Solutions To Global Warming

As the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, Fred Krupp is confident about the future of our planet. He addressed what might become possible solutions to Global Warming in his new book “Earth: The Sequel.” Lesley Nagy form “Your TV 20″ sat down with Krupp to find out more.

Nagy: Well, I have to say after reading your book, you’re optimistic.

Krupp: I definitely have hope. You know everyone knows the current story which is that melting glaciers, rising sea levels, strengthening hurricanes, dying coral reefs, the stakes are grave. But the real question is, what’s next? And what’s next turns out to be an abundance of clean alternatives. What’s next, turns out to be entrepreneurism and engineers, digging our way out of the hole that we’ve put ourselves in, so I’m enthusiastic about the future because I think we will prove that we can save ourselves from ourselves.

Nagy: And is that just because nature will find a way? We will somehow find a way?

Krupp: The key is for governmental to be involved because, while I think the profit motive can take us a long way, we need the government to change the economics, in essence we need the government to fire the starting pistol to start the greatest and most important race of our time, indeed any time, because it’s a race against time. And this will be the race to invent the technologies and deploy them that allow us to have all the power we want but without damaging the atmosphere.

Nagy: Now the best solution you offer is cap and trade?

Krupp: The U.S. is that last industrialize country that hasn’t agreed to a legal limit or cap on Global Warming pollution, so order number one, is we need to get on with that. A Global Warming cap and trade system, that will put a price on carbon, put a limit on how much people can dump into the atmosphere and that changes all the economics. When that happens suddenly a cascade of money comes from the venture capitalists into the technologies, that you’ve been reporting on, and they really flourish.

Nagy: There’s seems to be a ‘green movement’ happening, is this helping?

Krupp: Well there’s a scientific imperative that we take strong action to solve this problem. I welcome the interests of all sorts of new people that want to get involved in supporting environmental groups, supporting strong government action, or creating the technologies the world needs to get out of this fix.

Nagy: Doing the little things that everyone is suggesting, will that really help?

Krupp: There’s many things people can do in their own daily lives from taking mass transit, driving a fuel efficient car, changing light bulbs, getting energy efficient appliances. When you buy a flatscreen TV, buy one that’s not the energy hog, the LCD’s use about half the energy of the plasma. But the most important thing individuals can do is be citizens, we need to demand of our political leaders that they pass a strong Global Warming bill now.