Global warming - Show me the money!!

Our politicians and business leaders all seem to be suddenly talking about the need to do something about reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to stop global warming.

But what are they actually doing about it? Is the public being duped by pretty political speeches about being "addicted to oil," and clever marketing by seemingly energy conscious auto-manufacturers and oil executives?

The numbers tell a troubling story. According to a major front page New York Times story this morning, the US budget for tackling global warming has fallen from a high in the late 1970s! It's not just the US. A new report in the UK this week also calls for research spending to be doubled to avoid catastrophe.

According to Sir Nicholas Stern, who led the 16-month UK study, " We have the time and knowledge to act but only if we act internationally, strongly and urgently."

Here are some of the highlights of the NYT report:

* annual federal spending for all research and development in the US is half what it was in the 70s, falling to $3 billion from $7.7 billion (adjusted for inflation) in 1979. 

* the Bush administration is seeking to raise spending in 2007 to $4.2 billion. That is far less than is needed, and much lower than current R&D spending on medical health and the military.

* federal spending on medical research has risen four times in the same period, up to $28 billion.

* military research spending has risen 260% to $75 billion.

* the private sector also isn't doing enough

The NYT concludes:

"....many experts, from oil-industry officials to ecologists, agree that the status quo for energy research will not suffice."
"Ultimately, a big increase in government spending on basic energy research will happen only if scientists can persuade the public and politicians that it is an essential hedge against potential calamity."

Click here to visit 'The Stabilization Triangle,' a simple power-point display by the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University that looks at how to solve the greenhouse gas problem using technologies that already exist today.

Click here to read the New York Times article.

Click here to read BBC coverage of the the UK report led by Sir Nicholas Stern.

- David Adams