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Show Viewpoints The A-13 Park Record. Wed/Thurs/Fri, May 9-11, 2018 editorial Event parking adds to city’s expensive reputation P guest editorial Utah students accomplish the impossible JACK GREENE High Country News It sounds completely improbable: The Utah Legislature recently adopted a resolution that moves the state from denial of global climate change to the recognition that finding a solution is crucial. An obvious question is how this flipflop occurred in a legislature with a Republican supermajority of 83 percent, in a state that produces more than 90 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels. Students at Logan High School can tell you the answer: For nearly two years, they have been working to make the Legislature budge. They educated themselves about the science of climate change and formed alliances with other students and business leaders throughout the state. Most of all, the teenagers never stopped. They simply refused to give up. Their efforts began in 2016, when they learned that, six years earlier, the Utah Legislature had passed a resolution declaring that climate change should be ignored until the science was more convincing. Some Logan High School students found this incredible. They’d witnessed firsthand how climate change was contributing to longer and more intense fire seasons, and they experienced Utah’s dwindling snowpack and increasing water scarcity. “My generation and generations to come will inherit the many threats that climate change poses,” said Piper Christian, one of these students. She decided to take action. With the help of key legislators, she and other concerned students drafted a legislative resolution, “Economic and Environmental Stewardship.” Local business leaders who supported the students also wrote to state legislators, saying, “We need Utah’s policymakers to help us prepare for the potential effects that a changing climate could have on our state.” Elected officials responded by claiming there was virtually no chance of getting the resolution introduced, must less passed. “Don’t waste your time,” they were told. “Try something less ambitious.” That response discouraged some students, but Christian decided: “We will persist, primarily to see this as something that does not have to be divisive.” Their persistence paid off. Through a combination of networking and building more alliances, things began to move forward. To the students’ amazement, a Republican legislator — Rep. Becky Edwards of Bountiful — sponsored their The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER ....................... 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When it was time for a hearing in her committee, the students spoke out forcefully and, some observers said, movingly. Yet their initial resolution died after a 5–5 split. The students realized that they needed to do more work educating state legislators and also getting feedback on their resolution. They partnered with a coalition of advocacy organizations, whose volunteers met with representatives from nearly every Utah political district. The six Utah chapters of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby were a major force, along with at least five other organizations that combined with the student network. At the start of the 2018 legislative session, the grassroots groups partnered with Edwards to create an evening program at the Capitol. It brought together high school students, legislators and a five-member “climate solutions” panel. The panel included a physicist, the director of the governor’s energy office, a student from Brigham Young University and two city mayors. As the students said that night, “We, as youth leaders of Utah, have assembled with you, our state leaders, to address what we consider to be the paramount issue of our generation — that of a changing climate. We hope this dialogue will … ultimately lead to action to address this challenge on all levels — local, state and national.” Adding to their public support was a business coalition that included Rio Tinto, Rocky Mountain Power, Mark Miller Subaru, the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, Utah Technology Council, the ski areas of Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, Deer Valley and Park City, and various other major businesses. The 2018 legislative general session began with Edwards again filing the students’ climate resolution. The students were forced to wait with patience as the resolution moved slowly through the committee process. They learned the importance of compromise as they watched the wording of the resolution change to accommodate various interests. Once again, testimony from the students about the seriousness of climate change made an impact. Opinions started changing. The bill was reported out of committee by an 8-2 vote. Then, at last, came success as the House passed the resolution 51-21 and the Senate 23-3. A surprising 75 percent of Republican legislators voted in favor of the bill, which Gov. Gary Herbert, also a Republican, signed on March 20. Now, many people in Utah are grateful to these Logan High School students and their allies, who never gave up despite the odds against them. Jack Greene is a contributor to Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is a retired high school teacher who works with students around the state of Utah on environmental issues. High school student Piper Christian contributed to this opinion. Letters Policy The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the following guidelines. They must include the home (street) address and telephone number of the author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. Letters must not contain libelous material. Letters should be no longer than about 300 words (about 600 words for guest editorials) and should, if possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long or if they contain statements that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene. Writers are limited to one letter every seven days. Letters thanking event sponsors can list no more than 6 individuals and/or businesses. Send your letter to: editor@parkrecord.com ark City for decades has had the reputation of being an expensive spot to spend a day, a place where Main Street is lined with fine-dining options next to boutiques and galleries. On certain days this year, it will be even more expensive for people who drive to Main Street and prefer to park nearby. That, we can confidently say, describes the overwhelming majority of people headed to Main Street on festival or special event days. Park City recently outlined plans for event parking in the China Bridge garage, located one block off Main Street. City Hall, which installed a paid parking system there during the most recent ski season, sees the change as an opportunity to redo the event parking program. People