The Pied Piper

Earlier this year, as the rest of the industrialized world prepared to implement the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming, Greg Nickels was frustrated to see the United States sitting on the sidelines. So the Seattle mayor decided that if "the White House isn't going to make it happen from the top down, America's cities can and will make it happen from the ground up." In February, Nickels introduced the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, calling on municipalities to meet Kyoto's targets -- reducing greenhouse gases to below 1990 levels. So far, 187 mayors from major cities in thirty-eight states have signed the agreement, and Nickels hopes to double the number next year. "He's making global warming the focus of the next great grass-roots revolution," says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. "Let's face it -- if we wait around for the feds to act on global warming, nothing is going to happen."

Nickels, 50, got involved in politics when he dropped out of the University of Washington to volunteer for the Young Democrats. Under his initiative, cities from Miami and Atlanta to Denver and Los Angeles are implementing a host of climate-control strategies: adding bike paths and bus routes, planting trees to absorb CO2, buying hybrid cruisers for police, pushing local utilities to use more renewable energy, and using energy-efficient light bulbs in street lamps and stoplights. By cutting their emissions, cities have already saved a total of $700 million -- smacking down Bush's claim that Kyoto would destroy the economy.

When it comes to global warming, cities are both the problem and the solution. They account for seventy-eight percent of all climate-warming emissions -- but they may possess enough purchasing power to actually alter the weather. "We buy car fleets, buses, construction equipment, computer systems, light bulbs," says Nickels, whose city's economy is larger than Ireland's. "If we invest in efficient technologies, that can have huge implications for climate change."

Next: The Profiteer: Jeff Immelt

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