Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, have each promised to fight global warming if they have the privilege of becoming the president of our nation. Both individuals have stated that they plan to reduce global warming by reducing carbon emissions. One would think that this reduction of carbon emissions is one of the best steps the US could take in fighting global warming, however some individuals disagree with this mentality believing that this goal of reducing emissions would do more harm than good.

One such figure is controversial Bjorn Lomborg, the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, the director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and a professor at Copenhagen Business School, who has stated that the US goal of reducing emissions, would actually harm the global economy. This notion may seem absurd, but Lomborg argues that the goal should not be reducing emissions it should actually be investing and using alternative sources of energy. According to Lomborg merely choosing to reduce emissions, will hurt the global economy while at the same time have a very weak positive effect on global warming. Thus, Lomborg believes that by choosing to invest in alternative sources of energy, we can ‘replace’ carbon emissions and not merely reduce them.

Lomborg, is not alone in his thinking and though his suggestion may seem strange, there is truth in what he sugguests. By lowering emissions alone, we may weaken our economy without having a strong positive influence on global warming. However by investing and using alternative sources of energy, we can lessen our dependency on fossil fuels which have a negative impact on our environment and place our energy dependency on sources which do not negatively plague our environment such as solar energy and wind power.

Individuals like Lomborg, are encouraging us to look into the future and base our energy decisions on what would be best for the globe in the long run. Presidential candidates McCain and Obama, may benefit from this sort of mentality. Though their goals of reducing emissions are noble, they may not be the best goals for the US in the long run. By choosing to place their efforts in investing in altenative sources of energy, both individuals could place the US in a far more advantageous position for its future.

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