Posner: Let's spend $700 billion to start the easy/difficult process of managing the Earth's climate via tweaking trace amounts of natural atmospheric gas

Andy Posner: How About A $700 Billion Bailout For the Climate Crisis?

So what we are dealing with is not only disaster in the making, it is a potentially undoable disaster, yet one that could also be easily avoided. In fact, while avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will be costly and difficult, it will also focus our nation and have innumerable other benefits for America and the world.

In other words, what we need is a $700 billion bailout for the climate. We need Democrats and Republicans to again set aside their core beliefs--be that a fear of big government or a reluctance to offend unions. We need congress to turn to the president--not this one, but there is reason to believe that our next Commander in Chief will take leadership on this issue--and say, "here is a check for fighting the war on climate change, not a blank check, but one that you can use as you see fit provided that the investments help retool the American economy for being a leader in the green revolution; that the process be open and transparent; that the money be used for initiatives that are truly green (e.g., no biofuels from palm plantations in Indonesia); that lobbyists and corporate influences be kept out of the process; and that all stakeholders are brought to the table for a discussion on how best to move forward."

At the same time, the Congress needs to enact emergency legislation to kick start this revolution, starting by renewing the tax credits for wind and solar, but then going much further to ensure that companies moving the green agenda forward are rewarded, and those holding the green agenda back suffer and go out of business. Imagine something like a stimulus package for companies trying to bring alternative energy, energy efficiency and other related products to market.

If all this seems unrealistic or too costly, keep in mind that before 9/11 no one could have imagined that George Bush would be given carte blanche to start two wars, at an astronomical cost. In addition, who would have thought before this summer that the government would have stepped in to bail out AIG and others? No, as I have argued several times, cost is never the issue when America wants or needs to do something; the question is what political constituency will lobby for or against the initiative. Right now we need everyone to work together so that in addition to a massive bailout for stabilizing the financial markets, we can also pass a massive bailout in order to stabilize the climate.