It seems like Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist is out to beat Thomas Friedman - also of the Times and bestselling author of "Hot, Flat and Crowded," at his own game.
In the last several weeks Krugman has been devoting more column inches to climate change than ever before, while Friedman has mostly gone back to writing about foreign affairs and the economy.
Krugman wrote, in his column of April 30 (which I blogged about at the time) called climate change legislation an "Affordable Salvation." Then on May 14 in a piece called "Empire of Carbon," he highlighted the enormous environmental problem of China's coal-fuelled growth, and followed that up three days later with another piece, "The Perfect, The Good, The Planet," about the importance of passing the Waxman-Markey bill, now before Congress. I recommend that each of you send a copy of that one to your representatives and senators today.
Friedman hasn't been entirely AWOL on the subject, though. His March 14 column, "The Next Really Cool Thing," offers a tantalizing glimpse at the recently completed National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The facility uses 192 giant lasers to heat a small pellet of frozen hydrogen to over 800 million degrees Fahrenheit, “far greater than exists at the center of our sun.” The heat generated can then, theoretically, heat up liquid salt which would, in turn, drive steam turbines that produce electricity with no CO2 emissions. (Except for the CO2 produced by the electricity that runs the lasers, but who's counting?) The trick, which still needs to be worked out, is energy gain - making the system produce more electricity than the lasers consume. It's still a few years off, but apparently feasible. Stay tuned. And stay tuned to both Friedman and Krugman to see who ultimately writes more about climate change this year. I'll be counting words.
