Energy

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop on Climate and Forests in Flagstaff, AZ. The field trip before the start of the workshop took us to areas of aspen decline, pinyon mortality, and other landscapes devastated by recent fires. On the second day, speakers from the forest industry gave interesting presentations about what they saw was the future of their trade: Carbon credits for growing young trees and revenue from wood sold as a renewable source of energy.

A few months back I was invited to a policy and technology forum at Stanford University, whose goal was figuring out how to overcome constraints to ramping up solar energy production in California. The forum brought together scientists, engineers, policy makers, and leaders of the solar industry and conservation organization to develop a “blueprint… to meet the challenges presented by the implementation of large scale solar.”

It has become a habit for politicians and journalists in the USA to point the finger at China when referring to greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the Chinese government has been much more proactive than our own and is becoming a leader of climate change mitigation efforts.