Thomas Friedman 10: Why Market Solution is the Only Way to Reduce CO2 emissions?

http://www.eco-rescue.info
http://www.eco-rescue.com

What's the key to a sustainable ecosystem for innovation? Having a fixed, long-term, durable price signal for carbon. These are excerpts from Thomas Friedman, the multi-Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and author (Hot, Flat & Crowded), while speaking at Governor Schwarzeneggers Global Climate Summit 2 in Los Angeles, October 2, 2009. See book review & verbatim of excerpt below.

Book Review From Barnes & Noble
In his latest best-seller Hot, Flat & Crowded - Thomas Friedman, the influential New York Times Op-Ed columnist, presses his case that Green is the new Red, White, and Blue. Friedman argues that environmentalism isn't just a survival imperative; it's the best way to make America richer, more productive, and, not least, more secure. Spanning the globe, he presents case study after case study that shows that Green-oriented practices and technologies are the key to revitalizing our country and stabilizing an increasingly energy-starved world.

Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) covers familiar territory (the need for alternate energy, conservation measures, recycling, energy efficiency, etc.) as a build-up to his main thesis: the U.S. market is the "most effective and prolific system for transformational innovation.... There is only one thing bigger than Mother Nature and that is Father Profit." While he remains ostensibly a proponent of the free market, he does not flinch from using the government to create conditions favorable to investment, such as setting a "floor price for crude oil or gasoline," and imposing a new gasoline tax ($5-$10 per gallon) in order to make investment in green technologies attractive to venture capitalists: "America needs an energy technology bubble just like the information technology bubble." To make such draconian measures palatable, Friedman poses a national competition to "outgreen" China, modeled on Kennedy's proposal to beat the Soviets to the moon, a race that required a country-wide mobilization comparable to the WWII war effort. Recognizing the looming threat of "petrodicatorship" and U.S. dependence on imported oil, this warning salvo presents a stirring and far-darker vision than Friedman's earlier books.

VERBATIM: We have to focus on one thing if I can focus on one thing. I wish everyone in Copenhagen well. I will be there. I will be rooting for them okay? But my own view is that it is going to be very difficult to get 192 countries to all agree on verifiable limits and the reductions of their CO2 emissions, but I will be in there pushing for it. But at the same time, we have to remember that ultimately this is a problem to be solved by engineers and not just by regulators. Regulators are important but the engineers are more important. That's why when people ask me what is my favorite fuel? Are you a wind guy, Friedman? You a solar guy? Are you a geothermal guy? What I always tell them is I am a ecosystem-for-innovation guy. That is my fuel I want to see a set in motion ecosystem of rules, prices, standards and regulations that will stimulate 10,000 green innovators in 10,000 garages, trying 10,000 things. 1000 of which will be promising, 100 of which will be way cool. And two of which will be the next green Google and green Microsoft. And give us that answer of abundant, clean, cheap, and reliable electrons. Friends, if you take nothing else away from this talk, please take this because we have to look this straight in the eye, no BS. The only way you will have a sustainable ecosystem for innovation, the one thing it must have, is a fixed, long-term, durable price signal for carbon. If you do not have that, if you do not have that, if you do not have that, you will not get innovation at scale. What you will have is hobbies. I like hobbies. I used to build the model airplanes as a kid. I do not try to change the climate as a hobby. Okay?

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