Californian environmental activist speaks at URI Honors Colloquium

11/13/08 - Last night, Mary Nichols, the chair of California's Air Resources Board, came to speak about current efforts California is taking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.The lecture was part of the fall semester Honors Colloquium.

As an "advocate for cleaning air," Nichols addressed a large crowd of predominantly graduate students in Edwards Auditorium.

During the last 100 years, California has observed a seven-inch rise in sea level, which threatens the infrastructure of urban areas and causes severe coastal damage. Reductions of the annual snowpack have also been more noticeable than in past years.

Scripps Institute of Oceanography was responsible for alerting California government officials of the decrease of water supplies in the Sierra water pack.

"Our water system is now ill-adapted," Nichols said.

Nichols, one of Los Angeles's leading environmental lawyers and a graduate of Yale Law School, also mentioned her state is very prone to deadly wildfires. A whopping total of more than one million acres burned this year. Nichols warned that in the near future, it has been speculated that California will experience a 75 percent loss of its annual snowpack cover and a 55 percent increase in the quantity of wildfires that will be "larger, wilder and more intense."

Nichols is also part of the Californian Action Registry, a "non-profit entity with the sole purpose of measuring carbon dioxide emissions from industries."

In 2002, California developed the AB 1493 Pavley Law, which requires the California Air Resources Board to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles in a cost-efficient manner. The purpose of this law is "to set emission standards for cars and light trucks," Nichols said.

During 2005, AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, was developed. According to Nichols, California's goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. That is equivalent to a 30 percent decrease from today's current carbon dioxide levels.

"I think it's a good and balanced plan," Nichols said. She also added that if the state was to be considered as a country, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world. California is currently the 12th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, she said.

Within the past decade, states and local agencies have joined forces to combat the increasing rates of carbon dioxides being released.

"People have begun to realize that this is actually everybody's job," Nichols said. We are currently in "one of the worst economic situations we've been in for decades."

On a personal level, she has "come to believe that what we're building here is more than just a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it's a mosaic."

She said she hopes to develop more fuel-efficient alternative energy sources and aims to create an educated community "driven by a commitment to finally address the issues of climate change.the most important issue of our time."

She said the effects of her plans could create more than 100,000 jobs during the next decade.