Jul 21, 2008 7:53 pm US/Mountain
Ritter Returns From Arctic, Talks Climate Change
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Gov. Bill Ritter just returned from a trip to the Arctic where he saw the melting ice first-hand, and he talked about the trip Monday to a group at the Capitol.
Ritter travelled with a high-profile group including President Jimmy Carter and Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.
Ritter went on the trip after attending the G8 Summit. The trip was organized by the Aspen Institute and National Geographic. During the trip the governor took the opportunity to present his Colorado Climate Action Plan.
"When you're standing next to one of the premier glaciologists as you travel up the side of a mountain looking up at a glacier, you can learn a lot about the physics and how glaciers grow and retreat," Ritter said.
Ritter spent a week aboard the ship, touring glaciers and watching polar bears and walrus. The topic on everyone's mind was climate change.
"These scientists present a picture that if you only view it in terms of where we're going and nothing changes, you can view it as somewhat negative about the future," Ritter said.
Ritter spoke to the group about research in Colorado on solar and wind energy. He also talked about the legislative package he led to promote renewable energy. He predicted the next U.S. president would have to deal with climate change on a policy level, and that may well mean carbon cap-and-trade -- an expensive regulatory regime the European Union is still struggling to make work.
"There (were) some comparisons between what the EU did and how we might treat it differently and do it more successfully," he said. "I think there was a great deal of consensus that we will have a cap-and-trade system by the end of 2009."
Ritter acknowledged the group as a whole accepted the notion that climate change has been driven by man-made factors.
(© MMVIII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
