AS Catherine Witherspoon talks to groups of students, she looks them in the eye and tells them they are the world's hope for saving the planet.
The former climate change adviser to California's governors – including Arnold Schwarzenegger – is conv
inced young people hold the key to changing public opinion by becoming more aware of the impact of their behaviour on the environment.
"I think little kiddies are going to save us," she said. "Little kids nag their parents to recycle. They say 'Can we have a Prius for our next car'. They ask their mummy to stop smoking.
"It is the really young kids that are crucial. By the time they hit their teens they are more concerned about what's hip, peer pressure, when do they get their driver's licence, can they get a new mobile phone that can show movies."
Speaking to The Scotsman at the Scottish Parliament ahead of a talk to MSPs about her experiences in climate change, she said she understands that it is human nature to enjoy creature comforts– and she wishes the world could continue the way it is.
"Consumer goods are nice," she said. "They make life comfortable. Ideally we would invent zero carbon electricity and fuel and it would be the way it has always been, but we are in a time crunch now and some scientists say we are already past the tipping point."
As a result she thinks it is urgent for every individual to start playing their part in helping the environment.
"It's the number one moral challenge facing the world. I agree with Al Gore about that. It's certainly in the top five of all concerns facing government. There are easy things everyone can do. Everyone can be more mindful of their power consumption. Everyone can think twice before they pop in the car and turn on their engine.
"Everyone can recycle more. Everyone can use canvas bags instead of plastic ones."
She also thinks urgent action is needed to reduce the number of flights. "The price of flying does not reflect the impact it has on the environment," she said.
And she thinks it will depend on individual consciences how readily they take up the challenge of helping the environment, particularly as it is poorer countries rather than richer developed nations that will be hardest hit.
"We will be confronted with a choice: how much do we care about protecting species on earth? How compassionate are we about the poor who will suffer more than the rich?
"Those of us who have wealth can work our way through these calamities but the poor cannot."
She was in Scotland yesterday as part of a European tour, giving climate talks after the US State Department touted her to governments. Next she will go to London, followed by Budapest.
Her talk is timely as the Scottish Government is in the process of drawing up its Climate Change Bill, which like California will aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.
Mrs Witherspoon thinks the key way this can be done is through boosting energy and fuel efficiency. But she thinks those in power must tread carefully, particularly with policies such as that just brought in across the UK to add 2.5 per cent of biofuels to petrol and diesel– a policy that has been met with horror by environmentalists who say efforts to grow biofuels are destroying crucial areas of rainforest and land needed to grow enough food to feed the planet.
"There are all these unintended consequences," she said.
But she thinks engineering technology, such as the creation of carbon sinks could be crucial, and thinks offshore wind farms have promise.
In fact she has more faith in scientists than in human nature.
"I'm optimistic about engineering solutions. I think we will figure out how to sequester carbon.
"It's human nature that is more problematic than engineering. It's human nature to want SUVs and other creature comforts."
She also worries that the public will get disillusioned, as they are one minute told that inventions such as biofuels are the future, and the next are told they are damaging the planet.
"How do we keep the public interested and motivated? That is crucial."
The daughter of a lawyer and social worker, Mrs Witherspoon grew up always wanting to work in government.
"I would have gone into any department that I thought was adding value to the human race," she said.
Straight out of university she started working for the Air Resources Board in California, and worked under five governors before Arnold Schwarzenegger came on the scene.
"I loved it. It was interesting, stimulating and it was matters of life or death. A career was born and I have been in air quality ever since."
She said when Governor Schwarzenegger came on the scene he was impressive in his concern for the environment.
"He came in with an environmental action plan. His motto was 'action, action, action'. We were supposed to put the plan on the wall and tick off all our actions."
But she said as climate change came onto the agenda, Schwarzenegger started taking decisions out of the hands of the independent Air Resources Board, on which Mrs Witherspoon was an executive.
There was a clash with the chairman of the board, Dr Robert Sawyer, and he was fired, and this then also spelled the end for Mrs Witherspoon.
"What caused me to quit was they invented a story about Chairman Sawyer to say he wasn't a real environmentalist," she said.
"I was reading the newspaper in my pyjamas one morning and was reading all these quotes and it was all wrong."
She phoned the newspapers to tell them the truth, and knew the move would cost her job. So she decided to quit before she was pushed.
"It was awful. I believed deeply in the mission. We hadn't done anything wrong. We had done it the right way but the stakes were so high."
But her mission to help the environment has not ceased, as she now works as an independent environmental consultant, spreading the expertise she has gained from her two decades in California.
HOW WE CAN LEAD WORLD ON CLIMATE THE Scottish Climate Change Bill is currently out for consultation.
The consultation phase ends next Wednesday.
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is campaigning to make sure the Scottish Government sticks to its election manifesto.
This would mean an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, and a 3 per cent reduction per year.
Campaigners also want emissions from aviation and shipping to be included.
WWF Scotland is calling on Scotland to take a global lead in tackling climate change.
And John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, has said: "This is a truly global issue. It can only be tackled if we all work together: in this parliament; in Scotland; in the UK; and across the world."
And he said the aim was to set a mandatory long-term target to achieve a massive reduction in our emissions by 2050.
He said: "Our plans for a Scottish Climate Change Bill are ambitious.
"We recognise that meeting these ambitious targets is a huge challenge. We are under no illusions about the level, breadth and depth of action that is required.
"That is why we need to build a broad parliamentary and national consensus in moving forward to realise our ambitions and capitalise on our opportunities."
The full article contains 1281 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
