The Mix: The new film, "Cool It!", the right attitude toward climate change?

Our Mix panelists, filmmaker Bjorn Lomborg, actor Gloria Reuben and Daniel Weiss, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, debate whether Lomborg's new film, "Cool It!" is proposes appropriate solutions for climate change.

Lomborg says global warming is a real problem, but the worst-case scenarios being presented in many media are exaggerated, and that the people who are shouting the loudest about the problem are getting the most attention. He believes this had led to bad policy decisions. The best solution, he says, is to make large investments in renewable energy so that it becomes inexpensive and people will want to use it. He says ratifying the Kyoto protocol would have been a colossal waste of money for the United States. While he advocates what he calls a "low carbon tax," he does not believe cap-and-trade is a sensible way to spur innovation. He also believes that Chinese development of clean energy technology is not a threat to the U.S and other western countries because the Chinese are selling that technology to the West.

Reuben says there should be a balance of awareness and acceptance of the problem. She believes the comprehensive climate and energy legislation that stalled in Congress this year would have put the United States on the right path. She says the results of de-regulation in the financial industry have become apparent in the current economic crisis, and she believes the results of de-regulation in environment and energy could be just as bad.

Weiss says a better title for the film would be, "Don't Worry, Be Oblivious." He argues that the people who are shouting the loudest are climate science deniers, who have been able to shout out reasonable policy choices. He believe waiting for renewable energy to become more affordable on its own is not good for the environment and the U.S. economy. He also says the dirtier forms of power, such as coal and petroleum, need to be made more expensive because they have been made artificially cheap over the years.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Bjorn Lomborg
• Center for American Prog
• climate change
• Congress climate legisl
• Cool It
• Daniel Weiss
• Gloria Reuben
• Susan McGinnis
• energy
• now
• energynow
• energy now

[deanj59]

"Innovation comes from regulation" Total lunacy...

Sure, if you completely fix a market by subsidizing the heck out of one product and taxing the hell out of another there will be a shift in the dominant service customers use.

[hugowla]

I want no tax on CO2 because I don't have the money to pay what I fart and breath. The tax will only pass on poor general public instead of big company such as BP. R&D is the focus. Look at our tax system, no tax dollars are really in a good use. I am pretty sure most US people will agree with me in that. How can you trust a government like that today if they can't balance it's check book? Taxing is not going to solve the problems.