Politician presents solutions to global warming

by Mike Sokolowski
Boston College Heights
May 1, 2006

Last Thursday, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) hosted a discussion titled “Oil Dependence and Climate,” with the purpose to “raise global awareness” about the topic and “to bring the world home.”

Coincidentally, gasoline is what gets most of the world home, and there to address the issue of oil consumption was former U.S. House representative, Colorado senator, and current United Nations Foundation President Timothy Wirth.

Wirth, who has had a history of dealing with environmental issues and global climate changes, explained in detail how much damage has been done to the ozone layer, what we need to do to stop it, and gave a timetable as to when it all needs to get accomplished.

With gasoline prices at record highs and the topic of oil consistently on the front page of every major newspaper, Wirth addressed the anxiety this has caused the American people, but indicated that the public has been given the wrong point of view.

“The major problem right now is that the government is projecting this issue as a ‘the sky is falling’ or ‘it’s the end of the world’ sort of thing. It should really be looked at as a time for great innovation with regards to how we obtain energy,” said Wirth.

America can invent another way of obtaining energy which would be beneficial to the American economy, he said.

Once Wirth had given the audience the right mindset on how to look at the oil issue, he delved into basic statistics about oil consumption and the atmosphere.

With an extremely high rate of carbon emission into the air, going from 280 parts per million in the pre-fuel-driven world to 380 parts per million today, the greenhouse effect is becoming more and more significant.

“Once we get to about a doubling of the original, or 560 parts per million, we will see the glaciers begin to melt and coastal areas to become flooded,” said Wirth. “Each carbon atom stays in the air for about 100 years. If we can get the amount of carbon to stop at a doubling and level off, we can start to reverse the effects of what we have done.”

In order to accomplish this, Wirth said that the world would need to decrease carbon emission by 70 percent in the next 50 years.

“Our goal right now is ’25 in 25,’ or to decrease carbon emission by 25 percent in the year 2025,” said Wirth.

Even with this, Wirth said that the water levels would rise about eight inches but would start to lower as the carbon emission declined.

Wirth suggested alternative sources of fuel as solutions to the problem. “Biofuel is the source of energy for the future,” said Wirth.

“President Bush is beginning to push the use of switchgrass [an abundant plant found in the Great Plains], which will be used to create ethanol. Corn and cornstalks can also create biofuel to replace gasoline,” said Wirth.

Countries like Brazil are already running mainly on biofuel. Sixty percent of Brazil’s fuel comes from sugarcane, and the country requires all of its cars to be “duel fuel” capable, meaning they can run on either gasoline or ethanol.

“In the United States right now, gasoline is selling for $73 or more per barrel. In Brazil, ethanol is selling for approximately $35 per barrel,” said Wirth.

Only one third of America’s carbon emission, however, comes from fuel.

The other two thirds come from coal in power plants, which creates a much more complex challenge for the United States.

“We are looking into carbon sequestration, or the ability to capture carbon and prevent it from being released in the atmosphere,” said Wirth.

He explained that the power plants need to use coal – there is no other plausible alternative.

With this, Wirth again said that “America has the opportunity to invent ground-breaking techniques that the rest of the world can use as well. People must speak up and pressure Washington to deal with the global warming issue.” ________________________________________ © Copyright 2006 The Heights