Green Wombat

Part of the fun of living in Berkeley, California, is voting. Sure, there’s the usual bond measures and city council candidates – spanning the political spectrum from the left to the far left to the far out left. But in Berkeley we also like to weigh in on topics of international import, and the 2006 election is no exception. For instance, the November 7 ballot features Measure H, which calls on the city council to petition the U.S. House of of Representatives to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for various high crimes and misdemeanors. Then there’s Measure G, which would have Berkeley reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. The measure, which is advisory but backed by the mayor, urges the city council to set a 10-year emissions reduction target in 2007 and develop a plan to achieve that goal.

Now on many issues Berkeley tends to serve as a bellwether only for Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Eugene, Boulder and other people’s republics. But on the environment the East Bay city has been a national leader: It was the first to adopt curbside recycling, now found in even the reddest of the red states, and in 2003 it began to convert all municipal vehicles to biodiesel.

In one of its periodic forays into foreign policy, Berkeley endorsed the Kyoto Protocol and then proceeded to make its rhetoric reality. Between 2002 and 2005 the city exceeded the Kyoto targets by reducing its greenhouse emissions 14 percent. The city also has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange, the North American carbon trading market. So as New York City and other municipalities now move to limit their own greenhouse gas emissions, they just might want to look to the left coast.