I applaud the City council for its six goals addressing climate change. As with all goals, the proof will be how far it is willing to go to achieve them.

While the actions of an individual community the size of Menlo Park will do little to affect the worldwide problem, we must do our part as a member of the national and international community.

But even if we sit back and did nothing, MP will experience the effects of climate change and therefore goal #6, mitigation, is a must. In absence of dramatic steps, ocean level rise will swamp much of our land east of 101. Wildfires will threaten west MP and the poor air quality resulting from such fires and rising air pollution will shorten the lives of all of us. Increased summer temperatures will add more stress to our electrical grid with resulting outages and brownouts. Rainfall and snowpack will decrease, leading to drought and water rationing. There's a lot to gain by planning for and beginning mitigation projects now, and downsides are minor in that wise resilience always pays dividends.

Kudos to the city council for working to solve our generation’s biggest challenge.