UW-Madison professor Joel Rogers spoke about global warming and possible initiatives to spur energy independence in the United States in a lecture Wednesday evening at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Rogers is a professor of law, political science and sociology as well as the co-founder of the Apollo Alliance—a national coalition of labor, business, social justice and environmental leaders that focuses on finding sustainable U.S. energy dependence.
In his lecture, titled ""How Global Warming Can Save Democracy,"" Rogers detailed some of the major concerns of global warming, including current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and arctic melting statistics.
""Basically, the North Pole is melting and Santa Claus is drowning,"" he said.
Rogers explained the current goal of the Apollo Alliance, inspired by innovation of the Apollo moon program, is to achieve U.S. energy independence in the next decade. ""The goal is to increase efficiency, use of renewable energy sources, and use smarter growth plans to achieve overall energy independence,"" Rogers said.
The organization's 10-point plan—which includes investment in more energy-efficient transportation, energy production and building models—proposes that it could reduce national energy consumption by close to 16 percent.
""We are wasting a ton of money that we could re-capture if we focus, for example on retrofitting buildings,"" Rogers said. ""That money saved, could be used to send more kids to schools or to retrain workforces—strengthening our democracy.""
In what he called a ""high-road strategy,"" Rogers talked about the importance of an incremental program centered on achieving efficiency through progressive policy and cooperation with the labor force, environmentalist groups and elected officials.
""An immediate way to achieve independence in our current economic system would be to reduce waste in energy,"" Rogers said. ""And I think that global warming is thus related to the rebirth in democracy.""
