KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo County Commissioners voted Tuesday night to issue a resolution issuing a climate emergency.
The board heard from several concerned citizens during the meeting, many of them representing the Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition.
“The climate math is brutal,” Dr. Denise Keele of Western Michigan University said. “We’ve already spent 70% of our carbon budget and we must act now.”
After reading the resolution to the audience, Commissioners discussed the proclamation.
“I totally agree that the resolution is more than just paper, but it’s actually an action step for us to move forward and to really put into place what we preach,” Commissioner Stephanie Moore said. “I am so happy that you all have taken up this mantle and brought it down to us.”
Ultimately, Commissioners passed the resolution in a 9-2 vote. Commissioners Tunier and Gisler voted against the proclamation.
“In the 1970’s, we were concerned about ‘the big freeze’ that was coming,” Gisler said. “Beginning about ten years later, we heard about global warming all of a sudden. And shortly thereafter, we did away with ‘the big freeze’ and the global warming and started talking about climate change, because it seems like it can go either way.”
The news of the resolution passage comes following a similar resolution that was issued by the City of Kalamazoo last October.