headed to events like the Halloween celebration and the Park City Kimball Arts Festival will encounter changes in the rates. Officials see the restructured prices as a deterrent to drivers clogging Old Town on event days as they hunt for parking spaces close to Main Street. The increased cost of parking could convince would-be drivers to use buses, park in outlying lots, walk or bicycle, the thinking goes. The ideals underpinning the increased prices are worthy. Most have experienced the terrible traffic and parking shortages in the Main Street core, and higher prices are a way to combat the overwhelming traffic during events. But Park City needs to be cautious as it monitors the successes and failures of the increased prices. Even as City Hall attempts to address the difficult subject of affordability in Park City, leaders themselves are opting to make it even less affordable to attend the events that help keep the community vibrant. The free-to-attend Halloween celebration, a decidedly local event, will be an especially notable one to watch. The $20 entry for parking means a family parked in China Bridge will need to tack $20 onto the cost of food, refreshments and shopping. The cost of a free event, then, could quickly climb toward $100. Perhaps not as affordable as someone would have anticipated when they left their house that day. And perhaps another reason Park City has an expensive reputation. letters to the editor Salute kids who built platform in woods Editor: Here’s an idea. Salute the kids who built that platform. Support young people being “in the woods”, having a “fort” or a “wikkiup” where they can hang out in the wild by themselves. In fact maybe the city should not only have a skate park, but a “fort” park, where young people can build an escape of their own. Of course not only kids benefit from this. When I was in my thirties two older men invited me to share their “wikkiup” built on national forest land (illegal, I know) where we would go to ski, tell stories, share lies, hang out, be boys even though our bodies betrayed us. So here’s to the kids who built that platform. Do it again. Jeffrey Louden Park City guest editorial What nice people leave in the great outdoors MARJORY “SLIM” WOODRUFF High Country News Leave No Trace means just that: Travel as though you were being followed by IRS agents, and you don’t want them to ever track you down. We need to carry it out. All. Of. It. Even though there are objects so beyond the pale that people who don’t think they care about litter — those unfortunates who have never heard of Leave No Trace — are appalled when they see them. But I promise you: This is not a minor offense. Those who leave these items behind are a hissing and a byword to the rest of us. Those items include: Feces. Your own, your animal’s, your toddler’s. Yes, we all have to “go,” but we don’t have to leave it out in the open for everyone to admire. It does not work to hide it under a rock. It certainly does not work to hide it behind a rock. Bury it. Six inches deep, and carry out your poo paper. Your dog’s waste needs to be carried out, too, along with your youngest issue’s diapers. Poo undies. Or shirts. Or socks. Or bandannas. Whatsoever people use when they are out of poo paper, and their need is dire. They desperately grasp at anything even remotely absorbent. Then they certainly don’t want to touch it again, so it is left behind for the rest of us. One can almost (almost) understand their wishful thinking — the idea that paper will eventually vanish — but a whole T-shirt? Don’t fool yourself. Glow sticks. Why are these even a thing? Plastic is bad enough. But plastic filled with toxic chemicals? These things do not replace flashlights. Is this really a replicable skill? And then leaving them behind to festoon the flora? Negatory. Cigarette butts. To reiterate: They are toxic, and they don’t rot. Animals eat them, to their detriment. Also, smoldering butts set fire to things that the rest of us need, like forests. External speakers. The only thing I want to hear with a beat is my own heart. External speakers are the second-hand smoke of Natural Quiet. If you cannot stand to be alone with your thoughts for more than five minutes, invest in a pair of ear buds. The rest of us want to listen to the wind, or birdsong, or the gentle susurration of running water. I have already decided that the next time I encounter one of these audibly “sharing” persons, I will start singing at the top of my lungs. I am consid- ering the immortal Sheri Lewis’ “The Song That Never Ends.” Be afraid; be very afraid. Plastic single-use water bottles. Particularly the cute, tiny ones that hold 8 ounces of water. Again, why are these a thing? Ten years ago, if I had told people they would pay $5 a gallon for glorified tap water in a bottle that they would use only once and then deposit in the ocean, they would’ve scoffed. A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute. They are expensive, wasteful, contain BPA, and often have more bacteria than water from the tap. The bottles degrade and get into the food chain. Buy a bleeping canteen and fill it from the faucet. Yes, the canteens will eventually disintegrate, but I have canteens older than my kid. And they are purple and have witty stickers. Painted rocks. These apparently are the newest fad. Some of them are quite adorable, but not on the trail. If you must nick geology specimens from the public lands and adorn them with animal faces or poetry or whatever, keep them on your shelf. Post them on Facebook. Eat them, or bury them with your poop. Just do not leave them on the trail. And rocks with a hashtag on the back? Those are taken straight to the law enforcement rangers. Of course, many other people besides me care about random litter, too, and some of them do something about it. The Arizona Mountaineering Club comes two or three times a year and rappels down Grand Canyon to pick up discards under popular viewpoints. The Grand Canyon Hikers and Backpackers Association goes down at least two weeks during the year to pick up trash, clean graffiti off rocks, and do projects for the park. Staffers at Arizona Public Service often volunteer for a day picking stuff up along the canyon rim, and Grand Canyon Association members do litter pickup and other park-authorized projects before their annual picnic in July. A local group called Greens Grand Canyon South Rim does a litter pickup once a month, mostly on the rim, and there are many other groups that pitch in. Every litter bit helps, but as any volunteer can tell you, a week after they leave, butts and poop and water bottles and other detritus are baaaaaaack — and the bending-over job starts all over again. Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff is a contributor to Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). She works with visitors at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. |