George Shultz Gone Solar. Now That's a Sign of Thawing in the U.S. Climate Debate - Bloomberg

 

Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz faced off against Muammar Qaddafi, the Soviet Union and Chinese communists.

His latest cause, though, is one few fellow Republicans support: fighting climate change.

Two years ago, Shultz was alarmed when a retired Navy admiral showed him a video of vanishing Arctic sea ice and explained the implications for global stability. Now, the former Cold Warrior drives an electric car, sports solar panels on his California roof and argues for government action against global warming at clean-energy conferences.

Living a life powered “on sunshine,” Shultz, at 93, has a message for the doubters who dominate his own party: “The potential results are catastrophic,” he said in an interview. “So let’s take out an insurance policy.”

A Global Push to Save the Planet

As the United Nations gathers almost 200 governments in Lima this week to discuss new carbon limits for the planet, the U.S., as with so many other issues, looks badly divided. While President Barack Obama has pledged to accelerate reductions to greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and is using his executive powers to put policies in place, Republicans have retaken the Senate and stand firmly opposed.

When Obama announced an agreement on carbon controls with Chinese President Xi Jinping three weeks ago, incoming Senate leader Mitch McConnell dismissed it as an “unrealistic plan” that would boost electric rates and kill jobs. Yet, there are signs of growing acceptance to the idea that climate change spurred by human actions is a mounting problem.

Poll Support

Across the U.S., a series of weather anomalies -- from a record West Coast drought to Midwest flooding and Superstorm Sandy -- are gradually helping to shift public opinion on climate change, according to a string of recent polls. Two in three Americans now believe global warming is real, according to an October survey of 1,275 people by Yale and George Mason universities. That’s up from 57 percent in January 2010.

“There’s a great middle in this country that basically agrees that something needs to be done,” said James Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, who served on a climate preparedness task force organized by Obama. “They can see that weather patterns are changing drastically.”

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