Year 2, Month 5, Day 25: How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?

The Seattle Times’ Lance Dickie reports on a speech by Bill Gates, urging a change in the way we do things:

Gates made a strong case for the federal government to lead and fund basic energy research. Private money is involved, including his own, but he laid out a simple truth: Vested interests will keep the energy industry doing what it does — fighting to maintain the status quo.

Gates nailed it, and not just because his pithy observation came on the 142nd anniversary of the golden spike that linked the transcontinental railway at Promontory, Utah. — a triumph of government-financed risk taking for a better future.

So the doyen of Davos got me thinking. Take all the federal money pumped into the oil industry, in the form of tax breaks, depletion allowances and other gravy, and put the savings toward energy research, not deficits.

Finance basic research on nuclear power and storage capacity for renewable energy.

Despite nuclear power’s avoidance of climate-changing carbon emissions, solving the lethal legacy of nuclear waste never gets much beyond fighting over holes in the ground and creation of a petroglyph that still translates to “Run!!” in 7011.

Sent May 14:

There are some whose allegiance to ideology is stronger than self-interest and common sense when it comes to the facts of global climate change. And some may admit that the world’s atmosphere is warming, but deny the need for bold action on reducing humanity’s greenhouse emissions — because they’re confident that we’ll be able to find a technical solution to the problem before it’s too late. Perhaps; we clever apes have solved quite a few complex puzzles in our time. But if our brightest minds and our most sophisticated tools are to tackle anthropogenic global warming, they need massive support. The United States government’s investment focus must be on the development of sustainable energy sources rather than rewarding the fossil fuel industries — and on a scale commensurate with the magnitude of the problem. Bill Gates may be awfully rich, but he’s not rich enough to do it by himself.

Warren Senders

28 Jan 2010, 12:18am
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  • Day 28: Same Ol’, Same Ol’

    Stimulated by the recently announced decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission that:

    Companies must consider the effects of global warming and efforts to curb climate change when disclosing business risks to investors…

    I thought I’d dash off a little missive to the Boston Globe saying what an excellent idea I thought it was.

    Yesterday the business community got a good dose of realism when the SEC approved new guidelines requiring companies to include information on the impact of climate-change regulation in corporate filings. This is a message that the current administration is more serious about enforcing environmental-protection laws; under Bush, those laws were pretty universally ignored, leaving companies free to pollute. However, climate denialism is still very much a growth sector. Cynical and mendacious people eager to misrepresent an overwhelming scientific consensus are heavily funded by big oil and coal companies. It is time for the business sector to recognize the reality of global climate change and begin marshaling the resources of the private sector to help the world’s population prepare for the devastating effects of climaticide. Yesterday’s SEC ruling was a good step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.

    Warren Senders