Just last week, Frances Beinecke, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, gave a speech to a Chicago business audience and the first question went something like this: I read the Wall Street Journal, I still don’t believe in climate science and I want to hear the full  story.

Beinecke’s new book, Clean Energy Common Sense: An American Call to Action on Global Climate Change (Rowan & Littlefield, $9.95), is aimed at those who are skeptical–or at least curious–about the climate change debate. It’s a slim (106 pages), straightforward, easy-to-read argument that  that attempts to connect the climate issue to everyday concerns like jobs, the economy and national security.

“When you go out to Gary, Indiana, Cleveland or Chicago, people are still uncertain,” Beinecke said, as she unveiled the book at the National Press Club in Washington.” They’re not clear on what the science is, what the solutions are, what the threats are, what the impacts are.”

And so Beinecke, as you’d expect, makes the case that the problem is dire, the solutions affordable and the benefits tangible–new jobs, less reliance on imported oil and a livable planet.

To her credit, though, she’s willing to go beyond the what’s-in-it-for-you argument and describe the climate crisis as what it is–the overarching moral issue of the moment, and one requiring immediate action:

Global climate change is the single greatest environmental challenge of our time. And yet, it is far more than that. It is a humanitarian challenge. It is an economic challenge. It is a national security challenge. It is the great moral challenge of our time.

If only more political leaders would frame the issue that way, instead of appealing only to the narrow self interest of voters. (more…)