Synopses & Reviews
In 2006, NASA's top climate scientist warned that we have at most a decade to turn the tide on global warming. After that, James Hansen said, all bets are off. Temperature rises of 3 to 7 degrees Farenheit will "produce a different planet." If Hansen is right--and most scientists think he is--then every year lost is a year closer to the precipice. In more positive terms, we have one last chance--but one chance only--to save the planet.
This guide is about that last chance. It's a result of hundreds of how-do-we-do-this-right discussions over many years. Author and entrepreneur Peter Barnes want to share what he's learned in these discussions because the climate crisis must be solved now, and popular understanding is a pre-requisite to getting a solution that actually solves the problem.
As a result of these numerous discussions, Barnes come to appreciate that climate policy isn't as simple as one would want it to be. But it's not rocket science, either. When details get complicated, the key is to remember what we, as a nation and a species, must very quickly do: install a workable and lasting system for limiting our use of the atmosphere.
Review
"
Climate Solutions is a simple guide to the big environmental policy decisions that are soon going to be made.... By reading these few pages, the average voter will be able to figure out what programs to support and what to fight against, instead of simply shrugging one's shoulders and hoping for the best."
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LA Times "Emerald City" blog
Review
"Peter Barnes is right. The best and most efficient way to reduce global warming isn't a cap-and-trade system that gives historic polluters free rights to pollute in the future, and it's not a carbon tax that hits poor and middle-income Americans especially hard. It's a cap-and-auction with rebates to all Americans. Read this useful guide and see why."
--Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor
About the Author
Peter Barnes is an entrepreneur and writer who has founded and led several successful companies. At present he is a senior fellow at the Tomales Bay Institute in Point Reyes Station, CA. In 1976 he co-founded a worker-owned solar energy company in San Francisco, and in 1983 he co-founded Working Assets Money Fund. He subsequently served as president of Working Assets Long Distance. In 1995 he was named Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. His previous books include Who Owns the Sky? Our Common Assets and the Future of Capitalism and Capitalism 3.0. His articles have appeared in The Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Christian Science Monitor, The American Prospect, the Utne Reader, Yes!, Resurgence, and elsewhere.