2008 Woodie Awards
Speakers seek Earth-friendly policies
Bart Zino
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: News
Earth is in need of some serious spring cleaning. This was the conclusion made at the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government's Spring 2007 Symposium Monday.
A series of speakers, covering issues from global warming to water policy, said that current concerns about the environment amount to more than just another "inconvenient truth."
Titled Environmental Policy: Issues, Concerns and Solutions, the symposium sought to identify current problems with United States environmental policies and find potential solutions for the future. Speakers for Monday's discussion came from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, including the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, The Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the Florida Solar Energy Center.
Though their areas of expertise and experience varied, the speakers' messages were similar: Something has to be done about the nation's energy, ocean and air policies - and soon. But finding a way to enact change is a complicated issue.
"The debate is, how aggressively can we, as a country, start to reverse the last hundred years of momentum?" said Jason Grumet, the executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy.
The challenge lies in coming up with a plan that's both effective and economically sound. While it's not too late for America to clean up its act, the road to a greener future will not be easy.
"The amount of pollution we need to reduce in order to actually have a sustainable change is totally out of whack with what is possible," Grumet said. "What the science says, and it's very clear, is we need a very significant reduction very quickly."
Part of the problem is a lack of energy efficiency, both in the home and on the road.
"The cars that we were using before you were born are just as fuel-efficient as the cars you drive today," Grumet said. "That is a disaster."
To Grumet, the answer lies in moderate reforms and breaking the reliance on using a single type of fuel.
A series of speakers, covering issues from global warming to water policy, said that current concerns about the environment amount to more than just another "inconvenient truth."
Titled Environmental Policy: Issues, Concerns and Solutions, the symposium sought to identify current problems with United States environmental policies and find potential solutions for the future. Speakers for Monday's discussion came from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, including the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, The Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the Florida Solar Energy Center.
Though their areas of expertise and experience varied, the speakers' messages were similar: Something has to be done about the nation's energy, ocean and air policies - and soon. But finding a way to enact change is a complicated issue.
"The debate is, how aggressively can we, as a country, start to reverse the last hundred years of momentum?" said Jason Grumet, the executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy.
The challenge lies in coming up with a plan that's both effective and economically sound. While it's not too late for America to clean up its act, the road to a greener future will not be easy.
"The amount of pollution we need to reduce in order to actually have a sustainable change is totally out of whack with what is possible," Grumet said. "What the science says, and it's very clear, is we need a very significant reduction very quickly."
Part of the problem is a lack of energy efficiency, both in the home and on the road.
"The cars that we were using before you were born are just as fuel-efficient as the cars you drive today," Grumet said. "That is a disaster."
To Grumet, the answer lies in moderate reforms and breaking the reliance on using a single type of fuel.