Savannah Morning News: “Savannah warms up to climate change”

This post was written by John Bennett

April 11, 2008

A story by Mary Landers in today’s paper reports on Savannah’s membership in Cities for Climate Protection, its efforts to determine its carbon footprint and Alderman Larry Stuber’s attendance at the Climate Communities summit in Washington this week.

In some quarters, it’s standard operating procedure to paint those who are serious about addressing climate change as the opposite: silly individuals who have fallen under the mesmerizing charm of a certain former vice president. It will be hard to make that caricature stick to Stuber:

Savannah Alderman Larry Stuber doesn’t need much convincing that climate change is real. He’s already seen evidence of the resulting sea level rise in area sewers.

“I’ve seen drainage pipes that are 100 to 150 years old that have water in them at low tide,” said Stuber, the former CEO of Savannah-based EMC Engineering Services. “You know they didn’t build them like that. Fifty years from now, if it rises another 2 feet, half the drainage will be under water.”

The story also includes some informative comments from Sean Brandon, Savannah’s director of mobility and parking, about municipal electricity use. Interestingly, city-operated private automobile storage facilities are a major draw, along with drinking and stormwater management

Read the full story here. More information on the Climate Communities summit can be found here.

Posted in Global Warming, Government