ENCINITAS -- Environmental groups planning a worldwide assault on global warming are mobilizing residents in North County. They have even found some allies at Encinitas City Hall.

Green-minded groups such as Greenpeace and the Citizens Climate Lobby say they are targeting their message to coastal North County -- and Encinitas in particular -- because they believe the heart of environmental activism beats strongly there.

The city of Encinitas will host a workshop on Sept. 11 for city planners from all over the state about how local governments can take steps to reduce global warming. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, local permitting and planning authorities have a vital role to play in the state's fight against climate change, a flier for the workshop states.

"The workshop will really put Encinitas on the map," said Alek Cannan, a water resources engineer who sits on the city's environmental committee. "It is really neat to see the city stepping up to take a leadership role."

The workshop and other moves by the city coincide with a grass-roots campaign by environmental groups that is being organized in coffee shops, libraries, parks and schoolyards all over town.

Big election year

In July, the local Greenpeace chapter announced the start of a global warming campaign in North County called Project Hotseat, which is part of a larger national campaign.

More than 50 people attended a kickoff event last month in Del Mar, and more turned out July 27 for a Global Warming Story Tour at the E Street Cafe in Encinitas.

At the Encinitas event, residents were filmed for a YouTube video about how global warming affects their lives and what they are doing to stop it, said Jenny Binstock, the new field organizer for Greenpeace North County.

One reason environmental activists are focusing their attention on coastal North County is because it is home to a hotly contested congressional race between Republican Brian Bilbray and Democratic challenger Nick Leibham, Binstock said.

"It's no coincidence that these two national organizations are here now," she said. "That is because the momentum is already here, and we want to harness that in order to enact national legislation."

Though Greenpeace does not endorse candidates, Binstock said, the organization urges local constituents to send a message to their representatives that global warming, and other environmental concerns, matter to them.

The YouTube video is one way to do that.

Many who turned out at the Encinitas event also wrote postcards and letters to congressional candidates urging a commitment to stop global warming. The postcards will be delivered personally Aug. 20 to Leibham's office in Encinitas and Bilbray's in Solana Beach.

Binstock said the group is encouraged by the response from residents.

"This is a community that cares, and this election year poses all kinds of opportunity to address the issue of global warming," said Binstock.

"To me, global warming represents the worst and the best of humanity," she added. "It shows all the wrong of how we have treated the planet, and it is also the brightest opportunity to do something right."

Warming to climate change

Carlsbad resident Mary Oren, the North County coastal leader for the Citizens Climate Lobby, said that group is also working to urge lawmakers to pass strong science-based legislation in order to fight global warming.

"We're here to create the political will for a sustainable climate," said Oren, whose group was formed last fall by Coronado resident Marshall Saunders.

The grass-roots organization participates in monthly conference calls with scientists and congressmen and has drawn up a "dear colleague" letter, urging Congress to enact a comprehensive mandatory national program to reduce global warming pollution.

Members also write letters to newspapers and magazines urging environmental reform.

"This situation (on global warming) is just not acceptable," said Oren. "We have the solutions now -- science and industry have done their parts -- but now we have to take the big steps towards renewable energy and a sustainable climate. We just need the political will, and we're here to help create that."

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 901-4074 or rwebster@nctimes.com.