This is, interestingly, why “corporate social responsibility” and “socially responsible investing” do not work.

It amazes me, no it saddens me, that we are forever trying to reinvent some system to circumvent democratic governance instead of fixing the system democratic system itself.

A question to you who stand and redden your palms at the late-life boomer-guilt doerrs of the world: “Do you really want to see a technocratic society where the rich and powerful set all social policy?” I know, the cynically uninformed knee jerk reaction is “we already have that system today”. No. If you thought this you are at best ignorant. We have a democratic system that isn’t working because people aren’t participating.

Global warming, along with any and all other environmental, human rights, quality of life, fairness of labor, worker safety and discrimination issues can _only_ be solved by GOVERNMENT, not by a bunch of “gee I feel guilty now that I’m too rich” baby boomers.

Or you can all just run around with this polyannish theater. It is, at least, entertaining (like German Opera).

The young Ms. Doerr does ask exactly the right question, “What are you going to do to fix it?”

Well, right now, thousands of scientists from a wide range of disciplines backed up by some of the world’s most powerful computers are gathering evidence, keeping their collective fingers on the pulse of our ailing planet, developing refined predictions, and defining possible solutions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which represents an extraordinary successful international collaborative effort, is ensuring that the best minds we have in the world are working on the problem.

On the policy side, California’s bipartisan Global Warning Solutions Act, the Chicago Climate Exchange, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiate are all first steps in the right direction. On the International scale, we have the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and several United Nations agencies working in collaboration to insure that developing countries, such as China, India, and Brazil, have access to the latest low-emission technologies. We now have carbon emissions allowances being regularly traded in Europe-wide program.

More and more state environmental agencies also are examining the problems of global warming and beginning to develop public education programs and policy initiatives. You may think that progress is a bit slow right now, but more and more people are paying attention and getting involved. Eventually, we will also see a much stronger role for the Federal Government.

There has also been an ever larger number on not-for-profit agencies, such as the one I work for, the Clean Air Conservancy, that are getting actively involved in the policy debate, providing technical and guidance to decision-makers in business and government, providing resources to the public, and getting the issue of global warming into our schools.

Please let Ms. Doerr know that we are working on it, but I also think we need to ask everyone that question just one more time, “What are YOU doing to fix it?” Despite all the good work of a great many people, we know that the only real way to halt the destructive progress of climate change is for each of us to change the way we live. It doesn’t require big changes or sacrifices, but we all need to be smarter and more concerned consumers. And in our every day lives and in everything we do, we need make personal choices that are more “climate-friendly”.

In the next few years, we will see a rapid spread of market-based “cap-and-trade” incentives that will fuel an explosion of “climate friendly” technologies. There will also be an ever growing number of businesses, including some of the world’s largest, that will be committed to reducing greenhouse gases by changing their products and the way they do business. This is already beginning to happen. To take direct action, you can now get directly involved in the emerging markets in greenhouse gas emission reduction credits. By buying and permanently “retiring” some of these emission credits, you can actually make permanent reductions in greenhouse gases, reward those that are committed to reducing their emissions, and make those that do not reduce eventually pay more.

Michael Short
Program Director
The Clean Air Conservancy

I’m 21 and this age group definitely cares about global warming.