathered to exchange "how to" information and advice and plan new climate-action innovations. They reviewed the Game Changers Report they would release at GCAS to help other cities take bold steps to accelerate decarbonization. Bottom line: great progress is happening and even more can be done by cities.
CNCA's spirit of pioneering and sharing, or taking risks and making gifts to other cities, is the way of thousands of other city leaders around the world. They exchange with and advise each other, learn together, and collaborate. They recognize that no city can solve the climate problem by itself; that they need each other to act, as boldly and quickly as possible.
This spirit is part of what inspires Urban Climate Rebels worldwide and keeps us going against daunting odds. It's why, at least for me, it wasn't easy to wipe those smiles off of our faces. Click!
Read more about the Urban Climate Rebel Alliance in our new book Life After Carbon.
