Rocky touts green S.L. at meeting of mayors

WASHINGTON — Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's remake of the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album cover in a 2003 campaign ad brought laughter from a group of mayors eager to learn about the Utah city's award-winning environmental programs.

Anderson used the ad, which has him in Paul McCartney's place, barefoot and all, carrying an orange flag across the street, to illustrate ways he has worked to make Salt Lake City more pedestrian-friendly. If people walk more, they drive less, which helps prevent emissions that can pollute the air.

The mayor gave the keynote address at a meeting of the New Cities Foundation, a group that aims to change cities in the future. This was his second speech of the week focusing on the environment. He addressed climate change Thursday in a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. Friday night's speech included the same message but went farther in different areas, including air quality, helping business and recycling programs.

Anderson highlighted the Salt Lake City Green program begun in 2001, saying it focused on "everything from dog waste to nuclear waste."

He used photographs showing the differences in the polar ice caps from 1979 to 2003. He pointed to an area where a large chunk has melted and where some glaciers in Glacier National Park have also decreased tremendously in size to illustrate what the earth's warming temperatures, caused by pollution, have done so far.

Some scientists have predicted there will be no more glaciers in the park by 2030, he said.

"The name will be the sole reminder of what once was."

Cities can help the problem by using less electricity. As examples of helpful small changes, he used Salt Lake's effort in changing the light bulbs in City Hall to more efficient bulbs and changing to LED traffic lights, which use less electricity. He said changing the City Hall bulbs saved $33,000 a year in energy costs.

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