Politicizing the Environmental Debate, 2000–2017 247
of fossil subsidies and an intelligently expanded
grid could be enough to ensure rapid deployment.
Of course, changes in the real-world power and
transportation industries will have to overcome
sunk investments in existing infrastructure. But
with sensible policies, nations could set a goal of
generating 25 percent of their new energy supply
with WWS sources in 10 to 15 years and almost
100 percent of new supply in 20 to 30 years.
With extremely aggressive policies, all existing
fossil-fuel capacity could theoretically be retired
and replaced in the same period, but with more
modest and likely policies full replacement may
take 40 to 50 years. Either way, clear leadership
is needed, or else nations will keep trying tech-
nologies promoted by industries rather than vet-
ted by scientists.
Source: Mark Z Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi, “A Path
to Sustainable Energy by 2030,” Scientific American, Nov.
2009, pp 58-65.policy must find ways to resist lobbying by the
entrenched energy industries.
Finally, each nation needs to be willing to
invest in a robust, long-distance transmission
system that can carry large quantities of WWS
power from remote regions where it is often
greatest—such as the Great Plains for wind and
the desert Southwest for solar in the U.S.—to
centers of consumption, typically cities. Reduc-
ing consumer demand during peak usage periods
also requires a smart grid that gives generators
and consumers much more control over electric-
ity usage hour by hour.
A large-scale wind, water and solar energy
system can reliably supply the world’s needs, sig-
nificantly benefiting climate, air quality, water
quality, ecology and energy security. As we have
shown, the obstacles are primarily political, not
technical. A combination of feed-in tariffs plus
incentives for providers to reduce costs, elimination
Document 170: John Wargo on Our Chemical Environment (2009)
John Wargo, a professor at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental studies, specializes in
environmental law with a focus on human health. In this selection he discusses how and why federal law fails
to protect us from the possible dangers of many of the chemicals in our environment. Because both the federal
and local governments tend to be reactive to chemical contamination, rather than proactive, disasters like the
lead contamination of Flint, Michigan’s water supply will continue to occur.One unexpected side effect of twentieth-century
prosperity has been a change in the chemistry
of the human body. Each day most people are
exposed to thousands of chemicals in mixtures
that were never experienced by previous genera-
tions, Many of these substances are recognized
by the governments of the United States and
European Union to be carcinogens, neurotoxins,
reproductive and developmental toxins, or endo-
crine disruptors that mimic or block human
hormones. In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) began testing
human tissue among populations across the
country to detect the presence of environmental
contaminants, and reported that most individ-
uals carry in their bodies a mixture of metals,
pesticides, solvents, fire retardants, waterproof-
ing agents, and by-products of fuel combustion.
Children often carry higher concentrations than
adults, with the amounts of contaminants also
varying according to gender and ethnicity.Our petroleum-and chemical-dependent economy
is the primary cause of these exposures. Every year
hundreds of billions of pounds of chemicals are
release into the environment as commercial prod-
ucts while trillions of additional pounds of pollu-
tions are discharged into the atmosphere, surface
and groundwater, oceans, and land as by-products
of fuel combustion or as wastes. Often the distinc-
tion between commercial chemicals and pollutants
is only a matter of time as once sought-after products