Word: solarization
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...your image of an environmentalist is an organic fiber-wearing vegan who likes to tout the health benefits of hemp tea, Fred Krupp is here to dissuade you. The environmentalists of today - and more importantly, tomorrow - are more likely to be working at a Silicon Valley solar power start-up than saving the whales. Climate change poses a fundamentally different problem, on a far vaster scale, then the local air pollution or wildlife conservation issues that environmentalists have faced before, and it demands a different kind of solution. At the core of that problem is energy, which touches every aspect...
...meeting the scientists, venture capitalists and dreamers inventing new and better ways to use energy. (Listen to Krupp talk about climate policy in the U.S. and a zero-carbon future on Greencast.) That includes characters like the Irish-born Conrad Burke, the charismatic CEO of the young solar company Innovalight; or Alla Weinstein, a Russian immigrant who wants to bring tidal energy to the Pacific Northwest. Touring the best ideas in solar, wind and geothermal power, biofuels, even clean fossil fuels, Krupp does what might seem impossible - he delivers a global warming book that leaves you feeling hopeful. "This...
...Internet and biotech - those solutions won't leave the laboratory without political support. Right now there are countless smart new ways to get energy that won't destroy the Earth, but they're not price competitive with cheap fossil fuel power because they lack economic scale. As solar panels or wind turbines are produced in bulk, the price will fall - but that won't happen until government sends a strong signal to producers and energy consumers. And the only way to do that, Krupp argues, is through a carbon cap-and-trade system that sets an implicit price on dirty...
...They also backed plans to slash their energy imports, which would both save money and boost energy security. And they agreed to boost energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power...
...keep pushing the same message harder: cut carbon and cut it now. But a few scientists are beginning to quietly raise the possibility of cooling the planet's fever directly through geoengineering. The principle behind it is straightforward - compensate for an intensified greenhouse effect by reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth - but the techniques seem like pure science fiction. Just a few: using orbital mirrors to bounce sunlight back into space, fertilizing the oceans with iron to amplify their ability to absorb carbon and even painting roofs white to increase solar reflection...