Preserving the American Way of Life

I attended Governor Crist's Florida Summit on Global Climate Change a few weeks ago, and Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the United Kingdom Climate Change Committee, discussed climate change and economics.  He said there has been a concern that cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 (which is California's law) is a "threat" to the American way of life.  He went on to prove why that is not true (which I will discuss later in this blog).

But first I want to ask what happened to the "land of opportunity," to the country where "the sky's the limit?"  Where has America's hope gone, and why are we hesitant to seize the opportunity?

Actually, I know-the people that are putting out the message about the "threat" are those who feel threatened...ie. oil companies.  Yeah, things don't look good for them if our country needs to change our lifestyle and implement new technologies for energy.  But things don't look good for the entire world if we don't.  So who do you want to protect (hint: 2 answers are correct):

a. the incredibly rich oil company executives, whom if they retire now will have plenty of money for themselves and their families for generations to come

b. the poor child living in the African nation of Chad (who emits 1/2000 of carbon emissions/year of what an average American does)

c. ourselves. 

Hopefully you answered b and c, but if for some reason you didn't, here is some proof of why we do not need to worry that reducing our emissions will be threatening to our way of life.  In California, by 2020, the implementation of the states climate action plan will result in an increase of 83,000 jobs and $4 billion annual income.  In England (where they have begun to work towards their goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 18% below 1990 levels by 2010) they have watched their economy grow by 1/3. 

Combatting climate change can actually be the solution to our economic problems.  We can make major national changes and do what America has always done a great job of-embrace an opportunity.  I'll go even further to say that by taking no action, we set ourselves up for being surpassed by many nations around us.  Germany is already using solar energy as a major source for electricity (and Germany is a pretty cloudy country!).  France actually taxes gas guzzling vehicles and gives small cars money back.  We can continue to hold off on emissions policies and wait for China and India to create them first, but if we do that we'll have a major game of catching up with the rest of the world.  It will be far more beneficial to set an example for India and China.

America is a young nation mostly populated by the descendants of immigrants.  These immigrants, and many of our ancestors, dreamed of bettering their lives and their children's lives by settling in this country.  Don't we owe it to our ancestors who worked so hard to give us the life we have today to not only preserve our world for generations to come, but to push our minds to develop a better way of life?  With high gas prices, a better way of life is no longer represented by a souped up Hummer, but a Prius with an "all access carpool lane" sticker.  And this is only the beginning, because a Prius partially runs on oil.

The bottom line is it can be hard for people to make a change, and sometimes changes can be misconstrued as a threat, but America, now is the time.  Our economy needs it, our environment needs it, our children need it.  I personally can imagine a world with no more war over oil, our economy revived and thriving by clean (green) technological opportunities, and our world's children living happy and healthy lives.  And that is the American way of life I want to preserve.