Interview: Hope, Optimism, and Profitability

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at the Environmental Defense Fund.

In yesterday’s post, Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp wrote about his new book with Miriam Horn, Earth: The Sequel.

The popular environmental blog Treehugger just published an interview with them about the book and their experiences writing it. They discuss emerging clean energy technology, and give interesting anecdotes about people they met along the way. Here are some excerpts:

On the book’s title, "Earth: The Sequel":

Fred Krupp: Well, episode one is Earth – what we know – and what we know unfortunately is melting glaciers and rising sea levels, dying coral reefs, and strengthening hurricanes. The idea behind "The Sequel" is what happens next. And what happens next is this abundance of alternatives as we innovate our way out of the mess.

On tidal and wave power:

Miriam Horn: Tidal and wave are considered two different directions in maritime energy, and we looked at both. The tidal company that we looked at is Verdant Power right here in New York. They have been putting turbines that look like underwater windmills into the East River and capturing the tides. They work in two directions so that you get the energy both of the outgoing tide and the incoming tide. …

With wave energy they’re actually harvesting the energy of the up and down motion of the waves themselves. We went out to the northwest tip of the continental United States in the Olympic peninsula and visited with a tribe of Indians, the Macaw Indians, who are working with a company called Finavera on a project called the Aqua Buoy.

… It’s a really interesting partnership in large measure because of the involvement of this Indian tribe who’s been there for 2,000 years. They’ve always relied on the sea to sustain them and now this is a new way that they’ve found for the sea to sustain them.

On the book’s message of hope, optimism, and profitability:

Fred: … those are words that they are surprised to hear from, especially from me – I’m an environmental lawyer running one of the country’s well-respected environmental advocacy organizations. I think they may be expecting a talk about policy. And I love legislation and government, make no mistake: government has the key supporting role to play here by enacting a hard cap on carbon on global warming pollution. But they don’t have the starring role. The starring role belongs to American commerce, beginning with inventors and their new ideas, and the risk-taking entrepreneurs who will launch the startups. …

Visit TreeHugger to hear or read the full interview, or drop by Amazon to order the book. All profits support our global warming work.