Flannery's The Weathermakers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth has been a best-seller in Australia (under a slightly different title), and is now making waves here in the United States.

In the 1970s, the US was a world leader in wind and solar energy technology, explained Flannery. That lead has since been lost to Germany, Japan, Denmark and Britain. The world has recognized that it cannot go on generating greenhouse gases at the current pace. The U.S. and other non-Kyoto countries, such as Australia, are not investing in areas that will lead to new, low-emissions technology, and they are being left behind.

Already behind, I would say. By not backing its renewable power industry, the U.S. is missing opportunities to be the leader in these technologies -- and missing out on jobs and revenue from the energy tech sector. When it comes to clean energy, it's up to other countries to set the pace for the world, and to set the example for emerging economies.

But what about the hydrogen economy, and carbon sequestration?

"Quite frankly, I don't think they're going to eventuate," Flannery stated. "These are options that are way, way out there. Where the big advances are happening are in the renewables," he said. "Wind power, for example -- that industry is growing by 20 percent a year -- massive levels of growth. I just think we have to move forward to development of these new technologies and capitalize as much as we can on the intellectual property, because that's going to be the future."

The Tim Flannery interview is available in podcast (search for NPR Environment in iTunes). An excerpt of Flannery's book is available on the Fresh Air web site.