(Rest of Story)If R&D spending is declining as Gor...

2006-10-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

(Rest of Story)

If R&D spending is declining as Gore wins awards and acclaim around the world for An Inconvenient Truth, what's the problem?

The messenger - Gore - simply isn't delivering the right message.

Mr. Gore, it appears, is trying to use the Republican ploy of using fear to influence voters. It seems Mr. Gore believes that if he can scare people into believing that global warming is going to destroy the world unless we act right now, the people then might look to the leading messenger for the best solution. What better way to do that than to vote for him as the next president?

Well, doom and gloom only goes so far, just ask the Republican party about the political success of their doom and gloom war on terror.

The only solution to global warming, I believe, is to follow the lead being set by Japan.

I'm told that the Japanese word for crisis also means opportunity. A crisis isn't always something to get depressed about, rather it is an opportunity to do something better. Is there any wonder the Japanese have cornered the market for hybrid cars first?

Japan is more efficient by culture - it's become a way of life. The Japanese are driven by efficiency, or the opportunity to do things better. Moreover, they have realized that doing things efficiently is not only cost-effective, but profit driving, especially used with long-term thinking.

For example, whether global warming is real or not, oil demand is almost certainly going to increase as supply runs out. Thus, Japan's focus on efficiency helps prepare them for oil shortages while also fighting global warming. In the long run, fighting global warming isn't just good for the environment, it's also a great capital investment.

Even Walmart, a favorite whipping boy of Democrats, has begun to realize the opportunity that global warming presents. Already, the company has started to send engineers into its chain of suppliers to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and profitby doing so (more).

"When Wal-Mart first sent engineers into supply-chain factories, "what we found absolutely staggered us," said Stanway. He said they helped cut electricity bills by 60 percent at the first factory they audited by installing readily available low emissions lighting and technologies".

Wow. You mean you can make money by fighting global warming? Now that's something more people can buy into, money.

While we should acknowledge the doom and gloom possibilities of global warming, we should spend more time crafting a message around opportunity. Yes, global warming is a crisis, but we must turn global warming into an opportunity. We can't scare people into doing the right thing, we must excite them into doing the right thing.

Inevitably those countries that put the most R&D into fighting global warming, will make the most profit from defeating global warming. Those companies will be the economic powers of the future.

American-made Hummers, for example, aren't going to be a very good weapon or profit maker in the future war on global warming. American-made fuel cell hybrid vehicles, however, could be a great weapon. Moreover, such vehicles could also help keep GM and its many 10's of thousands of workers working in the U.S. with high paying jobs for many decades to come.

It is this reason - future economic prosperity that actually benefits human-kind - that should be driving the global warming conversation, not doom and gloom. That message might not sell many movie tickets, but it could probably take the White House if you told the story correctly.

Comments on Soultek.com: The real problem with global warming and Al Gore

(Rest of Story)If R&D spending is declining as Gor...