"Global Warming is Real, and What You Can Do About It" Nobel Prize Winner Professor Alan Robock spoke on global warming.  Dr. Robock, a world-renowned researcher at Rutgers University, shared highlights on the latest thinking about global warming as well as information on what could happen in our own state of New Jersey.  In 2007, Dr. Robock was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as one of the 2,500 members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. There was a lively discussion.

The minutes of the meeting of November 11/13/07 were approved.

Status of Mayor’s Climate Protection AgreementBoth Princeton Mayors have signed the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.  There is some bureaucratic problem in getting Mildred Trottman’s agreement posted on the appropriate website.

Nobel Prize Winner to speak on global warming at PCDO on April 20, 2008We are very fortunate to have as our guest speaker on global warming, Professor Alan Robock of Rutgers University.  Dr. Robock, a world-renowned researcher, will share highlights on the latest thinking about global warming as well as information on what could happen in our own state of New Jersey.  In 2007, Dr. Robock was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as one of the 2,500 members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The discussion leading to asking Professor Robock to speak were part of our January 8, 2008 meeting.

Next meeting

The next meeting time for our committee will be selected after Professor Robock’s talk.

Resource Book: Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, BREAK THROUGH: FROM THE DEATH OF ENVIRONMENTALISM TO THE POLITICS OF POSSIBILITY. 2007.  Princeton library.  Non-F 333.72 Nor  A controversial book about what is the best persuasive (and public relations) approach for the environmental movement.  A main theme is that threatening people with doom does not inspire them to action.

The minutes from October 9. 2007, were approved.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement Mayor Phyllis Marchand of Princeton Township has signed the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.  We will approach Mayor Mildred Trotman of the Borough on signing the agreement also. Report on the Green Home and Garden Tour of Nov 17 It was a big success. Over 200 people took part.  Two of our committee members participated in the planning. PCDO Membership Meeting on Global Warming We discussed several possibilities, but do not yet have a concrete plan.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. In September we voted to take as a goal having the two Princeton governments sign on to the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.  We see signing on to the Climate Protection Agreement important as a useful symbolic step in itself and as an opportunity to educate people in the Princetons on the issue of global warming as the sign-on effort goes forward.  On Oct. 24, Phyllis Marchand, Mayor of Princeton Township, signed the Agreement.  Mayor Trotman of the Boro has yet to act.

The next step is to approach the PCDO governing body to get the approval of PCDO to pursue getting Mayor Tropman’s signature on the agreement as well.  To help our efforts, Anne provided us with a statement supporting signing the Agreement written by Princeton Environmental Commission member Ann Sinden.

For information on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Summit in Seattle that headlined Bill Clinton, see http://www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/clintonheadline_090707.pdf 

Green Tour. Sustainable Princeton, in the person of its member, Anne Neumann, is organizing a green home and garden tour for Saturday, November 17.  Both Anatoliy and Dawn volunteered to contact her about helping with the tour.

Plan PCDO Program on Global Warming.  We all saw the need of planning a program on global warming program for PCDO sometime in coming months.

Other Possibilities and Activities

Pat reported on the many activities of the green committee at Princeton Unitarian Universalist church of which she is a member. Bob brought pictures of a home in Princeton that has used solar panels for several years.

For information on Sustainable Princeton, go to www.sustainableprinceton.org

The national organization on the environment founded by Al Gore, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is the Alliance for Climate Protection, http://www.climateprotect.org/

For an excellent critique of NJ’s actions on global warming so far, see Attachment B.

We voted to take as a goal having the two Princeton governments sign on to the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.  Anne told us about Sustainable Princeton’s plan to have a green home and garden tour in November.

Dawn expressed the view that she hoped the focus would be on the local community, both educating people about how to reduce global warming and creating support for a time when various levels of government might take more aggressive roles in mandating activities which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Russ pointed out that we can have an impact on state issues related to global warming now because we will have some standing with state policy makers as a committee of the PCDO.

We discussed those organizations in the area that are already active or potentially active in the area of global warming including the Princeton Environmental Commission and its subcommittee Sustainable Princeton; Princeton University; religious organizations (already expressing some interest are Nassau Presbyterian, Trinity, and the Unitarians); and Princeton Future.

Among the topics discussed were

• Planning a program for a PCDO meeting, perhaps taking advantage of Dana Anne Isherwood’s offer of a slide show. She has been trained by Al Gore’s group as part of a grass roots effort in connection with “An Inconvenient Truth.”
• Does the PSE&G still do energy audits?
• A possible sustainable house tour, something Sustainable Princeton is also considering
• Solar heating and tax breaks for this
• Energy efficient cars
• Putting trees in open spaces

As the meeting ended,

• Anatoliy offered to collect information on contractors who help homeowners with energy-saving improvements and find out more about devices that measure the energy consumption of particular appliances.
• Len offered to look into which kinds of home improvements make an impact as far as global warming is concerned.
• Russ offered to look into organizations in New Jersey that can keep us informed on state-level global warming initiatives.
• Dawn offered to continue looking into what existing organizations in the area are doing related to global warming

We agreed to meet again in September on a Tuesday that does not conflict with a meeting of the Environmental Commission or Sustainable Princeton.