It'll be Cool(er) If We Lead

Global warming is back in the news. NASA photos show the Arctic ice cap melting at the alarming rate of nine percent per decade. A new report in Science last week concludes there is “no doubt” that global warming pollution is changing the atmosphere and “the likely result is more frequent heat waves, droughts, extreme precipitation events and related impacts (such as wildfires, heat stress, vegetation changes and sea-level rise).” Meanwhile, at global warming talks this week in Milan, the Bush administration continues to strong-arm countries into abandoning the Kyoto treaty – in a “my way or the highway” op/ed article in the Financial Times, the administration’s chief negotiator pushes an empty strategy of voluntary industry self-policing and a token research and development program. Russia, left in the driver’s seat by the U.S. rejection of Kyoto, flirts off-again/on-again with joining the pact.

As the world’s economic power, the U.S. can and should lead the coming energy technology revolution. In our country alone, hundreds of billions of dollars will be invested in new power plants and automobiles over the next twenty years. A commitment to steer these investments towards clean, efficient technologies will make the U.S. economy the engine for the global market, create jobs, allow us to use our own abundant fuel supplies with less global warming pollution, and cut our dependence on foreign oil. If we show the way, other nations will follow. And we will prosper, selling the technologies of the future.