The Climate Challenge

In The Suicidal Planet (Reviews, Feb. 5), Mayer Hillman and Sudhir Chella Rajan (with co-author Tina Fawcett) urge worldwide adoption of a "carbon credit card" to avert the most disastrous effects of global warming by rationing and trading carbon use.

What unique role does America play in global warming?

MH: The average West European citizen is responsible for roughly 10 times their equitable share of the emissions the planet can support if the climate is not to be seriously destabilized. Climate change [is] moving swiftly to the top of the political agenda on [the European] side of the Atlantic. But the average U.S. citizen emits 20 times their share.

SCR: [The U.S.] needs to show strong leadership and participate in international agreements that are fair and result in speedy action. If every individual on the planet were to have equal greenhouse gas emissions consistent with a stable climate, the U.S. would have to [make] deep reductions right away, far beyond those currently being discussed in Congress.

How do we bridge the gap between what Americans are willing to do about climate change and what needs to be done to avoid catastrophe?

MH: The primary purpose of this book is to alert the American public and decision makers to the hazards ahead if drastic action is not taken now. It's time to stop looking the other way, especially the U.S.

SCR: Environmentalists and politicians must shift their discourse toward the sorts of issues being debated in Europe, where people are [now] acknowledging the importance of changing lifestyles (driving, flying, large houses, excessive consumption) in addition to technology. In the near term, the worst impacts of climate change will be relatively benign in the United States, [but] devastating elsewhere. People must be willing to look further down the road and recognize our ethical obligations toward the rest of the world.

Despite your dire warnings, you're optimistic about the future. What inspires you?

SCR: We know there are options before us, and that, when times are desperate, there is always the potential for mobilization of massive popular will. As philosopher Zygmunt Bauman reminds us, "our consolation (the only consolation available, but also—let me add—the only one humankind needs when falling on dark times), is that history is still with us and can be made."

Read the review at ttp://www.publishersweekly.com/suicidalplanet