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Joseph Romm’s Hell
and High Water is clearly a wake-up call to our elected
leaders. He believes we have at most a decade to begin sharply
cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. Romm proposes we reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 50% percent by 2050 by adopting a
California-style energy-efficiency effort throughout the
country. Romm describes the sharp differences between what
leading climate scientists know and what many of our elected
leaders believe.
The book is well written and is an easy
read. It provides a good description of the complexity of
climate change and its history. It also offers a set of
potential solutions including altering
our federal
energy policy to establish a price for CO2, as well as promoting
energy efficiency, cogeneration, and renewable energy.
Two very sobering quotes from Romm frame
our current climate change dilemma:
"The last time [125,000 yr ago] Earth was
1 C warmer then today, sea
levels were 20 feet higher.”
and “The last time Earth was 2 to 3 C warmer
than it is now, some 3 million years ago, sea levels were more
than 80 feet higher.”
He also clarifies emission goals with the
following: “…the
key metric is not
annual emissions but cumulative emissions. Cumulative
emissions are what drive up CO2 concentrations, and
concentrations are what determine how much the planet warms.”
Thus, he makes it clear that the clock is ticking as our
elected leaders bicker about our future and tinker around the
edges of the problem. Fortunately, Romm offers a clear path out
of this and that is what makes Hell and High Water such a
good read.
Romm served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Energy in charge of the Office of Energy
Effieciency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and as Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary from 1995 to 1998. At DOE Romm helped
manage the U.S.’s program in helping businesses develop and use
advanced clean energy technologies. This program aimed to cut
costs and increase reliability, while reducing pollution. |
