Beirut distributing free compact florescent light bulbs!

October 15, 2009 · Filed under Activism, Events, Made in Lebanon · Tagged Abdel Mounim Ariss, America, Beirut, Beirut Climate Action Now, Bike Lanes, Blog Action Day, Carbon Emissions, City Light, Clean Energy, Climate change, Compact Florescent, Environment, Global Warming, Green, Green Building, I Have a Dream, King County Metro, Lebanon, Light Bulbs, Municipality, Public, Seattle, Transportation, Twist & Save, Washigton, Zerofootprint

YAY for the city of Beirut! In an unprecedented initiative to reduce global warming (and electricity bills), and since the Beirut Municipality care about its citizens and about the environment, the municipality gave away free compact florescent light bulbs at all Beirut Library branches this Saturday between noon and 4 p.m. The bulbs are provided as part of City Light’s Twist & Save program.

Finally, the public servants are doing some real work for the salaries we pay them!

Here is an excerpt for a Dailystar article that covered the event:

Beirut – Mayor Abdel Mounim Ariss joined community and business leaders today to launch Beirut Climate Action Now, a grassroots campaign to encourage everyone in Beirut to reduce global warming pollution at home, on the road and in their neighborhoods.

Sponsored by the city of Beirut with the support of community groups & nonprofit organizations, Beirut Climate Action Now (www.beirutcan.org) will help people make smart choices to protect the city and the planet from the threat of climate change. Using online resources and community events, the public awareness campaign will connect people across the street and across the city make a difference for the future of our environment.

Beirut is working to reach that goal by providing clean, renewable energy through City Light; encouraging the construction of energy-efficient commercial and residential buildings, promoting the use of alternative fuels; and making it easier and safer to walk, bike and take transit.
A centerpiece of Beirut Climate Action Now is a new web site – www.beirutcan.org – that will make it easy for everyone to get involved. It features simple steps that people can take to cut carbon emissions that are causing global warming. The site’s calendar and homepage will be a clearinghouse for information about climate-related events and activities across the city.

The web site will also feature Zerofootprint Beirut, a first-of-its-kind climate-action planner that allows people to develop personalized actions plans for reducing their climate pollution. Zerofootprint Beirut also allows residents to see the effect of their actions individually, and it adds them up to show the community-wide benefit.

To good to be true?

This blog post about the issue of climate change on October 15th is part of the Blog Action Day annual event.

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Actually yes, it is too good to be true.

The above would have been an excellent event to blog about on the Blog Action Day, an event we wish had happened. Unfortunately, it did not, not in Beirut, not in Lebanon… but somewhere else… 2 years ago.

In 2006, Mayor Nickels released the Seattle Climate Action Plan, the most comprehensive set of investments and programs in the city’s history for fighting climate change. Seattle, Washigton (#1 according to 18seconds.org ) has made tremendous progress so far, and the work ahead will be to sustain Seattle’s gains, build on the momentum, and redouble efforts to reduce climate pollution in Seattle, not only by 7 percent by 2012, but by 80 percent by 2050.

Seattle’s Accomplishments

Here is what Seattle is doing to protect the City from climate change.

Transportation Choices, Compact Communities

• The City, in combination with King County Metro, purchased 20,000 hours of new bus service.
• Seattle Department of Transportation added 50 miles of new bike lanes and sharrows since the Bicycle Master Plan was finalized.

Clean Vehicles, Clean Fuels

• The City passed Green Taxi regulations that increase the number of taxis by 30 percent but decrease green house gas emissions by at least ten percent over the next four years.
• The City reduced citywide fuel consumption by 41,000 gallons, saving 410 tons of greenhouse gases emissions.
• Seattle Center reduced fuel consumption by 40 percent by using electric vehicles.

Gasworks Park	Burke-Gilman bike trail
Public Library	Green Lake park
	Swimming, biking, boating, running, playing on the beach… it can all be found at Green Lake

Clean Energy, Efficient Buildings

• The City launched a Green Building Task Force to develop policies that will increase energy efficiency of Seattle buildings by 20 percent, with policy recommendations due this year.
• City Light distributed 1.4 million CFLs through the Twist & Save program, avoiding 23,000 tons of GHGs.
• City Light exceeded conservation goals by 20%, saving enough energy to power 9,800 homes in Seattle for a year.
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The Bicycle Master Plan, Green Taxi regulations, and Seattle in general look great! Now, lets get back to reality…

Traffic in Beirut

Other Lebanese bloggers on the Blog Action Day:

• +961
• Beirutspring
• Café Thawra
• Identity Chef
• Joe’s Box
• Hummus Nation
• Liliane
• Maya’s Amalgam
• Schizolax
• The Modern Dictator