The Climate Action Blog

As the US, Germany, and other nations pay people to scrap their polluting cars, what other clunkers are in the marketplace that might respond to an incentive? How about buildings?

The feds launched the "cash for clunkers" program recently that pays you to scrap your old polluting car if you buy a fuel-efficient one. This is a great idea that can be applied elsewhere to clean the environment and stimulate economic growth. But just how far could this idea go?

This last weekend, I rented Arctic Tale, a film produced by National Geographic, because I was in the mood for something fun and light (and I couldn't resist the picture of the adorable polar bear cub on the front).  Little did I know I was in for a depressing ride.  In fact, I don't think I've cried that hard in a long time.

Ten days after being elected, then President-elect Obama put a stake in the ground on climate change - - he announced at the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles that the US would adopt the world-leading policies of California for the United States.

My husband and I decided to vacation in Paris for ten days this past March. What a fantastic city!  The food, the wine, the art, the people, the shopping, the fashion, and the mass transportation.  That's right-one doesn't always rave about how great the mass transportation is in the City of Love, but I will.

First off, we did not need to use a cab the entire time we were there.  We flew into Charles de Gaulle airport and were able to easily find the train that took us into the city.  The train dropped us off about a block and a half from our apartment, and we had a short walk to our temporary home.  All ten days we were there, we used the (surprisingly clean) Metro, taking us from our home base in the Latin Quarter (where we enjoyed the fashions of the university students) to the outskirts of the city to visit the Marmottan Museum (where we were mesmerized by Monet's masterpieces) and up to the top of Montmarte (where we climbed the breathtaking Sacre Couer and soaked in the best views of the city).  It took us everywhere cheaply and easily. 

Listening to battery enthusiasts wax poetic about the Tesla recently - - and seeing a few of them appearing on the streets of west Los Angeles - - I began thinking about the old Tony Curtis film "The Great Race" (remember every time he smiled, there was a shiny sparkle of superiority that gleamed from his teeth?). The roads and Holiday Inns have improved dramatically since the period depicted in the movie, but the idea of testing the claims of exciting new technology at the dawn of a new transportation age is very much the same. So let's have a 21^st Century "Great Race" and pit the Tesla against the other electric car on the market today, the Honda Clarity.

The Tesla is an electric sports car powered by batteries, while the Clarity is an electric sedan powered by hydrogen (a fuel cell converts the hydrogen to electricity). The range of each is rated by USEPA-approved testing at about 230 miles. The similarities end there however - - the Tesla is the fastest production car ever built at zero to 60 mph, giving the little hot rod a distinct advantage that would seem to make a race with a Clarity anything but "great". Or would it?

The ambassador to the UN from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) told me recently that every government agency in his country has a sustainability plan out to the year 2030. The most significant part of that policy exercise is the fact they need to develop an economy beyond oil - - because they expect to run out of it by then.

Two weeks ago I visited Bahrain, an island in the middle of the Persian Gulf that is widely regarded as the Switzerland of the Middle East. This amazing little country gets only about 15% of its revenues from oil/gas development, so it too is planning for what comes after the Oil Age. With that in mind, Bahrain has encouraged the expansion of financial institutions (probably a good thing given how many are melting down in the US and Europe these days!), but more remarkable is the manufacturing industries that are blooming in the desert by the aquamarine waters of the Gulf.

Will Bahrain be the next China in terms of being both an economic and manufacturing powerhouse? Because everyone there speaks English (thanks to a British colonial history until 1971), will Bahrain be the next tech center to compete with India? Based on the rapid development going on in the country and a lot of "cool" factor - - I witnessed the Formula One Grand Prix race there and a major yacht race is being staged next - - the answer is yes.

I admit that my last blog may not have convinced many people that it is urgent to act on global warming unless you are a cat lover like I am.  So this time around I'm going to make my point by discussing a topic we can all relate to: cars.

In 1984, Al Gore held a hearing in Congress about global warming and urged his colleagues to do something about it. As we now know, he was ridiculed and largely ignored for the best part of two decades before being vindicated with a Nobel Prize and an Oscar (oh yeah, and another Congressional hearing, at which he was taken far more seriously).

I've been an environmental advocate for the same couple of decades, always suspecting that my friends raised an eyebrow or two over my predictions and admonitions about sustainability (my family, however, was not subtle about raising their eyebrows). I worked for the day when thinking "green" would be a normal part of everyday life. Well, just as Al Gore's day(s) arrived in 2007, my days arrived this week.

First, I turned on a Los Angeles Laker game and found the entire team wearing "NBA Green Week" tee shirts. The NBA.com website lists dozens of things anyone can do to live more sustainably (and save money in the process!). When a major sports league feels that all they need to say is "green" and that it's a good color for their brand, our time has come.