Like most Americans, Jim Hartman finds it difficult to give up driving.
But he and his wife, Maggie, have come up with a way they believe reduces their greenhouse gas footprint. They pay $220 each year for Green Tags.
The tags, known as renewable energy credits, represent the environmental benefits associated with generating electricity from renewable sources such as wind or solar. The tags are a voluntary subsidy for pollution-free electricity generators.
"It's hard to give up driving your car," said Hartman, an environmental science teacher at Ashland High School. "But this is something we can do to help (offset it)."
"I have been studying this issue of global warming for 20 years," he said. "I couldn't sleep at night if I felt I was helping accelerate the problem. I don't mean to be doom and gloom, but we have to start changing how we live."
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Although he knows buying the tags to make up for his four-member family's two vehicles, a minivan and a compact car, in which they travel fewer than 20,000 miles per year, won't make the Hartmans a "carbon neutral" family, he figures it's a start.
His family also pays an additional $12 a month in the electricity bill to support "green power" in a program known as Blue Sky, he said.
"It's a step in the right direction — it's a beginning," he said.
He will tell you the more Green Tags are purchased, the quicker green energy producers become a financially viable source for producing energy for large segments of the population. About 50 businesses in Ashland now sell the tags, he said.
Fellow Ashland resident Jim McGinnis, a forest ecologist by training, became active in the global warming issue after seeing the controversial documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" by former Vice President Al Gore. McGinnis, who will be at the Wednesday meeting, now makes presentations about the threat of climate change at schools, churches and clubs in the region.
"It has become a passion for me," he said, noting he has studied reports both supportive and dismissive of Gore's work.
"There is a lot of skepticism whether humans have caused it and whether CO2 is a bad thing. It's a very complex and fascinating topic. I want people to become informed, to look at their own beliefs and take action."
So does Lesley Adams, outreach coordinator for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. She is helping organize a meeting Monday for Step Up Climate Action, part of a nationwide effort targeting April 14 as a day to call on Congress to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Monday's organization session begins at 6 p.m. at the old Lincoln Elementary School, 320 Beach St., Ashland.
"We want to brainstorm what individuals can do," she said. "We want to offer a chance for diverse interests to get together and try to make a change for the better."
For more information, contact Adams at 488-5789 or at lesley@kswild.org.
