STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Elizabeth Jeffrey has a confession to make.
“I always said that we’ve got to address global warming for the kids,
for my daughter. But I have to admit I didn’t start doing anything
until it affected me. They were telling us it was 20 years in the
future. Now it’s now.”
In fact, Jeffrey is scared –so scared that she and five friends have
formed the Hailey Climate Action Coalition to take meaningful,
actionable steps at a local level that will help make a difference
globally.
They’re dead serious—so serious that they’re creating their bulletin
board out of recycled materials and brainstorming what refreshments they
can serve that don’t involve paper cups or plastic utensils.
They hope to enlist others in their effort when they hold their first
meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at The Nature
Conservancy, 116 1st Ave. N., in Hailey. They plan to meet three or four additional Tuesday evenings until they’ve hammered out a plan.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we had 12 years
to avert catastrophe and that scared me,” said Jeffrey, who already has
built a passive solar home ringed by xeriscaping in Old Hailey. “And I
know a lot of people who are scared, who don’t feel they can make a
difference, who are frustrated because government and businesses are not
changing.
“We want to come together and figure out how we can make a difference, understanding that global change starts locally.”
The tipping point for Jeffrey came when precious summers and falls in
the Wood River Valley too often began turning into smoke season.
“A lot of us in this group are concerned about the lack of snow days.
And we’re losing our wonderful fall season, which used to be so
beautiful. Now, I feel like I’ve got to have an air purifier and I plan
on taking a vacation that time of the year because I’m afraid it will be
smoky,” she said.
it isn’t just here, Jeffrey added.
Colorful Hawaiian coral reefs that she marveled at six years ago have
died, exuding a pale lifeless color. The farmland she grew up amidst
in Iowa now sports floodwaters up to the gutters of the farmhouses for a
month and a half or more.
And her 33-year-old daughter who lives in New York must now access
the subway through above-ground stations during summer because it’s
suffocating hot below ground.
“She said that it was the luck of the draw that Hurricane Sandy came
at low tide,” Jeffrey said. “At high water it would’ve knocked out all
the electricity, all the infrastructure in Queens where she lives. And
she says more people there are dying of heat during summer than ever
before—she’s had to get an air condition.”
Those who have joined the Hailey Climate Action Coalition so far
include Jeffrey’s husband Rob Lonning, Gretchen Basen, Scott Runkel,
Colleen Clark and Jeff Anderton.
“My husband and I moved to the valley a few years ago for all the
wonderful outdoor things this valley offers. So, I hope to engage the
community in preserving what we have and even improving on it,” said
Basen.
Committee members determined at their formative meeting on Wednesday
that constructive change can be made in three sectors: Government,
business and community. Now they want to identify a goal for each
sector.
“Even a group of 10 can send a strong message to all three of the sectors,” said Jeffrey.
One possibility, for instance, would involve asking the City of
Hailey to reinstate the position of the sustainability director that was
left unfilled when Mariel Pratt left. She knew her stuff and made a lot
of good changes, such improving housing codes to include double-paned
windows, said Jeffrey.
The group could press for a program certifying green practices in
local businesses, she added. McDonald’s, for instance, has stepped up to
the plate by refusing to continue to use Styrofoam or put food in bag
when not needed.
Selling bottled water or other single use plastic products at city
events could help, Jeffrey said. And more speakers addressing global
warming at library and school events, could help, as well.
“Mariel had a plastic bag workshop that involved crocheting plastic
bags and more that filled up even without advertising,” she said. “We
need more of these things to educate people and make it easy for them to
do their part. We don’t want to do things after the fact. We want to
make changes up front.”
Questions? Contact makeitgreen@me.com.