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In the 1960s, Stewart Brand became one of the country’s first and most famous champions of a new ecological awareness. His Whole Earth Catalog spoke to a generation of hippies and back-to-nature commune dwellers.

Now, at 70, Stewart Brand is calling on environmentalists to reframe their understanding of the problem — and solutions. It’s too late for back-to-nature, he says. Global warming is beyond that.

To survive now, Brand says, we need nuclear power, genetic engineering, giant cities. We must manage nature or lose civilization.

This hour, On Point: In the face of global warming, Stewart Brand redefines green.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Stewart Brand joins us from Denver. Founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, founder of The WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronric Link), and co-founder of the Global Business Network, he’s president of the Long Now Foundation. His new book is “Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.” 

Joining us from New York is Amory Lovins, co-founder, chairman, and chief scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute. He’s author of “Winning the Oil Endgame.” You can read his critique of Stewart Brand’s book at Grist.org.

Later this hour:

We’re joined from New York by Bill McKibben, longtime environmental journalist and founder of 350.org, an advocacy group organizing events across the world on October 24 — “International Day of Climate Action.” He’s coordinating what he says will be about 1,000 events, from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the streets of the U.S.

More links:

Here’s Stewart Brand speaking at a TED conference in July on rethinking “green pieties”:

Amory Lovins was on FORA.tv in August talking about energy efficiency and climate change:

And here’s Bill McKibben in Australia this summer talking about the “350″ movement:

Musk told host Tom Ashbrook that the “absolute goal of Tesla from the beginning has been to provide a car that you can afford. There is no effort spared to try to get there as soon as humanly possible.” He went on to put a potential price tag on Tesla models in the near-term and longer-term future:

I think the sports car is cool, but really we want the mass-market car, that’s what we want to get to, as soon as we possibly can. We’re trying to grow as fast as we can to do that. I feel pretty confident we can get to a compelling sub-$30,000 car in five years. And one thing I should also point out is although the sedan will be $50,000, because the cost of electricity is so much less than the cost of gasoline and you’ll be able to lease our car or finance our car, buying our Model S will be equivalent to buying maybe about a $35,000 gasoline car, when you take into account the lease payments of a gasoline car versus the electric car and the cost of electricity versus gasoline. So it’s more affordable than it first seems. Even so, we’re working as hard as possible to get to that third generation car.

Musk added that Tesla has “a potential secret project that could advance that schedule, but I can’t talk about that because we don’t know if it will transpire.” He also addressed the issue of American competitiveness in the electric car market worldwide. Germany and China, among others, are already moving fast.  When Tom asked whether he could see the U.S. becoming an important manufacturing center for electric vehicles, Musk replied, “Absolutely, I think the United States will probably be either the first or second largest manufacturer of electric cars. The only competitor realistically is China.”

And here’s an update on another electric car angle that On Point has been pursuing. One of Musk’s competitors in the race for an electric car future is another young entrepreneur, Shai Agassi, CEO of Project Better Place. Agassi believes that building a network for battery distribution is crucial in terms of achieving large-scale use of electric cars (he’s working with Renault). Earlier this month, he unveiled a new breakthrough at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Agassi appeared on On Point earlier this year. He explained his vision to us this way:

What we brought in, which was somewhat of an innovation, is the concept of switching your battery, on the freeway, on the long drive. So if you go from New York to D.C., somewhere in the middle of the drive, you would go into what we call a switch station. It looks and feels somewhat like a car wash. Only instead of washing your car, an arm comes from below the car, takes out your depleted battery and puts in a full battery in its place. And within a minute or two, you’re back on the road. So it’s actually faster to do it than to fill up gasoline.

The Tesla Model S, slated for 2011. (teslamotors.com)

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The all-electric, hot and sexy Tesla Roadster goes zero to sixty in 3.9 seconds and sits in the garages of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Letterman, and the founders of Google.

There are six hundred of them in the world, put together not in Detroit but in Silicon Valley. In 2011, backed by almost half a billion dollars in government loans, Tesla plans to roll out a high-performance sedan, the Model S.

In a decade, claims Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, there could be a million new Teslas a year. They could revolutionize the U.S. auto industry, he says. And save the world.

Elon Musk dreams big. Is he just dreaming?

