Claremont fought hard this year to win the CoolCalifornia City Challenge, but lost. In 2006, California passed the California Global Warming Solution Acts and as a result the California Air Resource Board (ARB) created the web portal CoolCalifornia.org. Partners of the ARB, which includes the University of California: Berkeley and the Energy Upgrade Initiative, ran the first CoolCalifornia Challenge in 2012-2013 engaging more than 2,500 participants in eight different cities across the state. The 2014 challenge ran from April through August for a prize of $100,000.
The CoolCalifornia Challenge took a scientific approach to encourage California residents to live a more sustainable lifestyle. It let participants in different communities experiment with ways to leave a smaller carbon footprint. The ultimate goal of the challenge was to have a profitable, long-lasting reduction in greenhouse emissions across the state. Participants tracked their energy use to earn “green points” for having low greenhouse gas emissions compared to similar households and “bonus points,” which were worth five times as much as green points. Many people tried to help the community and create a more eco-friendly city and community.
“I think what was really great that Claremont was involved in this statewide competition because the global climate change is a growing problem, so it is important that we addressed it and made a difference,” freshman Daniel Hah said.
In recent years, scientists have identified human activities to be the direct cause of the increase in carbon dioxide in the last century. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the US alone emits over 17.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually and generates around 251 million tons of trash per year. People cannot continue to live this way, or consequences could occur. Many Americans have suddenly realized this and are trying to making an effort to change our current thoughtless lifestyle.
“I do small things like walk to get groceries, use less water at home, and only use the air conditioning when absolutely necessary. It takes very little time out of your day and you really don’t have to change your day to day lifestyle very much to contribute to a good cause,” Senior Chandler Boldig said.
Not many Claremont residents knew about this competition with only about 503 citizens who participated in the competition. Non-profit organizations like Sustainable Claremont took the initiative and hosted different events to raise awareness. Claremont competed against much larger cities like Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, and Long Beach, and in the end, Claremont won second place and won 3,280,416 points, after losing to Riverside with a total of 3,509,839 points.
In the end, Claremont lost the challenge, however, Claremont can still continue to be eco-friendly and help improve the environment. Claremont citizens can use less water on their lawns and try to contribute to the community as a whole. Even though Claremont lost the CoolClaifornia Challenge, Claremont has been upgraded as a better eco-friendly community that will thrive in the future.