Dave Douglas kicked off the EnergyCamp "Unconference" and incited a heated debate by asking the opening session panel, "Do we need five big innovations or billions of little ones?"
Hunter Lovins responded first, saying we have the technology to get to sustainability: efficiency first, to buy time, then follow the model of nature, strive to produce products locally, at ambient temp, using waste from one production as inputs to the next. The economics are beginning to make sense, as evidenced by the emergence, in China, of the world's first green billionaire.
Adam Werbach answered facetiously, "Kill the experts." What he means is that the "experts'" legacy thinking is getting in the way. Grass roots non-experts, in the shape of WalMart employees, have turned off the lights in coke machines in WalMart's employee break rooms (and Pepsi machines too). Once Coke saw sales dip, they responded by putting up a "My light is out but it's cold inside"sign, then saw their sales rise while Pepsi's fell.
Ted Nordhaus said our priority is to grapple with inexpensive energy, which is a root cause of climate change. This will be a process of unleashing human power to change the political reality, he predicts.
Michael Shellenberger claimed that international policy alone is not a solution. He cites that, since Kyoto, GHG emissions have risen in Canada and the EU faster than in U.S.
The panelists' positions having been posed, debate ensued over many topics, especially the potential role of nuclear power in solving climate change. Nice to see some substantive disagreement - Sun did a great job picking a panel that would not mimic the too oft aligned community of experts.
More from the Unconference coverage here.
Thursday Jan 10, 2008
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