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Two weeks of climate change negotiations between 193 countries at Copenhagen and what was accomplished? Well, to be honest, only time will tell, but what we can say for certain is that a concrete resolution binding all parties was not established. Was the overall approach taken by the Conference at fault? Are 193 countries just too many to organize?

Even with all of the lingering uncertainties, Copenhagen was in no way a failure. Both the light that it shed on global warming and the international call to action that it provided cannot be undone. The increase in the global scientific community’s understanding of climate change is also a huge positive.

Yet, is there another approach to stopping global warming that hasn’t been considered? Thomas Friedman of the New York Times proposes an alternative approach which he calls the ‘Earth Race’ and it goes something like this:  Everyone knows of the ‘Space Race’ that took place over a decade during the Cold War. Being the first to get a “man on the moon” became the ultimate U.S./former Soviet Union challenge. Winning would prove scientific superiority and we wanted to be number one! Well, why don’t we do it again only this time challenge China, Japan and other Asian nations to see who can be the first to develop the best clean energy technology? Clean/green tech is the next great global industry and winning this new ‘race’ would indeed make us “more energy independent, prosperous, secure, innovative, respected”. Some, such as Friedman, believe that passing a Senate Bill that puts a price on carbon would create the economic incentive needed to ‘win the race’.

However, many people believe that basic economic incentives will no longer cut it, especially when up against Asia’s enormous investment projects where hundreds of billions are to be allocated to the development of clean energy tech. As Teryn Norris from ‘Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement’ points out winning the ‘Earth Race’ also, “requires major federal investments in clean technology development and deployment,” and also, “a national effort in high-tech energy education.” Let’s hope that we can increase economic incentives as well as government investment and win the ‘Earth Race’!

Click here to read more on the New York Times

And click here to read the opposing view