Climate Solutions:Building Climate and Clean Energy Leadership in the Northwest

摘要

How does a small-budget,regional nonprofit organization really have an impact on the world's biggest environmental problem?That's the challenge Climate Solutions has taken on.Started in 1998 in Olympia,Washington,our founders faced a political landscape that made bold national action to confront global warming virtually unimaginable.America's biggest industrial trade associations were solidly aligned in opposition to policy action to control greenhouse gas emissions.Rural communities in the West were roused in a fierce anti-environmental backlash that extended to opposition to the international Kyoto climate treaty.And the public was confused by media reporting that presented the science as hopelessly conflicted,between scientists that said the problem was real and those that said there was no reason to worry.Further,the problern is so large and long-term that the impacts are not readily visible,nor are the solutions simple and straightforward.