Climate Disruption Activism Timeline 2
John's environmental concerns around global warming/climate change prompted him to organize a task force to study air quality. He hoped the study would help shape growth in the Issaquah area. The task force received acclaim for its work--truly ahead of its time.
The following quote is excerpted from the book Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States by Robert Fleagle, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington (1994):
“The Committee for Greenhouse Action (Issaquah Washington) is a committee of one focused intently on “thinking globally, acting locally.” The chair and entire membership of the committee, John Seebeth, is a decorated Vietnam veteran who spent many months of convalescence from severe wounds reflecting on the war and concluding that his survival in a war he now saw as wrong required him to devote his efforts to long-range environmental goals. He made himself broadly and well informed and set to work full-time on a variety of local projects, including organizing briefings for public officials, organizing lectures and discussions, writing newspaper columns and letters, and stimulating Issaquah, a city of 8,000 in a rapidly growing area, to create an Air Quality and Atmospheric Task Force. In November 1992 the task force submitted a carefully prepared report to the City Council making 53 recommendations for specific actions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, including preserving trees, eliminating wood-burning stoves and fireplaces in new developments, replacing petroleum with alternate fuels, and encouraging walking, carpooling, and the use of bicycles and buses through long-range planning. Officials and citizens of several other towns in the region have become interested in Issaquah’s program and in initiating similar programs.” (page 161)
The following quote is excerpted from the book Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States by Robert Fleagle, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington (1994):
“The Committee for Greenhouse Action (Issaquah Washington) is a committee of one focused intently on “thinking globally, acting locally.” The chair and entire membership of the committee, John Seebeth, is a decorated Vietnam veteran who spent many months of convalescence from severe wounds reflecting on the war and concluding that his survival in a war he now saw as wrong required him to devote his efforts to long-range environmental goals. He made himself broadly and well informed and set to work full-time on a variety of local projects, including organizing briefings for public officials, organizing lectures and discussions, writing newspaper columns and letters, and stimulating Issaquah, a city of 8,000 in a rapidly growing area, to create an Air Quality and Atmospheric Task Force. In November 1992 the task force submitted a carefully prepared report to the City Council making 53 recommendations for specific actions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, including preserving trees, eliminating wood-burning stoves and fireplaces in new developments, replacing petroleum with alternate fuels, and encouraging walking, carpooling, and the use of bicycles and buses through long-range planning. Officials and citizens of several other towns in the region have become interested in Issaquah’s program and in initiating similar programs.” (page 161)
