Turning the Focus to Alternative Energies
Carbon
emissions cuts alone are not the answer, says Lomborg. He thinks we should instead be
focusing our energies on developing alternative sources of energy, like
solar and wind. If we cut carbon by too much, it could leave the world
less capable of dealing with all the problems. "It will have less
riches, less infrastructure, less ability to tackle those problems
compared to a world where we leave more of the global warming problem,
but also many more resources to tackle that problem," he says.
What
does Lomborg propose investing in? Climate engineering, for one. Marine cloud whitening is an approach that makes the oceanic clouds just a
tiny bit whiter by putting sea salt up into the atmosphere—reflecting more sun energy. How feasible
would such a project be? "It would take about 2,000 ships, unmanned to
go around mostly in the South Pacific, spray up sea salt into the
atmosphere. It would have absolutely no impact in people’s lives,
although we do need to look at whether it would have impact on
precipitation patterns, possibly on the monsoons," says Lomborg.
These
interviews are part of a series on business sustainability, "Balancing People, Planet and
Profit: The Future of Business Sustainability," sponsored by Logica.
So far, the series has featured interviews with Peter Brabeck, the Chairman
of Nestle; Gro Harlem
Brundtland, Special Envoy on Climate Change, U.N.; Ernst Weizsäcker,
Co-chair, U.N. International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management; Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO
of WPP Group; and Fatih Birol,
Chief Economist at IEA. The series examines ways that business
interests can be better aligned with the greater social good.
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