"Once upon a time on a baby blue planet where everything was just right, a few mischievous men decided to find out how much carbon dioxide they could send up into the atmosphere before the planet got overcooked and teeming with tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and forest fires popping up all over. Flocks of nice people, upset with how their baby blue planet was being messed with, marched and carried signs until these pranksters got so ashamed they quit playing with carbon dioxide. The planet cooled back down and calmed back down and we all lived happily ever after". We all know it's not at all that simple, but it seems as though our actions are inspired by that fairy tale. In "Global Warming Navigation", author Ed Prell addresses a readership that is fully aware of the threat posed by greenhouse gas emissions and the need to curtail them drastically. He proceeds to sketch a near future in which determined players must team up and use every ethical tool available to stop greenhouse gas emission. But inescapably linked with this curtailment are unprecedented, enormous consequences that must be acknowledged and acted upon. How can we ensure that a kilowatt-hour of clean energy will be on tap to replace each thwarted kilowatt-hour of fossil-produced energy? What will become of our electrical grids, which are designed to deliver power from large power plants to millions of customers? How can we make the changeover from gasoline and diesel to battery power for our vehicles? How do we cope with the abrupt decline of the principal operations of the largest business sector in the world? What about the international financial markets? What of the millions of pensioners, shareholders, employees, and smaller businesses that depend on the continued profitable operation of the fossil fuel corporations? Can we or should we explore means to mitigate the climate damage without halting the use of fossil fuels? Should populations in tornado alleys and low-lying seacoasts rebuild or abandon their communities? How long will it take to get our old climate back once we mend our ways? These are the sort of questions we must be asking now, notes Prell. But they, and the answers they demand, will not originate in the public discourse. They will need to emerge from within the ranks of hundreds of activist organizations, governments across the globe, and even from those large corporations and their stakeholders. Lamentably, the public, beset by a myriad of worrying issues, has been locked into a debate about the very existence of Global Warming by a well-oiled disinformation apparatus. Why bother making plans to heal our planet if we can't decide whether it's been injured? This impasse must be broken. The essay suggests that the market, rather than bureaucratic wrangling, is the surest way out. Once the cost of zero-emission energy beats out the dead-end fossil-derived energy, the Global Warming debate becomes moot. This cross-over point is inevitably approaching, and hastening its arrival must be given a high priority. Providing zero-emission energy with deserved assistance and compelling the fossil industries to pay their externalized costs are the means to reaching this intermediate goal. Simply put, the best way to snuff out GHG-emitting fossil energy is to replace it with a superior alternative. Then, the clean energy infrastructure that is being started up now must pick up the load and carry us through the decades-long process of transforming our lives. But, that's not all. The well-deserved collapse of fossil-derived energy will leave in its wake millions of innocent victims who have been depending on their financial stability. An equitable safety net must be rigged to break their fall. The way forward through this man-created mess is demanding and complex. There is no other option. We must shed time-worn assumptions and attitudes, and punch through to a better tomorrow.