This hour, On Point: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, on the future of electric cars -- and the planet.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Los Angeles is Elon Musk, chairman, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors. A Silicon Valley entrepeneur, he’s also CEO of Space X, a space technologies company that resupplies the Space Station and aims to colonize Mars; chairman of SolarCity, a solar power provider; and co-founder of PayPal. 

From Detroit, we’re joined by Bill Vlasic, Detroit bureau chief for The New York Times.

More links:

You can see a photo gallery of Tesla’s cars at their website.

In a skeptical piece last June, BusinessWeek’s David Welch asked “Can Tesla Become a Real Automaker?”  And on The New York Times’ Wheels blog, Jim Motavalli looked at some of the challenges facing Tesla’s Model S.

Here’s the Edmunds.com video review of the forthcoming Model S:

Watch a video about the forthcoming Tesla sedan, the Model S:

A rendering of Masdar City from the Masdar Initiative website (masdarcity.ae).

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In Arabic, the word Masdar means “the source.” And right now, the desert outside Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is the source of a budding green revolution.

Construction is underway for Masdar City, a high-tech metropolis that will be home to 50,000 residents -- and be the world’s first city with no carbon footprint. No cars. Zero waste. A truly green metropolis.

The plans on the drawing board are very big. The challenges are big, too. Can it even work? We’re going direct to Abu Dhabi for answers, and a tour.

This hour, On Point: Masdar and the green city of the future.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Tom Ashbrook is on vacation.

Guests:

Khaled Awad, director of property development for the Masdar project. He joins us from Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

In our studio we’re joined by Kevin Bullis, energy editor at Technology Review. His article on Masdar, “A Zero-Emissions City in the Desert,” appeared in the March/April 2009 issue.

More links:

The Masdar City website offers an extensive overview of the project, along with videos and an image gallery.

Watch a video “fly through” of Masdar City as rendered by the firm Foster & Partners:

Electric car "charging spots," part of the proposed Better Place mobile operator network. (BetterPlace.com)

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Electric cars have been kicking around the clean-energy conversation for decades, but they’ve been held back by short battery life and limited range.

Tech visionary Shai Agassi thinks he’s got a solution — and sees zero-emission cars hitting Main Streets in just two years.

It’s all about infrastructure: recharging stations and battery replacement bays blanketing the roads. Customers buying miles like cell phone minutes. Some think he’s dreaming — but he’s already got the governments of Israel, Denmark, and Australia signed on.

This hour, On Point: Shai Agassi’s vision for electric cars that go the distance.

You can join the conversation. Can electric cars break our dependence on fossil fuels? Is Shai Agassi dreaming – or really onto something?

Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Guest:

Shai Agassi is founder and CEO of Better Place, a green-tech venture that aims to bring electric cars with replaceable batteries to the mass market by 2011.

More links:

“Batteries Not Included” – a profile of Shai Agassi and Better Place in last Sunday’s issue of The New York Times Magazine.

Agassi spoke at the 2009 TED conference. Watch the video here.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., right, is sponsoring a bill to address climate change. White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel stands to the far left. (AP)

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Starting today, Congress takes its first real look at capping carbon emissions.

It’s spurred on by some major momentum in the EPA and the looming deadline of a world climate conference in Copenhagen this December.

But Republicans, big business, and some Democrats are leading a strong countermovement and sounding the alarm about the costs and feasibility, especially in this economy.

This Hour, On Point: top environmental journalists, writer Bill McKibben and Congressman Ed Markey take stock of this big, green moment.

You can join the conversation. Do you support swift action to address climate change? Or are you worried that this effort could hurt the American economy? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Guests:

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is Chair of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee and co-author, with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, of “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.” They’re holding hearings for the bill this week.

Juliet Eilperin, national environmental reporter for the Washington Post. She’s written recently about the paradoxes of the clean energy push.

Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker, where she writes extensively on climate change. She’s also the author of “Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.” She has a new piece on the origins of Earth Day.

Bill McKibben is an environmentalist, writer, and activist. He’s currently scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College. Here’s some video of Bill rallying the grassroots.

More links:

The Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson has a good backgrounder on the EPA’s decision to declare carbon dioxide a pollutant. The New Republic’s Bradford Plumer thinks the EPA decision is not ideal, but there are few good options. And the New York Times’ Tom Friedman is worried about the complexity of cap-and-trade and advocates a simple carbon tax.

