Syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman, in the New York Times today, considered Denmark's example as a pioneer of renewable energy. After the oil embargo of 1973, Denmark began to pursue renewable energy seriously. Comparing Denmark with the U.S., Friedman wrote that significant changes-–on energy, healthcare and other issues--have "been banished by an ad hoc coalition of lobbyists loaded with money, loud-mouth talk-show hosts who will flame anyone who crosses them, political consultants who warn that asking Americans to do anything important but hard makes one unelectable and a citizenry that doesn’t even ask for optimal anymore because it believes that optimal is impossible."
In an op-ed published by USA Today, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote of the Copenhagen summit: "Not only did the conference fail to reach a meaningful agreement, but that failure will further jeopardize any action on global warming by an already skeptical U.S. Senate. In 1997, the Senate voted that any climate treaty would have to guarantee no harm to the American economy and similar emissions cuts from nations such as China and India. In fact, the administration may have further undercut its position at home by proposing in Copenhagen that U.S. taxpayers hand over billions of dollars to help developing nations."
In an op-ed published today by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brian Stone, professor of Environmental Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology, asked "what variables might change in the near term that could give rise to more favorable conditions for a binding and effective agreement on climate change? One important shift under way is the growing recognition that greenhouse gas reductions are not the only option we have to slow and ultimately reverse global warming. Restoring and expanding global forests can also cool the planet."
In the Washington Times today, "Hot Button" columnist Amanda Carpenter wrote of Obama administration and environmentalists' "attack" on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "because the group doesn't agree that global warming is man-made and that federal cap-and-trade policies are the answer to stopping it."
And in a letter published today by Malaysia's New Straits Times, Cardiff University's Ashraff Sanusi expressed astonishment that Malaysia pledged at Copenhagen to "cut its carbon emissions by 40 percent within the next 10 years." Sanusi asked how "does the government plan to cut 40 percent, when many advanced countries, which are better equipped in terms of technology and manpower, are offering smaller emission cuts?"
