Thomas Homer-Dixon – “Capitalizing on Crisis: Innovation and the Climate-Energy Challenge May 4, 2010

Despite the current controversy surrounding the science of climate change, the overarching empirical conclusions of this science – that the planet is warming, that human emissions of green-house gasses are now a primary cause of this warming, and that there is a high likelihood that further warming this century will produce severe economic and social disruption – remain entirely intact. Humankind, therefore, needs to reduce its carbon emissions, which will require a long-term shift away from the fossil fuels that currently provide about 80 percent of the world’s primary energy. Market mechanisms, in the context of carbon pricing, are the best means to generate the technical and social innovation that will be at the heart of this shift. The overall energy transition this century will have ramifying economic consequences of a scale and scope possibly exceeding those of general-purpose technology transitions in the past, including the introduction of railways, the electrification of modern economies, and the introduction of the personal computer.
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Center for International Governance Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, and is a Professor in the Centre for Environment and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. Recently, his research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and on how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.

Official Website: http://www.sustainability.northwestern.edu