Shift to green power will require a revolution News Utah Jazz

There I was, burning carbon like a woman possessed ? the furnace humming, a load of laundry running in the washer and dryer and the Utah Jazz -Phoenix Suns game on the flat-screen television. Then, the buzz kill. "Why haven't you turned the lights off?"

implored my breathless 17-year-old daughter, Liz. "Why?" I replied. "It's Earth Hour. We're all supposed to turn off our lights. It's about global warming." Loosely paraphrasing Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman, I responded, "This is a green party, not a green revolution." "I'll get on board when we do something serious about it." I fell asleep shortly after that exchange Saturday. I slept right through Earth Hour. I even missed the overtime of the Jazz game. Elsewhere, people got on board in a big way. From Salt Lake City's Temple to Rome's Colosseum, icons worldwide dimmed their lights in observance of Earth Hour. The World Wildlife Fund had urged governments, businesses and households to revert to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8:30 p.m., wherever they were, to highlight the threat of climate change. These events are good in terms of awareness. But I kept flashing back on Friedman's recent lecture at Abravanel Hall, where he talked in terms of a "green revolution" as opposed to a "green party." "Have you ever been to a revolution where nobody got hurt?" he asked the sold-out crowd of 3,000 people? That's the point, isn't it? I should be paying until it hurts for all of my creature comforts. Only then will I get serious about changing my habits. It took $4-per-gallon gasoline to get me out of my car and onto public transportation. I haven't ridden the bus or train since gas prices dropped, although breaking my foot, undergoing major surgery and the unavailability of the park-and-ride lot near my house (currently under construction) have been factors, too. I'd like to think I'll get back to it once the weather improves, but we'll see. It has to make sense economically and in terms of my schedule. I will say, though, that I did feel a sense of economic and environmental virtue while riding the bus and train. It made sense on a lot of levels. And there was room for many more people, should they want to do the same. I'm in full agreement with much of what Friedman espouses about our planet's future. But I am not sure how we get there in a country in which special interests have such a chokehold on our government, let alone 306 million people who really enjoy their personal computers, flat-screen televisions, central heating and cooling systems and dirt-cheap electricity. They consider driving a car their birthright. As people's earnings rise, they want more of these niceities, whether they live in Murray or Mumbai. As the affluence and population increase in India and China, energy demands will grow exponentially. Somehow, we have to develop non-carbon-emitting resources to meet these needs. But it will, as Friedman says, require a revolution. We've been powering our homes and factories the same way since the Industrial Revolution ? largely relying on electricity from coal-fired power plants. It's rather mind-numbing to think what would be required to wean us off coal completely. While wind and solar are nice alternatives, nuclear power will have to be part of the mix, too. And some of the same people beating the drum about global warming are the staunchest opponents of nuclear power. Something has to give, if not in my lifetime, certainly in my daughter's lifetime. Perhaps this is why she was so insistent about turning off the lights. Marjorie Cortez, who's fairly certain her personal "sleep mode" doesn't qualify for Earth Hour credit, is a Deseret News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com