Environmental experts and activists met at Chamberlain Hall Thursday to discuss how Wisconsin can combat local global warming concerns.
""Here in Wisconsin we have our work cut out for us ... global pollution is really skyrocketing here in our state,"" said Dan Kohler, state director of Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, a statewide advocacy organization and sponsor of the meeting.
Kohler pointed to plans for building new coal power plants and increased carbon emissions as sources of concern in Wisconsin for WISPIRG.
Kohler said the state should establish mandatory carbon dioxide caps, reduce emissions 15 to 20 percent by 2020 and invest in alternative energy sources like wind and solar power.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., encouraged a grassroots movement to advance progressive ideas to tackle global warming.
She said she plans to ""bring the traditions of the Wisconsin idea to the shaping of public policy"" when working on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
She said the committee, after recess, will likely look into ""efficiency packages"" and ""marketwide cap and trade measure,"" though these two global warming solutions have yet to be written into bills.
The most basic solution, according to Paul Meler, director of the UW-Madison Energy Institute, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Meler provided three ways to reduce emissions: reduce energy use, switch fuel and capture and store carbon.
He said individuals could use geo-thermal energies to power homes and business and drive plug-in, hybrid electric vehicles.
The ""big solution,"" according to Meler, is thinking about design of buildings and cars and being more energy-efficient in everyday life.
Such adaptations discussed by experts would actually save the state money, according to Kohler. For every dollar the state invests in renewable energy, it saves $5, he said.
Taking their message to the Madison streets, WISPIRG will join some 1,300 protests on April 14, 2007, to urge Congress to ""Step it up"" and reduce carbon emission by 80 percent by the year 2050. The group will march down State Street on the National Day of Climate Action.
