Name: Bob Millette

Age: 74

Quote: “My efforts are an extension of my interest in protecting the environment.”

Retired molecular biologist Bob Millette spent more than 35 years studying some of the smallest things on the planet.

Now the Garfield County resident promotes an effort to tackle one of the biggest issues facing the Earth.

While Millette dedicated his professional career to studying scientific mysteries in microscopic viruses, genes and DNA, now he supports regional efforts to take on a scientific challenge of planetary proportions — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of the Cool Communities campaign, Millette is leading the charge on the West Slope to educate and then urge regional mayors to sign the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. His influence sparked leaders in Glenwood Springs and New Castle to sign the voluntary agreement, which leads their towns to reduce energy use and thus decrease releases of harmful pollution. Leaders in Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen also have signed the agreement, bringing the current total to 14 municipalities in Colorado and 802 across the United States.

Now Millette and fellow volunteers in the 750-member Roaring Fork Sierra Club Group have aimed their environmental sights at Rifle, hoping to encourage city leaders to sign the climate protection agreement this spring.

“What people are doing at the local level is very critical,” Millette said. “Cities all over the county are getting active to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Millette currently is networking to enlist the help of environmentally aware citizens in the Colorado River valley. With local support, he hopes town leaders in Silt and Parachute will agree to the environmental challenge later this year as well. Friends and colleagues say the friendly former professor is just the person to take on such challenging goals, calling him passionate, energetic, intelligent, honest and thoughtful.

“His main strength is his ability to just take something on and follow through and make it happen because he believes in it,” said Barbara Larime, a Trout Unlimited board member. “He always gives it everything he’s got. It’s the passion that makes him effective because he’s undaunted.”

Millette and his of wife of 24 years, Maggie Pedersen, like to spend time fly fishing, skiing, bird watching, camping, hiking or kayaking in Baja. His love of the outdoors and outdoor sports brings to life the importance of protecting the natural environment.

“My efforts are an extension of my interest in protecting the environment. Global warming is the major thing affecting our environment,” said Millette, who earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry. “By far the biggest challenge facing our society and our humanity on this planet is global warming.”

The past professor of immunology, virology and microbiology can list dozens of negative effects on nature from climate change, ranging from decreased snowfall at ski areas, to increased tropical diseases, to the loss of wildlife habitat that leads to the decrease in the natural diversity of animal species.

Millette spent much of his career in labs and classrooms in California and Oregon teaching and studying microbiology. He delved into the science of how viruses take over cells, how DNA gets copied into messenger RNA, and how genes are regulated in viruses.

In the early 1980s, he became an active volunteer with such groups as Oregon Trout and the Oregon Environment Council helping to fight the adverse effects from logging companies that were “clear-cutting old-growth forest at record rates,” he said. Logging was wrecking the watersheds and fishing habitat by adding too much silt to the rivers and destroying the spawning beds of native salmon and trout.

When he and Maggie moved to Colorado more than five years ago, they became active in the local chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Sierra Club chapter in Colorado. They served on the energy committee that was instrumental in securing voter approval of the state’s renewable energy legislation in 2004.

The couple then was asked to help revitalize and energize Sierra Club efforts in the Roaring Fork area. Millette chaired that group for three years, organizing membership from Gypsum to Aspen to Parachute. The group stayed active working to help protect the Roan Plateau and supporting citizen advocacy for roadless wilderness areas.

The group has hosted numerous citizen education efforts, from environmental film screenings, to special speakers, to a Go Green community event. The retiree is always willing to lend a hand and help out at other community and environmental events, from laboring at tamarisk removal projects to passing out cards with energy-saving tips at parades and festivals.

In early 2006, the Sierra Club group and new volunteers formed the Cool Communities campaign, a version of the Sierra Club’s national Cool Cities campaign. Millette’s advocacy inspired the creation of a Climate Action Advisory Commission of citizens in New Castle and an ad hoc Energy Efficiency Committee in Glenwood Springs. The Glenwood Springs committee reported to officials in February that the city’s government buildings and operations produced about 7,337 tons of carbon dioxide in 2007 compared to 3,204 tons in 1990. The city’s highest areas of energy consumption are the Community Center with its heated pool, vehicle fuel costs and street lights.

The Sierra Club Roaring Fork Group honored Millette for his outstanding activism with a special award presented March 13.

“This award goes to someone who has the initiative to go out and create a local environmental effort from scratch,” said Mark Stevens, the group’s executive committee chair. “It’s his gregariousness and enthusiasm that generates the excitement among others to want to help him pursue his conservation goals.”

With the help of others, Millette will keep pushing his cooling efforts down the Colorado River valley.

Anyone wishing to get involved in the Cool Communities efforts in Silt, Rifle or Parachute can contact Millette at coolcommunities@rof.net or (970) 947-9613. For general information, log on to www.coolcities.us.

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