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b'Boom or Bust? Dan Miller, Managing Director, The Roda Group Climate change \\u201cis going to dominate our world in the next century. It\\u2019s a very big risk, but it\\u2019s also a tremendous opportunity, if we make the right choices,\\u201d says Dan Miller. Miller, Managing Director at the venture capital firm The Roda Group, notes here that climate change is also treated much differently than other global threats. We spend billions on counterterrorism, to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases, to prevent a nuclear reactor meltdown, \\u201cbut these kinds of risks have very low probabilities of actually affecting you. Yet we still worry about them a lot and are willing to take government action to combat them.\\u201d \\u201cClimate change, on the other hand, if we don\\u2019t address it, has the likely outcome that it will have catastrophic effects for nearly everyone,\\u201d he says. After reciting a depressing list of climate change impacts that are likely to or are already damaging the Earth\\u2019s natural systems \\u2013 among them sea-level rise, drought, wildfires, melting permafrost, collapse of ice sheets , ocean acidification \\u2013 Miller asks the salient question: \\u201cWhy do we not act? Why, when we know the problem is huge, do we totally ignore it?\\u201d Evolutionary psychology offers some answers, he says. He identifies the factors working against action on climate change: CO2 and other planet-warming pollutants are invisible; the challenge is unprecedented; the causality is complex; the impacts are unpredictable and indirect; and all of us are complicit. Once one acknowledges the reality of climate change, there is a corresponding obligation to act, Miller says. He adds that individual action begins with asking our children for forgiveness, before moving on to reducing your carbon footprint, and believing, learning and engaging. What can countries do? Miller offers four recommendations: move to 100% carbon-free electricity in 10 to 20 years; keep tar sands and oil shale in the ground; expand R&D into geo-engineering, especially carbon capture and storage; and put a price on carbon. Miller\\u2019s preferred carbon-pricing vehicle is a so-called Clean Energy Dividend. A carbon fee would be added upstream, at the mine, power plant, refinery, or factory \\u2013 enough to gradually raise the price of gasoline by $1 per gallon. Then, the federal government returns 100% of the proceeds on a per capita basis to citizens via a monthly check, with parents receiving one-half shares for up to two children.\\u201cThat would drive a new economy of renewable energy and energy efficiency. I think most people would like it. I think conservatives would like it. It doesn\\u2019t raise any money for the government,\\u201d says Miller. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on November 18, 2011\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'