September 12, 2007 What Should We Really Be Doing About Global Warming? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner We have blogged occasionally about different pieces of the global-warming puzzle (see here, here, and here), and we touched on the subject briefly in a New York Times Magazine column. It is an extraordinarily interesting issue, to say nothing of its importance and complexity, in part because there are so many foundational economic principles at play: not just supply and demand, but the presence of externalities, unintended consequences, etc. We will address a couple of those issues in our next Magazine column, which comes out this weekend. (BTW, all of our earlier Times columns are now available for free here.) In the meantime, we thought it would be a good idea to host a Freakonomics Quorum in which we asked a few smart people a very straightforward two-part question: What should the U.S. government be doing about global warming, and what should individuals be doing? Here are their answers; many thanks for their time and thoughtfulness. Adam Grosser, a general partner at the venture capital firm Foundation Capital: The U.S. government has the opportunity and challenge to dramatically recast its role in the energy consumption life cycle. Two major roles for leadership are quite obvious — one short-term, and one long-term. (Sadly, as we all are painfully aware, motivating legislators to commit to a national goal longer than a single election term is ferociously difficult.) In the near-term, the government needs to mandate conservation targets, and then assist the population in successfully reaching them. For example, according to the Department of Energy, up to 30 percent of America's additional electricity needs for the next decade can be met through advanced conservation techniques such as Automatic Metering Infrastructure or Demand Response Programs. More progressive countries such as Canada have legislated that these available technologies be deployed in less than two years. More importantly, the government has a moral responsibility to dramatically increase the funding of basic research that will lead, over some period of decades or centuries, to fundamental changes in primary energy generation. Private industry can only afford to innovate at a scale or time frame that will lead to incremental change — unless someone is hugely lucky or un-statistically insightful. It is the purview of the Federal government to exert leverage against monumental and seemingly intractable challenges. At the individual level, the most important activity is to be critical and observant. Ask a lot of questions: Do I need to drive to the store for a lemon? Do I need to have all the lights on in rooms where I'm not? Can the kids ride their bike to soccer? Become educated: Is your primary dwelling as efficient as it can be? Am I driving a vehicle that demonstrates my commitment to efficiency? Is solar an option? Can I better understand my family's personal energy profile? Educate your kids. It's a seemingly intractable problem, and it will take several generations to fix this mess. It's really important that your three-year-old is energy conscious and aware. We've been profligate — and can only repent so much. It will be up to youth to innovate and atone for our consumption. Full Article URL: Click here