On his show Thursday night, Current TV host Eliot Spitzer lamented that the mainstream media was focused on “Obamaloney” and “Romney Hood” while ignoring warnings about climate change.
"Silliness has taken over — the capacity to raise tough issues dissipated, if not gone entirely," he said. "Climate change appears to have fallen off the political agenda entirely."
He noted that University of California professor Richard Muller recently disavowed his global warming skepticism. Muller was previously a notable climate change skeptic. But after years of researching the topic, he is now convinced the phenomenon is both real and caused by humans. NASA scientist James Hansen has also warned that 20 to 50 percent of species could be driven to extinction by global warming unless there is an immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Spitzer said there was a solution that could appease both liberals and conservatives.
"There is an answer for either candidate courageous enough to take the first step, an answer steeped in conservative economics —- the theory that companies that pollute should be taxed so that a product’s cost to society is reflected in the price of that product," he explained.
"Milton Friedman and Richard Posner agree on this point. The idea, proposed by Hansen, is simple: a fee on carbon emissions collected from fossil fuel companies, with 100 percent of the money rebated to legal residents on a per capita basis."
Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below:
