Climate of Hope by
Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope is a
book ,published in 2017 , to save the
planet from the ill effects of climate
change.Michael Bloomberg is an
entrepreneur ,philanthropist , and
former Mayor of New York City. Carl Pope is an environment leader.
The main thesis of the book is that cities backed by citizens and
businesses can tackle climate
change effectively. It is a bottoms up approach and needs the support of national
governments as well as international community. This is the first book that
explains how city level action to tackle climate change is not only possible but also necessary.
The
book deals in detail how we are already on our way from coal to clean energy,
from petrol and gas based transportation to electric vehicles. It also tells us
how we should eat and how we should live to
meet the challenge of climate change.
The book also mentions several market failures which are perpetuated by
special interests, like continuation of
fossil fuel subsidies. Such market
failures that privilege fossil fuels
have to be addressed by national
governments. We also need to devolve more powers to cities , power to borrow
funds for infrastructure and power to manage transportation systems.
But a
transition from coal to renewable energy and sustainable energy will result in loss of jobs and unemployment
.We must create solutions to such
serious problems, in the interest of meeting the challenges of climate change.
Citizens
have to understand these solutions and then communicate to other citizens. This
conversation must be led by ordinary citizens and local
leaders on a continuous basis.
