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Dependence on fossil fuels leads us toward a hostile climate

Paul Fieber: Dependence on fossil fuels not the answer http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/mailbag/paul-fieber-dependence-on-fossil-fuels-not-the-answer/article_a1fd743e-f3c7-11e1-b413-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz25R89T9rx
2 Sept 12, Should America make reducing oil imports a top goal and work hard to achieve it?
I don’t think oil independence is the answer. A switch to domestic sources trashes our environment but doesn’t reduce carbon emissions.
With 5 percent of the world’s people, the United States is already spewing about 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide.

We must listen to established climate scientists who agree that our current path leads to an incredibly hostile and deadly planet, with a likely temperature increase of 11 degrees F through this century.

Our top goals should be energy efficiency, conservation and ending barriers to broad use of proven solar and wind technologies. We should leave most of the fossil fuel in the ground.

To help support sustainable energy goals, we can recapture and reinvest the billions in subsidies flowing to the global fossil fuel industry. In the United States alone, between 2005 and 2010, five major oil companies pocketed $4 billion a year in tax subsidies. This is outrageous.

But there’s good news, too. European nations such as Denmark and Germany use renewable energy for much of their electricity. According to the New York Times, San Francisco aims to be 100 percent renewable by 2020. These and other worldwide efforts led Canadian activist and author Naomi Klein to say the world seems to have reached “a no kidding around moment.” Let’s do it!

September 3, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general