At a recent Global Warming Café we had hosted 80 plus citizens of Redwood City, which  just signed the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement this week.

The lobby of City Hall was turned into a giant café where dinner was served before the Café. 

Our first question was,

“What are you seeing that gives you hope about our responses to Global Warming?”

followed by a second round that focused on,

“What is possible (in our response to Global Warming)?

After round two we talked as a group and I mapped the ideas people had to share. We took a break, looked at the mural/map and then went to new tables for the third round, focusing on,

“What do you feel called to do?’

At the end of the round we passed out a project planning sheet, a carbon calculator page and a few pages from The Low Carbon Diet. People took a few minutes to look at the hand outs and fill in the first steps part of their project planner. Here is the Project Planner – click on it to see it larger:

The final conversation of the whole netted lots of good ideas.

The plans shared included planting more native plants, encouraging awards to be given by the city for the best “Green Businesses”, sharing information with neighbors re solar panels, looking into alternatives to driving to include a high speed ferry, free public transportation for people traveling with a bicycle, developing a year-round farmer’s market with local foods, encouraging churches to use real, (not Styrofoam, etc) cups and volunteering to wash them. Drafting local regulations to include a ban on Styrofoam.