Show Summary

The show began with Paul Singer asking the audience how many of them use energy on a regular basis. As you can see, few raised their hands. Then he said "you guys are part of the problem." It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the ones that exercised their right to remain silent were a bigger part of the problem, there being more of them. Then he gave brief bios of the speakers and turned it over to them, "since they know much more about the issue than the rest of us."

Singer had explained that Hansen was the NASA Scientist who had shown that the problem was real. Then his words had been edited by the White House to make it sound like he was less sure that the problem was real. The guy had come forth as a whistle blower to expose the editing, and that had given the issue more traction. He reiterated the basics of the testimony here, saying in effect "twenty years ago our effect was not strong enough to convincingly distinguish from the noise, but now the curve has been going up for much longer, and it is clear we are the cause." One of the lagging effects of this is that sea temperatures will be going up steadily for quite a while. He also compared our impact with the largest change that occurred naturally, the end of an ice age, and said our current impact is more dramatic.

Singer had introduced James Woolsey as "a member of that small group of people that supports the war in Iraq and drives a hybrid car." Woolsey explained that there are two kinds of bad thing that can happen. Those are "malignant problems" (cascading effects caused by unintended consequences of random events like trees falling) and "malevolent problems" (those caused by external forces with evil intent like acts of war). He went on "Oil, a big driver of the Climate Change issue, is one of those rare problems where both the malignant and malevolent issues can be ameliorated by using less." He warned that there are scenarios that would drive the price of oil above $100 per barrel. His practical suggestion of a way to reduce our impact was high efficiency cars. He thought hybrids with enough batteries to handle trips in the 10 to 30 mile range that you could plug in would probably be the best technological solution that would fit in our current system. He also had good things to say about ethanol as long as it was not made from corn, and biodiesel as long as it is made from waste.

Singer had introduced O'Keefe as "the President of a think tank that concerns itself mainly with debunking bad science in public policy." O'Keefe began by saying he was not related to the guy that censored Hansen. Then he said there is no consensus about which way to go on the issue, so we must depend on market based solutions. He pointed out that the market for small hybrids and other fuel efficient cars is still less than 1% of the total, and that the long life cycles of our installed infrastructure will guarantee we must continue to import large amounts of oil at least for the next 20 years. He felt the solution was more realistic expectations about what we can accomplish, instead of regulation or wasteful government spending, although Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has introduced three bills to spur investment in better technology. He finished by conceding that Climate Change is a real problem, and our dependence on Middle East oil is also a real problem.