In his article Think Again: Climate Change, Bill McKibben argues that the time for disputing global warming has long since passed. Scientists from all over the world (including the IPCC and President George W. Bush’s scientific advisors) agree that global warming is a reality. The trouble is, according to McKibben, now that the science has been established, it may be a little too late. McKibben provides scientific evidence of the events facing our planet. He creates a timeline for changes that must be made in order to prevent catastrophe. Only some of these goals may not be feasible. He goes further to debunk theories that global warming may actually help some regions of the earth, and insists that China is not to blame. Basically, McKibben calls for the end of the incessant squabbling over the existence and exact consequences of climate change, and pleads for our politicians to act immediately.

Meanwhile, the Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi, said Tuesday that while searching for alternative fuel sources is important for the future, it could be dangerous to speed up the process. The new presidential administration is encouraging America to find alternative fuel sources and to diversify in order to prevent a dependence on foreign oil. Mr. Naimi maintains that an over optimistic view of the success of renewable fuels can threaten the investments in traditional fuel sources. The world could face another blow to an already staggering global economy “if alternative energy supplies fail to meet overly optimistic expectations, while traditional energy suppliers scale back investment due to expectations of declining demand for their products.” Because the success of alternative energy sources cannot be pre-determined, there must be a plan that is all-inclusive.

At the same conference, Chief Executives of the major incorporated oil companies, such as BP and ExxonMobil, have committed themselves to working with President Obama on implementing policies to address global warming. In Houston, The executives stated that they would like to limit emissions and increase energy efficiency and the development of alternative fuels. However, they maintained that this will take time, and that the country will still need oil for quite some time. Therefore, they are pushing the Obama administration to allow an increase in offshore drilling. Some of the executives went so far as to make suggestions as how to limit carbon emissions. Michael Dolan of Exxon suggested a tax on carbon, whereas Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell, suggests a cap-and-trade system would be the best plan. The cap-and-trade system would limit the amount of carbon that could be emitted in the atmosphere per year and companies would be allowed to trade to that limit.

All three of articles have shown a constant theme: something must be done to counter the effects of the climate change. The question of the existence of global warming is not as prevalent as it once was. People are now coming to a consensus. Now that the major incorporated’s have agreed to work with the President, steps can be made towards reaching that goal. While it is vastly important to explore alternative energy sources, it is equally important to preserve the fuel sources we have now. There is no question that developing renewable fuel will take time, and to completely disregard the traditional fuel sources would be foolish. Until we can be sure of the success of alternative fuel, we must be cautious of abandoning our oil investments.