spectrum
Burning Question
The Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international agreement designed
to curb CO2 emissions, will expire in 2012, leaving it up to world leaders to design new ways to cut carbon. In December of 2007, officials
convened in Bali for the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change to discuss the future of Kyoto and how to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions. We asked three experts:
What should follow the Kyoto Protocol?
Andy Revkin
New York Times
environment reporter,
author of the Times’ Dot
Earth blog
Science on
the Rocks
Taxidermy and other odd decor
adds to Union Hall’s ambience.
Forget rock stars—at Brooklyn’s Union Hall
bar, the hip headliners are rocket scientists.
Every first Wednesday of the month, the
watering hole’s dimly lit basement hosts the
Secret Science Club, a free meeting of minds
that features top scientists talki ng about
topics like natural history, chemistry, and
climate change. Its founders, radio host Dorian Devins and authors
Michael Crewdson and Margaret Mittelbach, first organized the
club in September of 2006 as a way for the general public to learn
about important scientific issues while also enjoying one seriously
good time. “We’re now at a more critical time to get unfiltered
science to people,” says Crewdson. “Global warming, stem cell
research—it can certainly affect the future.”
The events start with music and a video montage, followed by
a lecture from a notable scientist such as Nobel Prize winner Eric
Kandel or global warming guru William Schlesinger. Meanwhile,
audience members can sip on aptly named
libations like Amnesiac Punch and the
Climate Cooler. The evening concludes
with a question and answer segment, and
sometimes live music. “It’s not impossible
to understand,” says Mittelbach. “We’re
trying to bring [science] down to a level
where people can actually get into it and
think it’s a fun thing and something they
want to learn about.”
—Sarah Parsons
>
For more Secret events, check out
secretscienceclub.blogspot.com
Two-headed chick on
display at the bar.
26 | february-march 2008
Scott Barrett
Professor of Environmental
Economics and International
Political Economy, Johns
Hopkins University
Rather than set
overall emission targets that will never
be met, we need to
break the challenge
up into manageable
pieces. Our priority
should be to transform technology
worldwide. That will
require pull incentives—like a “price”
on carbon—and
push incentives—
like direct R and D
spending. The focus
should be on key
sectors, such as
transportation
and electricity
generation.
Greg Nickels
Mayor of Seattle
In Seattle, we’ve reduced greenhouse gas pollution 8 percent
below where it was in 1990. While
it’s an important milestone, it’s just
the start. To truly turn the tides on
global warming, we must go beyond
Kyoto and reduce carbon emissions
by 80 percent. Instead of leading
the world in greenhouse pollution,
the United States should be leading
the world toward a solution.
Photo by Marco Repola (bottom left)
> science
A lot more attention
must be paid to advancing and disseminating next-generation
energy technologies.
As it prepared for the
Bali climate talks, the
American team said it
hoped to build support
for bigger investments
in energy research
by wealthy countries,
and for ways to get
less-polluting technologies to developing
countries. I’ve learned
to pay attention more
to money and concrete
actions than to words,
so that’s what I’m
watching for post-Bali.