The World in 2008
During a visit to Greenland in May 2007, I toured Disko Bay by boat to see first-hand the impact of global warming. According to local Inuit leaders, such a tour would have been impossible in years past. Disko Bay would have been a solid sheet of ice, easily crossed by dogsled, but impassable for our small watercraft. No longer. My boat tour itself was a by-product of global warming.
Global warming is a fact, not a theory, and it has the potential to reshape our planet for all generations to come. The catastrophic consequences of unchecked climate change are clear: severe weather; coastal flooding; drought; ecosystem disruption; and deaths due to heat waves, storms, infectious diseases and pollution. And global warming’s impact will fall hardest and soonest on those in the poorest nations.
It has taken years of effort, but at long last, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, global-warming deniers have been laughed out of the debate. Yet they have been replaced by an equally dangerous impediment to action—the global-warming defeatists who claim that climate change is under way but that the price of action is too high.
The Stern review, a British government study, made clear that the price of combating global warming pales in comparison with the cost of complacency. The study, the most comprehensive review of the economics of climate change, argued that taking action now will require a serious commitment and financial investment. With just 1% of global GDP each year, we could achieve meaningful reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. On the other hand, as the “Stern Review” said, failing to take serious action would shrink the global economy by at least 5%, and as much as 20%, each year.
In the coming year, all of us around the world must decide to see global warming as a challenge, and also as an opportunity. We can start to address global warming with innovation and with market-based solutions that will grow economies around the world and create the next generation of good-paying jobs—including “green-collar” jobs.
We have already seen the powerful potential of green jobs in America. For example, when a steel plant closed in Pennsylvania, many Americans lost their jobs, as they have in manufacturing industries across the country. But today, 1,000 of those men and women are back at work on the site of their former steel mill—building wind turbines.
Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions also has the enormous benefit of reducing pollutants that contribute to asthma, heart attacks and neurological problems. If we take action, people in every nation of the world will be healthier.
A climate change in Washington
Though President George Bush and his administration have failed to recognise the urgency of this issue, this indifference is not shared by the vast majority of the American people, or by the majorities in the United States Congress. Since assuming the majority in January 2007, Democrats in the House and Senate are setting the legislative agenda for America, and we have placed global warming and greenhouse-gas reduction as one of our highest priorities in Congress.
One of my first acts as speaker was to create the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. We have also passed bold and sweeping energy legislation that is unencumbered by old ways of thinking. We are reducing excessive subsidies for private oil and gas companies and instead investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. We are requiring that 15% of our electricity comes from renewable energy resources. And we are making substantial commitments to energy efficiency, biofuels, training for green jobs, research into climate change and renewable energy, and much more. These are the solutions of the future.
A significant component of our initiatives must be international action. Whereas each country can take significant steps to slow down global warming, the world must work together to forge a strong agreement to prevent catastrophic climate change. I am hopeful that America will be an active and constructive participant in these efforts.
In my recent travels as speaker I have met presidents, prime ministers and kings, but I have been most impressed and inspired by my encounters with young people. At a time when some world leaders question the value of dialogue and progress, young people all over the world are engaged in their own international conversations, on campuses and through e-mail, instant messaging and blogs. They have hope and ideas for the future, and want to know if their leaders will take steps to end global warming and preserve the planet—God’s beautiful creation. I believe that in the year to come we can and we will.
http://www.economist.com/theworldin/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10093979&d=2008
