Lexington, KY - We hear about climate change all the time. It’s on the news, talk shows and the Internet and it almost always seems to involve people arguing with each other. One person says it’s getting warmer, another person says it’s not. It’s taken the term “political science” to a whole new level. How do you know who to believe?
“With climate change, I have a unique opportunity because I don’t have to pick someone to believe. I just look at the data. I can look at what the earth says is happening, not what someone else is saying,” said Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change at the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University.
“From the data, it is clear that the earth is getting warmer,” Hayhoe continued. “Look around the world at when certain birds and butterflies migrate and when the trees flower and tulips bloom. There are more than 26,000 different lines of evidence telling us the earth is warming.”
Hayhoe, and several other climate experts with varying viewpoints, spoke recently at a forum entitled Climate Change: Values, National Security and Free Enterprise at the University of Kentucky.
Hayhoe said there are reasons to care about what is happening in the global climate and what these developments have to do with things we care about every day. Her research involves looking at climate change and what it means for our water resources, energy costs, the way we grow food and what it costs.
“It’s not about tackling the problem of climate change at the expense of my lifestyle or economic well-being,” she reasoned. “There is a perception that either we have to be tree-huggers or care about the economy, but we can’t do both.”
As for Kentucky, so wedded to its coal industry, Hayhoe says a sensible transition, not a cold turkey approach, is how to wean the nation off of its dependence on fossil fuels. “There is still a role for all of the ways we get our fuel today and in the next decade or two,” she said. “It makes sense to look to the future, not one or two years ahead, but 10, 15, 20 years ahead to say ‘Where do we want to be then?’ We can still be an energy-producer in ways that are healthier for us, our children and our states and still have the income we need.”
Steve Henderson likes to call himself an “energy warrior” based on his experience in logistics during a 31-year career in the U.S. Army, which included time in Iraq and Afghanistan, culminating in the rank of Brigadier General. He sees climate change making the U.S. vulnerable to everything from foreign enemies to the weather.
“I believe climate change makes us strategically vulnerable and drives a chain of events that makes the world more unstable,” said Henderson. The catastrophic weather events we’ve seen here from Katrina on shows how vulnerable we can be.”
Henderson believes America needs to develop a green economy with renewable energy that will drive change. He says the U.S. is addicted to oil. Even if this country produced all of its own oil, there is still too strong a dependence on it.
“Why can’t we have the new Silicon Valley be right here in Lexington, Ky. for a green energy revolution?” Henderson wonders aloud. “I’m convinced a nation that put a man on the moon 44 years ago has the intellectual capital, drive and entrepreneurial spirit to make this happen. But we haven’t set conditions for that in the U.S.”
A third forum speaker was Bob Inglis, former Republican congressman from South Carolina who is executive director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Inglis founded E&EI and guides it by the principles of free enterprise and economic growth, limited government and accountability to solve energy and climate challenges.
“We have a challenge but the good news is there’s an answer in free enterprise,” Inglis explained. “We need a ‘cop on the beat’ to make all fuels accountable for their costs. Some fossil fuels get to belch and burn without accountability. There are hidden costs which create a market distortion that holds back innovation.”
Inglis suggests taxing carbon upstream at the mine or at the beginning of the pipeline. Attach a price to carbon dioxide. That tax is paired with a reduction in other taxes, dollar for dollar, so in theory it becomes revenue-neutral.
Inglis is well aware of Kentucky’s dependence on coal. “If it is not innovative, coal will go the way of textiles and tobacco (products in decline in his state). If there is not a technological breakthrough in carbon capture sequestration then coal really has a challenge. A valuable commodity could turn out to be not so valuable,” he concluded.
Paul Vincelli, a UK professor and forum organizer said he chose the speakers for the forum because of their stature in the field of climate change. He didn’t want people to come and talk about the science necessarily. “Climate change is an issue that touches our deeply held and shared values as Americans and Kentuckians,” he said.