Large windmills and solar panels are seen in Atlantic City in October 2008. (AP)

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One year ago, gasoline prices were soaring toward four dollars a gallon and fuel-efficient hybrid cars were flying off the lots. Toyota dealers couldn’t keep a two-day stock of Prius hybrids on hand.

Today, with oil down and the economy bust, they have an 80-day stock, and hybrid sales have fallen off a cliff steeper than general car sales.

So, the question: Can green technology really save our broken economy? The Obama administration is betting big it will. We’ll ask two players with a big stake in the answer.

This hour, On Point: A gut-check on the green economy.

You can join the conversation. Is green tech our golden ticket out of this economic bust? Does saving the economy and environment at once sound too good to be true? Or just right?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From New York, we’re joined by Adam Aston, energy and environment editor at BusinessWeek magazine.

Also joining us from New York is Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. He’s one of the foremost champions of harnessing market forces for environmental ends. In Philadelphia last month, he sat on a green jobs panel with Vice President Joe Biden. He is co-author of the New York Times bestseller “Earth: The Sequel – The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming,” which was adapted as a Discovery Channel special. Watch the trailer here.

And from Menlo Park, California, is John Doerr, partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has backed some of America’s biggest technology success stories, including Google, Amazon, Intuit, and Sun.  And he is now a member of President Obama’s new Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by former Fed Chairman Paul Volker.

More links:

Watch John Doerr’s speech on green technology at the 2007 TED conference.

Last October, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story on Doerr and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and the prospects for green technology start-ups.

The SkyTrough using ReflecTech Mirror Film is unveiled in Arvada, Colo., Monday Oct. 6, 2008. (AP Photo/SkyFuel)

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Everybody’s talking about a Green New Deal — a giant push into green energy, green technology, green retrofitting — that would put America back to work, and save the planet, too!

Sounds like a great deal, and Barack Obama is beating the green drum every time he talks about the economy.

But with oil prices plunging and the economy in full swoon, does the green dream still add up? Environmentalists say it has to. Economists say watch your step. T. Boone Pickens has shelved his wind farm.

This hour, On Point: The green dream, the Green New Deal — and what the age of Obama can deliver.

You can join the conversation. Is this the moment to go full throttle green? Or not?
Are you ready for the green New Deal?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From New York, we’re joined by John Carey, senior correspondent for BusinessWeek magazine. He covers science, technology, and the environment, and writes for the magazine’s “Green Business” blog.

Joining us from Menlo Park, California, is Josh Green. He’s a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with $2 billion under management. He helps lead the firm’s “Powering the Planet” portfolio, which focuses on clean-tech companies. The firm has been making clean-tech investments since 2003, in everything from solar technology to electric cars and fuel cells.

And from Los Angeles, we’re joined by Matthew Kahn, professor of economics at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and a research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Environmental and Energy Economics Group. He’s author of “Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment.”

More links:

Elizabeth Rosenthal at The New York Times examines how the global economic slowdown may make investments in clean energy more difficult.

The New Republic’s Bradford Plumer argues that the economic crisis is a perfect time to institute a cap-and-trade system.

Rebecca Smith at The Wall Street Journal explores the challenges of clean energy amid the economic downturn.

Auden Schendler is true-blue green, a life-long environmentalist, a climate crusader, says Time magazine.

Schendler believed, with every fiber of his being, that American corporations could save the planet and reap profits at the same time. But when he put that faith to the test, he found turning green into greenbacks is harder than he thought.

Now, he’s come forward to tell it how it really is, trying to go green in corporate America.

This hour, On Point: American business and the bottom line realities of going green.

-Sheilah Kast

Guests:

Auden Schendler, executive director of community and environmental responsibility at the Aspen Ski Company.

Adam Werbach, former president of the Sierra Club, he’s founder and CEO of Act Now, a sustainability consulting company based in San Francisco.

The warning bells could hardly be louder: oil at $90 dollars a barrel on Friday and polar bears bobbing on too little ice.

If global warming and war in the Middle East were provoked by a century of fossil fuels and cars, just maybe changing cars can change the problem.

The race is on for cars that would turn their back on oil, and radically trim their impact on the earth. Detroit has not led — but it could. America has not been the winner, but it might.

This hour, On Point: for the planet, for the country, for a 21st century ride — the global race for the car of the future.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Vijay Vaitheeswaran, co-author of “Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future.”

Joseph White, Detroit bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, in Japan for the Tokyo Car Show.

Peter Coy, economics editor at Business Week.