From building infrastructure today to less CO2 tomorrow

Dean Baker connects the two.

The main factor that will determine the economic wellbeing of our children and grandchildren will be the strength of the economy that we pass down to them. This will depend, in turn, on the quality of the capital and infrastructure we pass onto them, along with the level of education we give them, the state of technical knowledge we achieve and the state of the natural environment.

If we cut the deficit by making spending cuts that affect our progress in these areas, we will be making our children worse-off, not better-off. Of course, leaving their parents unemployed for long periods of time will not improve our children's wellbeing either.

If the deficit has little to with the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren, global warming has everything to do with it. We run the risk of handing them a planet without many of the fascinating features that we had the opportunity to enjoy (for example, coral reefs that are dying, plant and animal species that are becoming extinct, landscapes that are being transformed). Far more seriously, we face the likelihood of handing them a planet in which hundreds of millions of people risk death by starvation due to drought in central Africa, or through flooding in Bangladesh and other densely populated low-lying areas in Asia, as a result of human caused global warming.

How did Dean make the connection? I can't tell, looks like he just changed the subject.

OK, lets get out the bulldozers, graders, gas tanks, pick up trucks and go plow stuff up. What thing are we going to build with all this CO2 emission today that would reduce CO2 emission tomorrow?

Here is a clue:
Sea Water + CO2 + Sun = Methanol

Make that the common goal, if you want a common goal.