Climate and Energy

Announce plans for a food garden on the White House lawn, making one of the White House's eight gardeners responsible for it, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. The White House is "America's House" and should set an example. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change and food security.

Submit the Kyoto Protocol for ratification by Congress. There are outstanding concerns, such as the participation of countries like China, but it is a step in the right direction. 720 American cities and the entire state of California have already made a commitment to Kyoto. At this point, it is the least a national leader can do.

National Mobilization on Global Warming. We need a Marshal Plan here as big as the NASA Moonwalk Program to 1) Cap Carbon w/tax 2) Create Green Renewable Power Industries (like Google has) w/seed $$$, w/tax breaks for every house installing Solar and/or Wind Power, and All Utilities accepting surplus power back into their grids. 3) Massive Tree Plantings (like China) using a domestic Peace Corps (WPA style) planting multi-millions of Trees. And thereby regain the respect and trust of the Planet.

On Day 1, the next president should demonstrate the political will to create the energy revolution that this world needs. He or she should take steps to reduce and eventually eliminate the nation's dependency on oil. If this isn't done, we'll all find ourselves in big trouble a few years down the road. In this way, the president can demonstrate the kind of courage and leadership that we constantly say we have, and our country can prove its benevolence to the planet.

On Day One the President needs to consider the impact of global warming and its connection to the war in Iraq. We need alternative fuel sources to oil and other fossil fuel sources.

The next President should announce support for Robert Zubrin's Energy Victory policy that all new cars sold in the United States be flex-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol and methanol. Achievable for just $100 a car, this helps the environment and the third world poor, while helping to break OPEC.

Put a tax on carbon and other greenhouse gases so we can fight our climate crisis. A cap and trade will inevitably be manipulated by the market and business looking to make a buck. We need a REAL price on carbon and other pollutants.

Continue to place proper emphasis on developing and finding alternate energy sources. We need to set better priorities and focus our efforts. We can achieve great things if we set clear goals and utilize the proper resources to attain those goals

Get serious about a new sustainable energy policy. No coal, no oil. Get serious about climate change.

The next President needs to convince the American people that we are going to have to make sacrifices to effectively fight global warming.