a continuing obstacle to reducing transportation-related greenhouse emissions, Drekmeier said.
"Proximity is more important than the efficiency of a vehicle. Our biggest impact on climate change is driving. The challenge is to make housing affordable. It can be controversial. People don't want (lower income and high-density housing) in their area, but we can put it in downtown," he said.
Klein said reducing the effects of transportation raises its own sets of problems.
"We don't have a good handle on what emissions are now. How do you know if you've reduced things, if you don't have a way to measure them?"
The Mayor's Green Ribbon Task Force is looking at ways to quantify those numbers, such as doing an inventory of the number of gallons sold at gas stations.
Getting residents and businesses to buy in to making changes in their lives is an obstacle Kleinberg hopes the task force will help solve, as they examine ways to educate residents and businesses. The task force includes Stanford University officials and private sector groups, including the Palo Alto Parent-Teacher Association, faith groups, environmental organizations, businesses, architects and builders.
To get people to buy in, solutions will have to be practical, and achievable, she said.
"Everybody has their particular focus and obsessions: finances, home. Getting people's attention to something that is so incremental is difficult, but the changes are now unavoidable. To make behavior changes will be a challenge. People abhor change — it's human nature. When people see something changing, (they perceive) it will make things better or make them afraid. It's human nature to want stability, and stability means no change," she said.
At its June 8 meeting, the fledgling group considered the feasibility of following the Kyoto Protocol.
Given there are only six years left to meet the Kyoto challenge, the group voted to recommend adopting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Climate Action Report rather than the Kyoto Protocol. The governor's plan calls for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions to year 2000 levels by 2010, and 1990 levels by the year 2020, with an 80 percent reduction by 2015.
Task-force subcommittees plan to meet throughout the summer, researching other cities' plans and developing baseline measurement for each area of concern. Based on the members' areas of expertise, they will develop solutions and a strategic plan along with possible targets, and develop methods for measuring the results of carbon-dioxide reductions.
The group plans to make recommendations to the larger group by September. A complete report is expected to be presented to the City Council by early November. •