By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

The holidays are upon us, but it seems all anyone can talk about is the weather. Yes, it’s unseasonably warm out there. The good news is it isn’t due to some radical shift in global climate. Yet it does serve as a reminder that man made climate change is taking place and the effects will be far more profound than being able to wear a t-shirt when you head out for a run on Christmas day.

Sometimes people ask me why I pay so much attention to this issue. It’s called global climate change, so what makes it a local concern? The simple answer is that what happens on a global scale affects us too. We will be affected by radical climate shifts, the same as every other place on earth. We may not be able to sway planetary forces due our actions as one small city, but our stake in this is no less than anyone else’s. If cities around the world don’t work together to lessen the effects of global climate change, if people try to sit this one out at the local level, the results could be catastrophic.

Climate scientists have explained that the recent warm weather is not cause for panic because it is mostly due to the El Niño effect fed by warm waters in the Pacific Ocean. They predict El Niño will dissipate and we’ll probably get our share of cold, snowy weather later in the winter. It’s wreaking havoc in other places. Wildfires are scorching Indonesia and eastern Africa is suffering through a severe drought. Yet for us it’s taking the form of a mild winter.

So this is not any sort of tipping point for New England. However, as with other natural weather phenomena like hurricanes, tornadoes and snow, global climate change can exacerbate these events, making them more severe. We don’t need our climate amping up the intensity of our weather. Brutal winters and sweltering summers create risk for our residents and our local economy and put a burden on city budgets.  We saw this as our local businesses and city coffers were hit hard by last winter’s historic snowfall. Cities have enough on their plates without having freakish weather patterns become the new norm. These risks and costs put us on the frontline of this issue now – not in some distant future.

Cities generate 80% of the world’s GDP, produce 70 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and house more than 50% of the world’s population. Collectively, what we do matters. It’s why I signed onto the Mayor’s National Climate Action Agenda, which now represents more than 27 million Americans, and the Compact of Mayors, which includes more than 430 cities around the world. It’s why I talk about the importance of the recent U.N. climate agreement in Paris and President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

Our political right has made the crazy decision to oppose any and all efforts to combat climate change, as if somehow what happens to this planet does not affect them. They espouse scientific quackery and are trying to repeal the Clean Power Plan. This is why municipal leaders like myself need to stand up and be heard on this issue. Not only is clean power generation the right thing to do, it means more domestic jobs and national energy security. You’d think everyone could get behind the notion of not being dependent upon authoritarian governments who just happen to be sitting on large reserves of liquefied dinosaur – otherwise known as oil.

At the local level, we continue to work toward full carbon neutrality by 2050. By the end of 2017, we will have cut our 2011 municipal energy use by 20 percent. By 2030 we plan to have half of all trips taken in Somerville to be by transit, bike or foot. We’re undertaking a greenhouse gas inventory and assessing our vulnerability to climate change. We’re upgrading our street lights to more efficient LED bulbs, which will also save us money in the long-term.

We’re adding electric vehicles to our municipal fleet. We’re conducting energy efficiency assessments for local homeowners. We’re looking to create 125 acres of new green space as part of our SomerVision community plan. This is a multifront effort here in Somerville.

Humans triggered climate change by pretending our actions have no consequences. We can’t pretend that anymore, and willfully ignoring the problem only will make it worse. It is impacting the abundance and variety of life on this planet, plant and animal, on the land and in the sea.

We need to make conscientious decisions. How do we create a growing economy that incorporates sustainability? How do we bring innovation together with conservation to spur an energy revolution? A sustainable city isn’t just good for our carbon footprint: it’s a greener, healthier, smarter, and safer place to live.  Along the way, we should take every step we can in the right direction.

I don’t want to be looking at my kids in 20 years and trying to explain how I couldn’t be bothered to take action when the alarm got sounded.

Cities and nations are joining together to tackle this problem. I’m proud to say our city is at the leading edge of that movement. We’re going to do the best we can for the only planet we’ve got. Humans unintentionally set climate change in motion, now we need to make positive difference in stemming its tide. This is as local as an issue gets. It just happens to be a local issue everywhere else on the planet too.