The message from almost everyone at Monday's Chapel Hill Town Council meeting was clear : carbon dioxide reduction is a noble goal.
The reaction to a new plan, Carbon Reduction Project, was almost wholly positive.
The plan was pushed by Douglas Crawford-Brown, a UNC professor who helped implement a similar plan in England.
The plan calls for UNC students to work with the town to inventory sources of carbon dioxide and work to help to eliminate them.
Council members said the plan was an excellent way for the town to bring together a number of initiatives in the community already aimed at reducing carbon dioxide output.
Crawford-Brown said that even simple, unfocused actions can reduce carbon output.
"Moving forward on carbon dioxide reduction doesn't require fancy scientific models," he said.
But he said the goal of the program, is to help the town target its efforts to the areas that offer the biggest gain at the lowest cost.
But Robin Cutson, now running for election to the council, did not share the council's enthusiasm for the project. She spoke at length, accusing the project of being a "thinly disguised" push for logging, biotech and more public transit.
