Photograph by Steven Higgs

More emphasis on mass transit and less on cars is one direction city officials can go to reduce Bloomington’s contributions to climate change. Automobiles and electricity account for 67 percent of the city’s greenhouse emissions.

When members of Bloomington's Commission on Sustainability (BCOS) reviewed a "Sustainability Indicators Report" at an April 10 meeting, they covered topics like water usage per capita, how healthy local streams are for recreation and community recycling rates.

They dwelled on and discussed each set of data extensively and optimistically, as the corresponding charts and graphs were presented.

But when the topic of greenhouse gas emissions loomed on the projector screen, the group was silent.

"This is a big one," Commissioner John Hamilton said, shaking his head with a sigh, and the report moved on.

Mike Steinhoff, a graduate student at IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and an environmental commission intern, collected the data in the indicators report.

In 2006, he compiled a separate assessment of Bloomington's greenhouse gas emissions, which summarized emission rates from 1990 to 2004 and addressed how Bloomington could act to lower these rates in accordance with the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which Mayor Mark Kruzan signed in 2006.

According to the assessment, most cities that have signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement have a goal of reducing emissions by 7 percent by 2012.

That kind of reduction would put Bloomington at around 600,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is lower than the emission levels of 1990.

But, as Steinhoff's assessment shows, unless the city takes strong, immediate action, that goal will not be reached, and Bloomington's emission rates will climb to nearly 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2012.

"How do you get the city to make that happen?" Steinhoff asked. "They can try and facilitate it. ... But in the end it takes people doing it themselves."

A long time coming

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report on April 6 stating that the effects of global warming are already palpable.

For the future, the report predicts stronger storms, less rain for areas already experiencing drought and a possible die off of 30 percent of the world's species.

Bloomington's Caldwell Eco Center Director Jeff Miller said one of the most important documents he can think of regarding global warming is the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity," which was released in 1992.

The document highlighted what more than 1,700 of the world's leading scientists believed would happen in the future if global warming was not slowed. It was signed by more than half the Nobel laureates in the sciences alive at the time.

And Miller said many of these predictions are coming true now, which is why Bloomington needs to act.

"Yes, the mayor says he is committed to mitigating climate change and doing whatever the city of Bloomington can do to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions," Miller said. "But that's only as far as his realm goes. His realm is the city."

Kruzan approved the Commission on Sustainability, which was championed by City Councilman Dave Rollo, in 2005. And since there is a lack of federal action in response to global warming, Bloomington and many other cities have adopted the mayors' climate agreement.

Among other things, the agreement says that even though the United States holds only 5 percent of the world's population, it "is responsible for producing approximately 25 percent of the world's global warming pollutants."

Driving forces of climate change

According to Steinhoff's greenhouse gas assessment, approximately 95 percent of Bloomington's electricity comes from coal, with 5 percent coming from natural gas. This electricity, along with transportation, accounts for 67 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in Bloomington.

Steinhoff said much of the problem lies in the number of people driving.

In late 2006, a study released by Bloomington Transportation Options for People (BTOP) showed that Bloomington's three downtown parking garages are never more than half full.

The BCOS indicators study left Laurence "Buff" Brown, the founder and director of BTOP, feeling justified but frustrated. Brown has dedicated himself and BTOP to reducing the city's dependency on cars. But he thinks the city has done little to change the way citizens think about driving and how it damages the environment.

"Transit use goes way down as the convenience of the car goes up," Brown said. "I think governments are so ingrained in the current process of taking the money and turning it into cars that they can't get out of it."

Brown suggests the city start charging more for parking to help reduce the number of downtown drivers.

Rallying for reduced emissions

BCOS members are trying to educate and communicate to Bloomington residents about what they can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Steinhoff's Sustainability Indicators Report will be released at the end of May, and he said the commission hopes everyone will read it and assess how their lifestyles affect the atmosphere.

On April 14, Rollo and Kruzan announced the beginning of the "Change a Light, Change the World Campaign." The campaign will last one year and urges local residents to start using compact fluorescent light bulbs, which can reduce energy usage up to 40 percent.

BCOS hopes to have 40,000 of these light bulbs to give out by the end of the year. The goal is to reduce Bloomington's "carbon footprint," which is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

"On a per capita basis, Americans have the highest carbon footprint of anyone anywhere because of our style of life," Miller said.

But even with energy-saving light bulbs and other forms of technology coming into the scene, Miller, like Steinhoff, said the only way to reduce global warming is to change human behavior.

"There's only so much that the mayor can do, because he can't legislate people's thoughts," Miller said. "The deeper questions are lifestyle choices."

And while Bloomington may be doing what it can to reduce its own carbon footprint, Miller said it will take nothing short of catastrophe to wake the world up. He said scientists predict that it's only a matter of time before catastrophe of devastating proportions strikes.

"The bottom line is that humans are not masters of the universe," he said. "If we think we are like gods, we will be punished by nature."

Jessica Hullinger can be reached at jghullin@indiana.edu.