Global Climate Change

There is no longer a dispute that the earth is warming and that the implications of a changing climate will have far-reaching consequences for the world’s economies, cultures, and quality of life. Anticipated temperature increases of 2 degrees centigrade over the next century, experts say, will be enough to trigger erratic weather patterns, widespread drought, crop failure, and rising sea levels. Impacts on water and food supplies, increased pestilence and disease, and the changing composition of the world’s communities and forests promises to result in serious changes to life as we know it.

Promisingly, more and more Vermonters are taking action into their own hands, creating town energy committees and undertaking energy-saving, greenhouse gas-reducing projects.

The costs of global warming to Vermont are not fully known, but scientists and other experts agree that more hot, dry days promise to dramatically change ecosystems and landscapes. The implications this could have on Vermont’s maple sugaring, tourism, and skiing industries, as well as for public health, have spurred VNRC and myriad other organizations and individuals to call for significant policy and grassroots action to stem the tide. VNRC is working on a variety of fronts to support alternative energy production and use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote better more efficient uses of our land and water resources.

VNRC’s Energy and Climate Action Work focuses on:

• Building a more informed and involved public to reduce energy use, curb greenhouse gas emissions and promote greater use of sustainable energy.
• Working with key partners in the VECAN initiative to organize local energy and climate action committees in strategic communities across Vermont.
• Serving as one of the six-members of Governor Jim Douglas’ Climate Change Commission, which is charged with crafting a plan to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that Vermont produces.
• Working with key organizational, business, and community leaders to support the implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — an ambitious and much-needed action plan which will create a regional cap-and-trade system for energy utility companies.