Salient to Investors:
Fareed Zakaria said:
- Energy-related emissions were flat in 2014 for the first time in 40 years.
- Technology and policy innovations in energy are not happening on the scale that they need to.
- In 2011, federal spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP in 2011 was half what it was in 1960, 30% of global R&D spending vs. 37% in 2001 – China is projected to pass the US by 2019. The world is copying the US model while the US has lost the smarts or the will to keep up.
- NASA no longer has the ability to independently put an astronaut into space, instead relying on private companies or foreign governments. China does have the ability and intends to build a new space station, go to the moon, and go to Mars.
Richard Clarke said:
- The whack-a-mole strategy has disruptive value if done persistently but until we have a political solution involving an ideological counter weight to the terrorist view of Islam, we will be doing this forever. Has to be part of a bigger strategy.
- A major American military operation is not required, but getting all of the other players to act together.
- After 9/11, we told ourselves we would never allow a terrorist sanctuary to exist again – now we have the greatest terror sanctuary.
Leroy Chiao said:
- China’s space program is long-term and culturally consistent with their other views. China wants to put astronauts on the moon, which the US can no longer do. The moon is only three days away so can be used to make sure your stuff works before you send it to Mars.
- A country gets into the human space flight business for the primary reason of national prestige.
Watch the video at http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/category/gps-episodes/ or read the full transcript
at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1506/21/fzgps.01.html