Calling for action, Ames residents have formed an environmentalist group.

The group first called for action from the Ames City Council at their Oct. 16 meeting.

One of the speakers was Erwin Klaas, who was representing Iowa’s Climate Action Team. The group’s first meeting occurred on Sept. 8, a day punctuated by nationwide protests demanding for action on climate change. Scientists, church leaders and concerned community members came together in a 3-hour workshop focusing on issues and ideas for a potential course of action.

A former professor of wildlife biology, Klaas stated that any long-term plans made by the city council need to include a strategy for reducing emissions and pollution.

“I would say we’re in a crisis right now, of a need to address climate change,” Klaas said. “If we were going to embark on a comprehensive plan without considering climate, it would not be a complete plan. It would not be a comprehensive plan.”

One of the most critical goals, Klaas said, was to reduce the Ames’ dependence on trash burning and natural gas to produce energy, alongside the city’s energy consumption as a whole. Klaas referenced the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which details the potential long-term effects of climate change.

According to the report, reducing carbon dioxide emissions to a net of zero by 2050 will limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius, while no reductions will cause the change to rise above 2 C. Although that difference may seem small, the report calls the difference between the two values “robust,” pointing to amplified natural disasters, sea level rise and specie destruction much greater at 2 C than 1.5 C.

“I’m an old man,” Klaas said. “I’m 83 years old, and I am worried about my grandchildren and the kind of world they’re going to be facing when they get my age. And it’s not going to be pretty if we don’t do something quick. So, young people need to pay attention to this and start doing something, because they’re the ones that are going to be affected.”

Most of Ames’ power is generated locally through natural gas and the burning of trash collected from residents. Recyclables are burned as well. Questioning whether or not trash burning and the utilization of natural gas were environmentally-sound, Klaas suggested that Ames should be making a stronger pivot to renewable energy sources.

While trash burning may seem like an issue to some, it’s not exactly cut and dry. Anne Kimber, the executive director of Iowa State’s Electric Power Research Center, said the impact of refuse burning on air quality needs to be weighed against landfills’ methane release and effects on water quality.

Kimber went on to say that due to Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) managing power sales, and distribution throughout the midwest, operation of the Ames’ trash-burning power plant could cease with little impact on the city’s cost of electricity. The issue, though, is that incineration is Ames’ primary means of waste disposal—even on days when energy is extremely cheap on the MISO marketplace—the city is forced to operate its own plant as a means of waste disposal.

The Climate Action Team criticized the city’s current plan to implement new solar panels, saying Ames can and should do more to generate energy through clean sources. Investing in solar panels on rooftops around the city and increasing the number of wind turbines in the surrounding area, Klaas said, could easily allow the city to generate the power it needs to run if residents cut back on consumption.

The current plans by the City of Ames include rebates from Ames Electric Services to residents for having individual solar panels as well an option for residents to buy into a local solar farm. The City gave incentives to McFarland Clinic West for for its rooftop solar panels.

Ames also uses some wind energy within its portfolio of power generation techniques.

“The community solar project is a great thing, and I think the city would love to have more large-scale solar, but it represents a real dilemma for them because they still have to run the power plant no matter what,” Kimber said. “So one question is, how much solid waste could you take away from the power plant, how much plastic could you recycle? And if you took plastics out of the waste stream, maybe the operation and maintenance costs would be lower and lower our power costs.”

Other adaptations could be made to better adapt the city for more environmentally-friendly forms of transportation, such as charging stations for electric cars, Klaas said.

The City of Ames has worked towards this with the installation of two electric charging stations in the Downtown area and could put more electric stations if the demand was there.

“We are very willing to develop that climate plan, that climate strategy, on how to accomplish this,” Klaas said. “What we’re trying to do is to convince the city to declare a state of emergency on climate, because it is an emergency.”

Calling back to rationing measures during World War II, he suggested that a state of emergency would allow for the city to place caps upon the usage of certain resources, forcing residents to consider what was absolutely necessary and ultimately reducing Ames’ emissions.

The Climate Action Team will next meet at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. They encourage students to become involved in the organization and to push for change in Ames. Several high school students attended their previous meetings, but no Iowa State students were present, Klaas said.

Editors note: This article has been updated to present more of the City’s perspective.