Obama adviser talks green streak on climate change

The United States may be late to the battle against global warming and the move toward energy independence but decisive action can still save the day, a Barack Obama adviser who was stumping for the Democratic presidential candidate in Oregon said Thursday. Daniel Kammen, senior policy adviser on energy and the environment, conducted town hall meetings in Eugene and Portland with a message balanced between fear and hope. On the one hand, the damaging effects of climate change; on the other, a raft of proposals that will cut carbon emissions, develop new sources of renewable fuels and clean technologies, and usher in an era of “green-collar” jobs. Kammen knows a thing or two about those issues. He’s a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in energy. He’s the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory that is affiliated with the university. And he’s a lead scientist with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one of the groups that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.