City Of Northfield: Living As If Climate Change Matters

Press release from the City of Northfield:

March 14, 2022

This is the first in a monthly series from members of Northfield’s Environmental Quality Commission. Bruce Anderson is a member of the City of Northfield’s Environmental Quality Commission.

The Northfield City Council is to be commended for being one of 16 Minnesota cities to pass a resolution declaring a climate emergency last month. They join over 2,000 jurisdictions internationally to have done so since 2016.

Climate change caused by human activities is real. It’s causing significant damage worldwide right now, from catastrophic wildfires to increasingly frequent extreme weather events, which will only get worse in the future. Decisions we make in the near future on actions to slow climate change will determine how livable or unlivable Earth will be for future generations.

That damaging climate change is caused by human activity is clear:

• Global atmospheric concentration of the primary greenhouse gas (GHG), carbon dioxide (CO2), has increased from 280 parts per million (ppm) at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to 412.5 ppm in 2020 largely because of fossil fuel combustion.
• The last time atmospheric CO₂ amounts were this high was over 3 million years ago, when temperature was 3.6°–5.4°F higher than during the pre-industrial era, and sea level was 50–80 feet higher than today.
• There is strong scientific consensus that unless we reduce global GHG emissions by about 50% by 2030, and to net zero by 2050, global temperature will rise by more than 2.7°F (1.5°C). Temperature rise greater than this will almost certainly mean increasingly damaging extreme weather events and wildfires, unmanageable rising sea levels, destabilizing climate-induced migration, accelerated extinctions, and serious threats to civilization as we know it.

We’re already well on our way to a 2.7°F rise:

Climate Action Plan

The CAP included a Northfield GHG emissions inventory:

The CAP recommends strategies and actions which the City has begun implementing, and the Northfield Environmental Quality Commission is charged with spearheading this implementation. In future months, this column will discuss what you can do to start living as if climate change matters. Now is the time!

Esta es la primera de una serie mensual de columnas de invitados de los miembros de la Comisión de Calidad Ambiental de Northfield. Bruce Anderson es miembro de la Comisión de Calidad Medioambiental de la ciudad de Northfield.

Hay que felicitar al Consejo Municipal de Northfield por ser una de las 16 ciudades de Minnesota que aprobaron el mes pasado una resolución que declaro la emergencia climática. Se suman a las más de 2,000 jurisdicciones a nivel internacional que lo han hecho desde 2016.

Climate Action Plan

This press release was produced by the City of Northfield. The views expressed here are the author’s own.