Solving Global Warming

The Tipping Point

The time to put global warming solutions into place is now.

We can't wait any longer. Scientists say we need to turn the corner on global warming within 10 years to prevent very dangerous impacts from becoming inevitable. Each year that passes without tackling global warming head-on makes the problem more difficult and expensive to solve.

But at the same time, global warming has finally gotten our attention -- Americans are increasingly aware that a warming climate is a real threat to our way of life, and that we have a choice about how bad it will get.

The choice lies here: $16 trillion dollars will be invested in energy development over the next two decades. Will it be poured into polluting, obsolescent technologies that will bring on the worst of global warming? Or will these investments be shifted into to advanced, low-polluting technologies that will create the new energy economy that's needed to shut down global warming?

It's up to all of us to increase the heat on our elected officials: we need the right policies -- and we need them now -- to ensure that the technologies described here are deployed on the scale and timeframe that is needed to achieve deep reductions in global warming pollution by mid-century.

1. Boost Energy Efficiency

The cheapest and fastest way to cut global warming pollution is to make things that use electricity -- like appliances, industrial equipment and buildings -- more energy-efficient. We know this works -- most of us have bought an Energy Star appliance or two, and have seen firsthand how much money and energy they can save. But there's still much room for improvement, and we must continue to push for products that waste less energy. Likewise, "green building" design and construction can dramatically reduce the enormous amounts of energy that buildings consume in heating, cooling, lighting and water use.

2. Better Cars and Smart Growth

Our gasoline-burning cars are the second-largest source of U.S. global warming pollution. But Americans will put more than 300 million new cars on the road over the next 20 years -- if these cars are the best, most efficient vehicles Detroit can make, we'll take a big step toward solving global warming.

Using hybrid engines and other ready-to-go technologies in today's cars could nearly double the mileage they'd get from a gallon of gas, saving a lot of money at the pump. By 2050, fuel-cell technologies and other advancements could boost efficiency to 54 miles per gallon.

We can curb our appetite for oil even further by adopting "smart growth" principles in our cities and towns, encouraging developers to build compact, walkable communities that allow people to spend less time behind the wheel.

3. Biofuels and Renewable Energy

Business-friendly, cost-competitive and ready to meet a significant portion of America's energy needs, renewable energy has gone mainstream. Wind power is the fastest growing form of electricity generation in the United States, expanding at an average annual rate of more than 20 percent. Solar energy employs more than 20,000 Americans in high-tech, high-paying jobs. And clean-burning biofuels made from plants show great promise as a replacement for gasoline -- ethanol producers already make 4 billion gallons of fuel a year, and new methods for making ethanol from farm wastes or energy crops could compete with oil on a very large scale in addition to providing extra income for farmers. By 2050, renewable energy and biofuels could meet a significant chunk of our energy needs.

4. Return Carbon to the Ground

Coal is the most carbon-intense of fossil fuels. Reducing use of coal through energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies will be the cornerstones of the solution to global warming, but the plain truth is that hundreds of new coal-fired power plants will probably be constructed around the world in coming years. Coal generates more than half of the electricity we use today, and it is in plentiful supply in such countries as China, India and the United States.

A critical choice remains. Power plants have a long lifespan -- build the new coal plants with dirty, 19th-century technologies and we lock ourselves into high levels of global warming pollution for decades. We can instead choose a 21st-century alternative: Using existing technologies -- each in commercial operation today -- we can convert coal into a clean-burning gas and capture and dispose of the carbon dioxide deep underground, dramatically reducing air pollution from this dirtiest of fuels. If the United States doesn't invest in this technology, neither will China, India and other countries with large coal supplies.