My four-point plan for ending the threat of Global Warming
1) Put a price on carbon, and let companies innovate their way to efficiency and clean energy. Set achievable targets, let people see the economic benefits, and then go for a reduction in our emissions that avoids the 450 ppm "severe global consequences" threshold.
2) End the Iraq war, and cut military research funding by 10%. Use that money to fund a Moon Landing-sized, two-decade government initiative into alternative energy research. As the premier energy-using society on Earth, America's national security is directly tied to its ability to find and deploy alternative sources of energy.
3) Expand tax-breaks for alternative energy and energy efficiency investments, set a $4-a-gallon basement on gasoline prices, and reduce subsidies for agricultural, coal, and oil industries. Use any tax monies to help poor people pay for higher energy costs.
4) Sign on to the next international global warming treaty in 2010, and commit to the REDD provision, a framework to allow rich nations to offset their emissions by paying poor nations to protect their rainforests. This could really save the rainforest, and cut humanity's emissions by 20% at a very cheap price ($600 million a year for the Amazon!).
What shape will the future hold? By 2030, developed countries could be driving electric cars, using solar, wind, and nuclear for most of our power, restoring the rainforests, and exporting green technology to the developing world. Coal plant emissions could feed algae biodiesel tanks, and be emissions-free at the other end. Global warming could be a fading worry, like the ozone hole.
It will take great effort and great leadership. We must act very soon. How do we want to be remembered?
2) End the Iraq war, and cut military research funding by 10%. Use that money to fund a Moon Landing-sized, two-decade government initiative into alternative energy research. As the premier energy-using society on Earth, America's national security is directly tied to its ability to find and deploy alternative sources of energy.
3) Expand tax-breaks for alternative energy and energy efficiency investments, set a $4-a-gallon basement on gasoline prices, and reduce subsidies for agricultural, coal, and oil industries. Use any tax monies to help poor people pay for higher energy costs.
4) Sign on to the next international global warming treaty in 2010, and commit to the REDD provision, a framework to allow rich nations to offset their emissions by paying poor nations to protect their rainforests. This could really save the rainforest, and cut humanity's emissions by 20% at a very cheap price ($600 million a year for the Amazon!).
What shape will the future hold? By 2030, developed countries could be driving electric cars, using solar, wind, and nuclear for most of our power, restoring the rainforests, and exporting green technology to the developing world. Coal plant emissions could feed algae biodiesel tanks, and be emissions-free at the other end. Global warming could be a fading worry, like the ozone hole.
It will take great effort and great leadership. We must act very soon. How do we want to be remembered?
posted by Tree Texan at 9:15 PM
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