Lea Lai

Dear President Obama,

First, I want to say conglutinations! Now, you are the 44th President of United States. I am very glad that the American people have elected you as their new President. You are a foresighted leader who has realized that climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. As Professor Jonathan Isham, a enlightened teacher of my class “Global Warming Solutions”, mentions in his blog post on IslandPress, this is a historical moment happening in United States—both the leaders of the climate movement and the of the Obama campaign are driven by optimism about our future, a realistic assessment of present challenges, and an overarching sense of hope. It is time for the government to build a climate project to help lead the world’s drive toward a clean-energy future.

There is no more time to lose. Each year that we postpone the transition to clean energy, greenhouse gas emissions rise and global warming become more serious. We expect that you will take energy-transformation as an urgent national mission and unite businesses, international organizations, state and local governments to join the campaign to build a green energy movement.

Mr. President, it is not too late and climate change can still be reversed by the promotion of clean energy. We know how to produce renewable energy from sunlight, wind, geothermal resources, biomass materials, and so on. We also have the technology for producing more hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles, green building, carbon storage and sequestration. As William S. Becker writes in The 100 day Action Plan to Save the Planet, “We don’t lack technology; we have lacked the political will to use it.” This is a big gap between what scientific community says we need, and what political community is willing to do. We need you to act decisively to build a climate movement.

Here, I will focus on national technologies, to offer some scenarios for building a portfolio of a clean energy future.

1) Transportation

In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the cause of global warming is our consumption of fossil fuels. It also pointed out that we need to reduce the carbon emissions from transportation, or otherwise, the Earth’s temperature will rise by 4.50°C (8.1°F) or more and will cause disastrous impacts. Recent studies from Soil and Tillage Research show that replacing fossil energy with renewable energy like biofuels is an important way of reaching the goals of climate policy since they are all non-toxic, biodegradable, and have fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Besides these advantages, the United States can also reduce the dependence on import petrol by producing a great amount of biofuels products. Therefore, biofuels are considered as an energy source that will help achieve energy and climate security.

2) Industry

The largest consumer of energy, using more than 28% of the total energy consumption in United States, is the industrial sector. Electric motors are the most common tools used to run the machinery in the industrial factories. But at the same time, they also are the most efficient technology in the production processes.

According to the Energy-Efficient Motor Selection Handbook, using stronger electromagnetic steel can diminish the core energy losses by reducing the energy for magnetizing the core material. Improving the technologies for the fans and the bearings are another way to conserve the extra energy needed in the production processes. By using more efficient technologies, we can reduce the energy consumption by 18% of all industrial energy consumption.

3) Building

Green building is a new concept for saving energy. Green Building Facts states that the commercial building sector is responsible for 38% of carbon dioxide emissions in United States. It also points out that if we can focus on improving the technologies of green building designs, especially for the insulation system of the building, we can reduce 35% of carbon dioxide consumption.

These are three simply ideas I proposed here. I believe that United States has already prepared to build a clean energy future—we have the most advanced technologies, we have an abundant finical support, and the most important, we have you to lead the government setting up the policy for clean energy.

I can see that there is a change happening in United States. It is a moment of addressing climate crisis by new policies, smart investment, and national commitment. We have made the first step by electing you as our President who willing to help the nation to create a new clear energy future. I think this is certainly achievable, as long as the you make climate change a high priority and takes the time to explain to the American people how good climate policy is consistent with good energy policy, good economic policy and good national security policy.

Now that’s the change we can believe in.

Sincerely,

Lea Lai