Alex Steffen

What’s climate change about?

Executive Editor, Worldchanging, Jan 05, 09.

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What if, contrary to conventional wisdom, climate change is not actually primarily an energy problem, and by thinking of it as an energy problem, we risk making huge mistakes in the coming years?

What do I mean by energy problem? A problem caused by our choice of energy sources.

What I mean is that when we look to address the central challenge presented by climate change—creating widespread prosperity while lowering, and then eliminating, emissions—changing energy sources might play a much less important role than we’ve been trained to think. The kind of energy we use, in other words, while important, may not be anywhere near as important as three other considerations: whether we use the energy we create at all; how we use it; and how we live. Go to the blog

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