Climate change fixes fall on government

A recent interesting Daily Herald OpEd discussed a conversation between Bill Gates and George Bush on energy. The author said technological miracles may be needed for global warming.

He based this on Gates saying that if climate scientists are right, and they agree 97 to 3, that we have to leave about two thirds of our fossil fuels in the ground unused to limit temperature increase to 2 degrees C (about 4 degrees F) and that since technical people agree that we need 80 percent cuts in GHG emissions by 2050, it will take policies at the government level to get us there.

Since there are no governmental policies to do this and personal efforts to reduce carbon emissions are helpful but not enough, but more like "building step ladders to the moon," the author says we need to work on technological fixes, like "flying wind turbines to collect energy from jet streams, new nuclear designs, reverse engineering photosynthesis" and other "miracles."

Most reports you will find on climate change solutions continue to put the burden on governments, from the U.S. government to the UN Climate Change Conference coming in November-December this year in Paris.

In the U.S., carbon fee and dividend which has been lobbied for by CCL, Citizen's Climate Lobby, would solve the carbon problem while returning the money collected to the people. It would also grow jobs, the economy, and even save thousands of lives from the air pollution fossil fuels cause.

Also the U.S. has to take the lead in getting an agreement among nations at the United Nations panel. This makes more sense than futuristic untried fixes or "miracles."

Sandy Kaptain

Elgin