Calling All Urban Climate Rebels
On the big screen at the front of the darkened hall, these words appeared:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
Familiar music blared out: the theme from Star Wars. Then more words:
Episode XXX
THE ALLIANCE AWAKENS
It is a time of deep unrest. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have broached 400 parts per million, and the effects of CLIMATE CHANGE are being felt in weather disasters around the world.
The fossil fuel industry remains all powerful, and the United State has abdicated leadership in the quest for climate stability.
Meanwhile, hundreds of CITIES have emerged as a global force for climate action. History has seen nothing with the focus and scale of this Rebel Alliance, but its members need help...
Enter Darth Vadar and storm troopers of the Empire, Princess Leia and defenders of the people. Light sabers flash and clash. Cue panel.
Lord Vader stalks environmental funders
We are at the 30th annual meeting of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.
The panel was developed by Kresge Foundation's Jessica Boehland and me. Once the once the saber dueling ended, I moderated the session. My opening remarks:
Since about 2009 I have had the privilege of working alongside 100s of members of the Global Urban Climate Rebel Alliance, from cities around the world—including the 3 cities on the panel today. The book I’m writing with John Cleveland is dedicated to these Rebels. I want to read a short section from what our manuscript has to say about this Rebel Alliance:
Call it borrowing, copying, or stealing—when cities want to know what they might do next, what their future might be like, they look to other cities and their innovations. Cities naturally “connect, interact, and network,” scholar Benjamin Barber points out in If Mayors Ruled the World. For more than two decades growing numbers of cities have engaged with each other worldwide in formal and informal networks, sharing what they learn about, collaborating on, and spreading urban climate innovations.
The emergence of this dense web of connections among urban climate innovators and early-adopters of innovations has been spurred by visionary mayors, like London’s Ken Livingston and New York’s Michael Bloomberg, and funded in large part by philanthropies.
As little as 20 years ago, this energetic global uprising barely existed. It had no standing in world affairs. Today, though, it reaches deep into hundreds of cities, the private and non-profit sectors, key professions, and community-based organizations. It’s a self-organizing, tireless swarm with no commander-in-chief, following the “North Star” of climate action. These cities recognize that, for perhaps the first time in history, the success of any individual city depends, to a large degree, on the success of cities collectively.
The panelists: Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Seattle Chief Resilience Officer Jessica Finn Coven, and Chicago Sustainability Director Christopher Wheat.
