Please vote yes to support A2Zero goals and objectives. The current COVID-19 pandemic will pass eventually, but the effects of climate change on our community are likely to last for generations. Now is the time to act!
I support the Carbon Neutrality Plan. This living document, prepared with extensive community input, gives us the necessary guidance to meet one of our highest priority policy goals.
Please remove the A2Zero plan from the Consent Agenda, and postpone it for several months.
We are life-long supporters of environmental action. But this "plan" in its current form is not viable.
Carbon neutrality is a laudable goal. However, this plan relies on theory and assumptions which are not proven and true. For example, eliminating R-1 zoning (page 78) without imposing strict carbon-neutral building requirements will actually increase the City's carbon footprint.
The possible consequences need to be evaluated in terms of the real impact on the current tax-paying residents of Ann Arbor, as well as carbon neutrality.
We realize that pushing the A2Zero Plan forward right now is highly political. We understand that to vote for a delay will be turned into a negative sound-bite.
It takes courage and leadership to pause and consider the context and implications of a plan. A2Zero deserves full and reasoned consideration, and needs some modification.
L M Borset & C P Compton
Ward 5
While I hope to deliver my comments live during the meeting, I want to make sure my voice of support is registered here, too. We are in a climate emergency, and this plan provides a comprehensive guide for achieving real results. We need to adopt the plan now as a framework for future decisions, and negotiate its implementation and budgets as we enthusiastically and confidently move forward.
I ask you to please work together to implement changes to reduce our fair city's carbon footprint. Our children's future depend on your actions and vision. I and others will be watching closely and will support political leaders with the resolve to support action against climate change. No plan is perfect but having no plan is not acceptable.
Despite the immediate fiscal concerns we face as a community, the challenges of climate change will not recede because of the pandemic. Keep your eyes on the prize... Ann Arbor must address the urgent need to move to carbon neutrality now!
Honorable Mayor Taylor and Council-you have shown bold and decisive leadership in declaring a climate emergency and we thank you. Please continue to show your strong commitment on this issue by supporting the A2Zero Carbon Neutrality Governance Plan. While there may be parts of the plan that require further refinement, please find ways to support the overall plan. There will be obstacles on the journey to carbon zero, but the obstacles pale in comparison to doing nothing. We have seen what happens on a national level with lack of leadership. You are the front line way the citizens of AA can make progress on this issue.Please show your leadership and recognition of this issue by supporting the governance plan. The future of all of us, our children, and grandchildren hangs in the balance and your leadership can do something about it.
My thinking always returns to the science.The world's carbon budget for averting 2 degrees Celsius heating is almost gone, taking into account feedbacks like Arctic permafrost melt, and also the principle of global equity and justice, which dictates that rich countries must decarbonize more quickly to allow poor countries more carbon budget to catch up. I wish we had more time, but we don't.This is my (older) generation's great failure. Now we must basically end emissions all at once to avoid the worst impacts. Little Ann Arbor can't solve this global problem, but neither can we shed our responsibility. And we can be an example. I don't like everything in this plan, but its framers drafted it responsibly, quantifying each action's impact by cost and emission savings, not hedging on the necessary steps, difficult as they are. In this way the plan is exemplary, and to my knowledge, unique. The focus on equity and justice is laudable. Above all, it's a living plan, accountable to us.
Please vote yes to support A2Zero goals and objectives. The current COVID-19 pandemic will pass eventually, but the effects of climate change on our community are likely to last for generations. Now is the time to act!
I support the Carbon Neutrality Plan. This living document, prepared with extensive community input, gives us the necessary guidance to meet one of our highest priority policy goals.
Please remove the A2Zero plan from the Consent Agenda, and postpone it for several months.
We are life-long supporters of environmental action. But this "plan" in its current form is not viable.
Carbon neutrality is a laudable goal. However, this plan relies on theory and assumptions which are not proven and true. For example, eliminating R-1 zoning (page 78) without imposing strict carbon-neutral building requirements will actually increase the City's carbon footprint.
The possible consequences need to be evaluated in terms of the real impact on the current tax-paying residents of Ann Arbor, as well as carbon neutrality.
We realize that pushing the A2Zero Plan forward right now is highly political. We understand that to vote for a delay will be turned into a negative sound-bite.
It takes courage and leadership to pause and consider the context and implications of a plan. A2Zero deserves full and reasoned consideration, and needs some modification.
L M Borset & C P Compton
Ward 5
While I hope to deliver my comments live during the meeting, I want to make sure my voice of support is registered here, too. We are in a climate emergency, and this plan provides a comprehensive guide for achieving real results. We need to adopt the plan now as a framework for future decisions, and negotiate its implementation and budgets as we enthusiastically and confidently move forward.
I ask you to please work together to implement changes to reduce our fair city's carbon footprint. Our children's future depend on your actions and vision. I and others will be watching closely and will support political leaders with the resolve to support action against climate change. No plan is perfect but having no plan is not acceptable.
Despite the immediate fiscal concerns we face as a community, the challenges of climate change will not recede because of the pandemic. Keep your eyes on the prize... Ann Arbor must address the urgent need to move to carbon neutrality now!
Honorable Mayor Taylor and Council-you have shown bold and decisive leadership in declaring a climate emergency and we thank you. Please continue to show your strong commitment on this issue by supporting the A2Zero Carbon Neutrality Governance Plan. While there may be parts of the plan that require further refinement, please find ways to support the overall plan. There will be obstacles on the journey to carbon zero, but the obstacles pale in comparison to doing nothing. We have seen what happens on a national level with lack of leadership. You are the front line way the citizens of AA can make progress on this issue.Please show your leadership and recognition of this issue by supporting the governance plan. The future of all of us, our children, and grandchildren hangs in the balance and your leadership can do something about it.
Milt Baker
628 Green Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
My thinking always returns to the science.The world's carbon budget for averting 2 degrees Celsius heating is almost gone, taking into account feedbacks like Arctic permafrost melt, and also the principle of global equity and justice, which dictates that rich countries must decarbonize more quickly to allow poor countries more carbon budget to catch up. I wish we had more time, but we don't.This is my (older) generation's great failure. Now we must basically end emissions all at once to avoid the worst impacts. Little Ann Arbor can't solve this global problem, but neither can we shed our responsibility. And we can be an example. I don't like everything in this plan, but its framers drafted it responsibly, quantifying each action's impact by cost and emission savings, not hedging on the necessary steps, difficult as they are. In this way the plan is exemplary, and to my knowledge, unique. The focus on equity and justice is laudable. Above all, it's a living plan, accountable to us.