Fred Krupp - Impact of Global Warming on the US Economy

Smart policies, American ingenuity and technologies available today can make the United States a leader in addressing global warming. The key is for Congress to pass national legislation that puts a strict cap on emissions and uses a flexible market-based system to reduce emissions at lowest cost. Fred Krupp, a leading expert on the environment and on market solutions, discusses how to win the battle against global warming, and do so in a way that launches a booming new industry in clean technology. Global warming is no longer a vague problem of the future. It has already damaged our planet at an alarming pace. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the evidence is "unequivocal" and concludes that human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels have almost certainly caused most of the warming of the past 50 years, bringing extreme weather, stronger storms, and more frequent droughts. Leading scientific organizations around the world, including the US National Academy of Sciences, agree that we must act now to slow, stop, and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions or face irreversible consequences. Fred Krupp is President of Environmental Defense, the leading United States nonprofit group developing market-based environmental solutions. Founded in 1967, Environmental Defense has worked with major corporations to improve environmental performance, joining with McDonald's to reduce packaging waste and with FedEx to develop a hybrid electric delivery truck that goes 57% farther on each gallon of fuel. (Environmental Defense accepts no payments from its corporate partners.) The group's scientists, economists, and attorneys focus on climate, health, oceans, and wildlife. Krupp helped develop the 1990 U.S. acid rain reduction plan that The Economist called "the greatest green success story of the past decade", establishing a market-based method now being applied to global warming. In 2007 he helped launch the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of major companies calling on Congress to enact a strict cap on global warming pollution. Krupp also helped broker the largest buyout in US history of the energy giant TXU, ensuring that the deal will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emission Visit us at www.wgbh.org/forum to explore our entire collection of lectures.