Green Energy Is Not a Middle-Class Conceit, More the Only Way Forward

Despite a global credit crisis, environmental protection and development of alternative energy sources by no means should be pushed to the back burner, argues Geoffrey Lean for the Independent. The current financial crisis could be quite mild compared with future crises, as supplies of natural energy decline and climate change causes raging storms, rising seas and fluctuating temperatures. The Stern report on the economics of climate change suggest that global growth could be reduced by 20 percent, and that’s why the UN Environment Program should continue with plans to launch a green initiative to promote alternative energy and jobs and combat poverty and short-term exploitation of natural resources. “Developing a new green economy is our most promising path out of the present crisis,” Lean insists. “It is the best available new engine of growth, with the best chance of creating the tens of millions of jobs that will soon be desperately needed.” – YaleGlobal