“We need a variety of creative
solutions … which will play
an essential role in a clean-
energy economy.”
overreliance on carbon-based fuels. We’re
borrowing money from China to buy oil from
the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy
the planet. Every bit of that has got to change,
and no solution to our environmental, economic and national security crises is possible
without unraveling this common thread.
e m s,
Taking the “buckshot” approach
A responsible and effective approach to
solving the climate crisis would avoid the mistaken search for a single “silver bullet” and
instead recognize that the answer will involve
what environmentalist Bill McKibben has
called “silver buckshot.” We need a variety of
creative solutions, none of which is sufficient
on its own, but all of which will play an essential role in a clean-energy economy.
We must change the source of our energy
from dirty and expensive carbon-based fuels
to clean energy from the sun, the wind and
the earth itself. Solar photovoltaic energy—
such as the solar cells you might have seen on
rooftops—and concentrating solar thermal
energy are both rapidly declining in price due
to new technological breakthroughs. Wind
energy is already competitive as a mainstream
source of electricity and will continue to grow
in prominence and profitability. Geothermal
energy, which relies on the heat of the earth
itself, lets us generate a constant supply of
clean energy. We can also produce new clean
fuels for our cars and trucks. And while I
am skeptical about the role that can be played
by nuclear power and carbon capture and
sequestration, continuing research into both
could create new opportunities.
Moreover, dramatic improvements in the
efficiency with which we generate, transport,
store and use energy will almost certainly
prove to be the single biggest source of sharp
and immediate reductions in global warming
pollution. Because pollution has been systematically ignored by the artificial measurements of value we have imposed on the
free market, there are many relatively easy ways to use new and more
efficient options to cheaply eliminate
it. Since pollution is, after all, waste,
business and industry almost always
become more productive when they
eliminate inefficiencies. Many of the
