The Business Of Green: Beyond The Ivory Tower
Is global warming a partisan issue?
Global warming has been a partisan issue, and it's really unfortunate because it doesn't have to be. We've proven here in California that Global Warning doesn't have to be. What's good for the environment is good for the economy, and measures to reduce greenhouse gases are really just things to make us more energy-efficient, which saves all of us more money. Thus Global Warning is not a Republican issue or a Democratic one.
What drives you to deliver the message about the dangers of carbon emissions?
Well, I started out as a kid not far from where we're sitting on this boat getting a diving certification in the Santa Monica bay and I saw incredible kelp forest, fish, and wildlife. I went back 10 years later after living in other parts of the world and found all of it gone; devastated by pollution that came off our urban landscape. It made me aware of the impact humans have on our natural environment. Then as I grew up and went into business and kind of led my life I kept observing how what we did not only harmed the environment, but that in turn harmed our economy; harmed our pocketbooks, and made things more expensive. Carbon emissions created things like asthma in my friends. My father died of emphysema; he was a smoker, but I'm sure it was aggravated by air pollution in the busy urban city that he lived in. So, I became very passionate about telling people about the dangers of carbon emissions, because I realized that I didn't know much about it as a young adult. Most people don't. They go about their lives and are not aware of the impact that environmental degradation and pollution has on them and on their families, or that there is something we can all do about it.
How does our dependence on foreign oil impact global terrorism?
Our dependence on foreign oil is having a direct impact on terrorism and the way we're viewed around the world. Every time we spend two or three dollars on a gallon of gasoline, 60% of that is going back to foriegn countries, most of which include the Middle East, with a lot of those Middle Eastern countries are actually funding the terrorists. So when we buy a gallon of gasoline, we're directly funding terrorism, make no mistake about it. But more importantly, we're also funding a continuation of a system that really has no justification. We're spending money to send our armies to foreign countries like Iraq to protect our source of foreign oil so that we can continue this petroleum pollution joyride that we think is such a bargain, and it isn't at all. It's also creating a sense of anger around the world, with a whole generation of young people being raised, in what are now "occupied countries" in the Middle East, hating America. 9/11 should have been a wake-up call to this country, showing not just that there was terrorism in the world, but there were reasons for terrorism in the world. And while there's no excuse for someone flying an airplane into a building full of innocent citizens, we certainly have to try to understand what it is that makes people around the world so angry at us that they could even conceive of doing something like that. A lot of it is related to our foreign policy which is based on protecting our supply of foreign oil. And we're protecting a supply of something that isn't doing us any good. It's harming our economy, it's harming our public health and it's destroying much of our civil society. And by the way, it's going to run out. So we're not doing ourselves a favour by continuing that kind of a transportation and energy system.
