Alternative energy needs U.S. support

While many individuals, municipalities, counties and states in America, as well as many countries around the world, have made progress in reducing greenhouse gasses, the world's nations, meeting in Durban, South Africa, last week, once again failed to agree to concrete steps to avert continued global warming.

No one who looks at the historical record or at recent dramatic increases in serious climate events can deny global warming. The only real question is when we will reach tipping points - points of no return for areas such as the Arctic, low-lying islands, deserts and the world's oceans.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got it right in a recent editorial when he urged the U.S. government to get squarely behind alternative energy, especially solar, at the same level it continues to support carbon sources. If we do not offer such support, we will fail to spawn an industry that promises jobs and profits for a sluggish economy as well as fail to do our part in the needed rush to a non-carbon way of life.

Many scientists at Durban said that we have at most five years before our climate begins to tip noticeably.

Robert Sessions

Iowa City