Climate 101 Guide

Climate 101 Guide (PDF)

Download a copy of this educational booklet and share it with others!

Global warming happens when we overload the atmosphere with too much carbon by burning fossil fuels for energy. In fact, the everyday choices Portland residents make about food, heating and powering our homes, getting around and buying and disposing of stuff, create more than half of all local carbon emissions.

The Climate 101 Guide is a resource to help Portlanders better understand how our everyday activities create carbon emissions and what can be done to reduce those emissions. More specifically, the Climate 101 Guide contains information on what global warming is, why it is happening and how it will affect our community. Explore where carbon emissions from a typical home today come from – and see how you can take simple actions to reduce your emissions and create a climate-friendly home.

Did you know that Portland was the first local government in the country to adopt a strategy to reduce carbon emissions?

Over 17 years ago Portland began working to combat climate change – and as of 2008, local carbon emissions were 19 percent below 1990 levels on a per person basis. Check out the Climate 101 Guide to learn more about Portland’s climate actions to date, as well as the aggressive actions planned to achieve our goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Wondering how to get more involved with climate action?

The Climate 101 Guide is packed with lots of resources and information to make it easy, including:

• Working with other Portlanders on grassroots and community-based solutions.
• Taking classes to learn more.
• Getting politically active.
• Buying green power.
• Learning about what non-profits and governments are doing.
• Following innovators and big thinkers.

Resources

Ready for more? View the full list of climate-friendly actions!

Climate Action Plan - Over 100 actions that the City of Portland and Multnomah County will take by 2012 to reduce local carbon emissions. Download a copy of the full Climate Action Plan, the Executive Summary, progress reports and other related information.

Metro's Climate Efforts - Addressing climate change through great communities.

Multnomah County - Links to information about Multnomah County's climate change efforts.

Oregon/Pacific Northwest Resources

Oregon Department of Energy: Climate Change and Oregon
The mission of this office is to protect Oregon's environment by saving energy, developing clean energy resources, and cleaning up nuclear waste.

City of Seattle/Seattle City Light 
Climate change information for the City of Seattle

University of Washington Climate Impacts Group
The Climate Impacts Group is an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Washington that studies the impacts of natural climate variability and global warming on the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Non-profit Organizations

The Climate Group
The Climate Group brings together an international network of greenhouse gas reducers--corporations, governments, and organizations--to share experience on profitable emissions-reduction strategies and link promising solutions with appropriate financing.

Climate Solutions
Their mission is to stop global warming at the earliest point possible by helping the Northwest become a world leader in practical and profitable solutions.

The Climate Trust
Promotes climate change solutions by providing high quality greenhouse gas offset projects and advancing sound offset policy.

National and International Resources

Pew Center on Global Climate Change

US Environmental Protection Agency

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established this Panel in 1988.  Their role is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.

ICLEI-International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives: Cities for Climate Protection
CCP is a campaign of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Offers a framework for local governments to develop a strategic agenda to reduce global warming and air pollution emissions, with the benefit of improving community livability.