Telluride Resolves to Become Carbon Neutral, 1/7

03 Jan Telluride Resolves to Become Carbon Neutral, 1/7

On Sunday, January 7, 3 – 5 p.m., at Telluride’s five-star Wilkinson Public Library, hear from members of the Town of Telluride, the Town of Mountain Village, the Carbon Neutral Coalition, EcoAction Partners, the Pinhead Climate Institute and the Sheep Mountain Alliance, and learn how you can plug in to fight climate change. Free & open to all. Free pizza too. Sponsored by the San Miguel Power Association.

Maybe, just maybe, the sky does not have to fall.

In the toy town of Ashton Hayes in rural Cheshire England, population roughly 1000, residents banded together to deal with what is arguably the most essential story of our time: climate change. Over a 10+-year period, the countryside village managed to reduce its carbon footprint by about a whopping 40 percent using simple, no-brainer tweaks: replacing dryers with clotheslines; installing solar panels; glazing windows to better insulate their homes; even taking fewer flights.

The goal there – and now here in Telluride – was (and is) to become carbon neutral.

After years of raising the bar in the fight against climate change, Telluride’s Town Council recently set its sights on an ambitious new goal: a carbon neutral town. The decision puts us in a rarified group of communities from small towns like Ashton Hayes to hubs of commerce like New York City, with everyone working to aggressively curb and offset their carbon emissions.

The Mountain Independent’s first issue follows efforts to reduce the environmental impact of four different mountain communities. Now everyone is convening a conversation to help the rubber meet the road in Telluride.

Be there to find out how you can become part of the solution in what could and should become a community-wide, grassroots effort to battle climate change and help bring the Telluride region to carbon neutrality. No small challenge because Telluride has a carbon footprint twice the national average.