Earth Insurance

At the suggestion of Chris O'Sullivan, I drove down to the Sonoma Academy last night to hear a talk by Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider. Schneider, a leading expert on climate change, was speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Association. I won't try to repeat the lecture here, except to mention some key points.

Schneider was highly critical of the (inane) ritual on radio and TV where the host presents speakers for both sides of the climate change issue: a scientist who tells the truth and an unqualified professional liar from the coal companies. The effect is to keep the country confused.

The speaker said that 97% of climate scientists believe that global warming is real and caused, in part, by human activity. (For balance, should we give the other 3% half of the air time?) What we need is to get an informed discussion going on what to do. How we cope with the change is an ethical rather than a scientific question.

Risky business--it is currently possible and relatively cheap to shoot enough dust into the air to reverse warming. The problem is that the results would be dangerously unpredictable.

This generation is deciding the climate that the next 100 generations will live with. Schneider's best hope is that the government will get serious about developing green energy sources. If we want less developed countries to take climate change seriously, we will need to help them master cheap green technology.

Schneider pointed out that most of us have fire insurance policies for our homes, although few of us get burned out. Why not take out some insurance on our planet? Funding green technology would have that effect.