Global warming is moral issue for Rocky

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson talks about global warming with the zeal of a preacher.

Instead of fire and brimstone, he warns of catastrophic hurricanes and floods, droughts, mass starvation, potentially billions of environmental refugees: "It will make Hurricane Katrina look like a picnic."

It is, for him, "the greatest moral issue of our time," an issue that demands religious devotion.

"If we continue along the course of business as usual, we're basically condemning our children and their children to a very dangerous, unhealthy planet," Anderson said. "If we really believe that there's an obligation to preserve our world, whether it's in a religious sense as being God's creation or simply from a humanitarian standpoint, and if we really mean it when we say we have a responsibility to love and care for our fellow human beings, the imperative is clear."

This weekend begins Anderson's second Sundance Summit, a rally of sorts for mayors from across the country. And it's not all preaching to the choir.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich said he was skeptical about climate change before attending last year's summit: "I wasn't really a believer or convinced that this issue was really happening or was something that was as important as people were making it out to be."

Now, he's a convert.

"There clearly is something happening, and it's important that leaders of my generation step up and do something about it," the 44-year-old first-term mayor said.

So he is returning to this year's summit, which kicks off Sunday at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort in the Wasatch Mountains. The summit was created by Anderson and Redford as a way to encourage municipal leaders to take on climate change at the local level.

"Without any national leadership on the issue of global warming under the Bush administration, it is extremely important that leaders at other governmental levels do all we can to reduce the emission of global warming pollutants," Anderson said. "Cities particularly have been great innovators and laboratories in this area and with tremendous success."

Walking the walk

Anderson is regarded internationally as a leader on climate change issues. He has given keynote addresses at U.N. environmental summits, advised the Group of 8 economic powerhouse countries at a global-warming summit and been sought out by members of the European Parliament to discuss the issue.