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Carbon pricing needs to supplement, not undermine, other means of cutting emissions

In solving the climate crisis we need to avoid creating the type of large secondary emissions trading market Kyoto did. Large secondary emission markets constitute a whole new sector with strong incentives that conflict with a really large drop in emissions. Maybe carbon traders are so noble and dedicated to saving the planet that financial self-interest won't influence them. But, if your view of human nature is that incentives matter, then a strong secondary market creates a group of people with the wrong ones. If incentives matter, then a secondary carbon market runs a real risk of becoming the new sub-prime.

For example, it has been noted that the European Emission Trading Scheme and other emission markets tend to be subject to high volatility, something that undercuts long term success. Large price variations for emissions permits discourage long term investment in savings, because it is hard to predict the value of the savings. Volatility can also lead to crashes, where emission prices temporarily drop near zero, which further reduces investment in reductions. The problem is traders tend to profit in the short term from volatility, because prices that vary encourage a larger number of transactions; more transactions produce more profit. While there are regulatory approaches that can discourage such volatility, such as high mandatory minimum emissions prices, financial industries in general tend to resist this type of regulation.

The pristine U.S. Arctic has been protected from industrial fishing

It's a watershed day for Arctic conservation.

Facing dramatic evidence of climate change in the Arctic, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously on Thursday to prevent the expansion of industrial fishing into all U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait. There are no large-scale commercial fisheries currently operating in the U.S. Arctic, and now there won't be.

Nearly 200,000 square miles of pristine Arctic waters -- an area bigger than California -- will remain untouched by the extensive fishing nets, miles of hooked longlines, and destructive bottom trawls of industrial fishing. This means that the unknown but crucial fish species such as Arctic cod will stay put as the heart of the ecosystem.

An eco-friendly Valentine’s Day guide for the bitter and alone

If the only thing you’re more tired of than Valentine’s Day is all those tips for how to green your Valentine’s Day, take heart. You can hate on Hallmark and smug couples while still showing your mad hot love for the Earth. Here’s our guide to celebrating Singles Awareness Day in eco-style. 1. Get back […]

Kudos and fingers as IM dialogue

GristEditor: So what's the deal with climate kudos/finger this week? Got any ideas?

Reporter@Grist: Stop bugging me. Watching cat videos.

GristEditor: seriously, we gotta publish this on fri. need your ideas.

Reporter@Grist: argh. ... ok. hold on.

GristEditor: I was thinking Hillary Clinton for planning to jump on the climate/China issue

Reporter@Grist: Boooooooring

Reporter@Grist: Barbara Boxer should definitely get finger for that screwed up roads package she's cosponsoring with Inhofe.

GristEditor: That's so inside baseball. Plus, Boxer outlined her climate principles this week -- deserves a kudo for that.

Reporter@Grist: Not really. Boxer's "principles" very vague.

Reporter@Grist: how 'bout the Senate for passing that dumbass amendment to give money to people to buy cars?

GristEditor: But that might be good if $ spent to buy hybrids or electric vehics.

Reporter@Grist: Sigh. Hey, you want to avoid inside baseball? How about Molson? Bad beer, good climate record.

GristEditor: Salazar for reversing the Utah oil leases?

GristEditor: Lugar for writing an op-ed arguing for increasing the gas tax?

GristEditor: Finger to the Czech PM for perpetuating skeptic line?

Reporter@Grist: Yeah, maybe.

GristEditor: geez. maybe we just blow it off this week ...

Reporter@Grist: :-)

GristEditor: not funny.

Chevy Volt could cut costs by using batteries more efficiently and paying less for them

In a excellent piece this week, Joe Romm reiterated why battery changing stations don't make sense for electric cars. But he also argued that plug-in electric ranges of more than 20 miles do not make sense because cost gets too high for too little benefit. This seems a reasonable deduction from high (and rising) costs for the Chevy Volt. But this is a case where the efficiency could be cheaper than conservation.

Consuming 0.4 kWh per mile electricity usage, the Volt currently uses a $10,000 16 kWh battery capacity for a 40-mile range. But lots of electric cars get better mileage than that. For example, the Triac only consumes about 0.23 kWh per mile. Admitting this is fairly extreme, there is no reason a car that needs less than half the battery range (and thus does not need to carry as much battery weight) can't keep its power consumption around 0.27 kWh per mile, which would make battery capacity 11 kWh rather than 16 kWh.

Universities hold national teach-in on climate change

Across the country yesterday, college campuses opened up a dialogue on climate change as part of a National Teach-In. And for many schools, this meant opening up lecture halls as well.

At Seattle University, a 400-level engineering class (normally reserved for dedicated students in that major) spent the hour discussing effective energy solutions; lit majors, history professors, and everyone in between were invited to join. Later that afternoon, students in ECON 468 welcomed visitors for a lecture on the economics of carbon reduction and cap and trade. Elsewhere on the SU campus, students discussed the role of business in sustainability and the importance of "low-carbon" eating habits.

"Our primary mode of reaching a diverse set of students [was] to have the teach-in themes 'embedded' in regular classrooms," said Jennifer Sorensen, the university's science director and organizer for the event. Faculty members from varied disciplines were asked to devote part of their class time (whether that class be Intro to Geology or Federal Income Tax I) to discussing climate change as it relates to their field.

Students were a driving force behind the success of SU's teach-in, Sorensen says. "The faculty are more responsive to student requests to discuss these themes in their classroom than they are to my collegial invitation to participate!"

Obama taps marine scientist to lead key climate agency

Jane Lubchenco. Photo: oregonstate.edu If and when marine biologist Jane Lubchenco is confirmed as the next administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), she’ll find herself leading an organization with a huge jurisdiction — the oceans and atmosphere — but with limited power to take action. NOAA’s influence has always been limited by […]

Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and author, wins 2009 TED prize

Noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle is one of the three 2009 TED prize winners. The three winners are awarded the opportunity to share "one wish to change the world," along with $100,000 each to fund the pursuit of that wish.

Here is Earle's wish:

I wish you would use all means at your disposal -- the films, the expeditions, the web! -- to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.

Earle said she did not know how much of the oceans need to be protected, but that she said it's certainly more than the less-than-1-percent of the oceans currently under some governmental protection. She noted the technological advances that have been made to solve the energy crisis before adding, "but nothing will matter if we fail to protect the oceans. Our fate and the ocean's are one."

See the full list of 2009 TED speakers.

Rising sea salinates India's Ganges

We are facing catastrophic sea-level rise this century on our current greenhouse gas emissions path.

The direct impact of such sea-level rise is so enormous -- and so easy to show visually -- that other serious ramifications hardly get mentioned at all. So kudos to Reuters for reporting:

KOLKATA, India: Rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India's biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country's east, a climate change expert warned Monday.

Much of the world's cropland -- especially in the developing world -- is close to sea level and near the shore. I haven't seen a global quantification of the impact of salt water infiltration. I did find a 2008 discussion of "Global Warming and Salt Water Intrusion: Bangladesh Perspective," [PDF] which concludes:

'Clean coal' non-debate produces fake rift among lefties!

Wow, this is one craptastic piece of journalism. It's about "the clean coal debate," but you can get all the way through it without stumbling across a single fact about the purported subject. Al Gore and environmentalists "portray" "clean coal" as a mirage. Is it? Are there clean coal power plants somewhere? The reader never knows.

Dumber than that is the whole frame of the article, which pits Al Gore against Barack Obama, despite the fact that they recommend identical approaches to "clean coal" -- research it, but don't rely on it, and don't build dirty coal plants while waiting for it.

The fact is, the average citizen trying to find out more about "clean coal" by consuming U.S. media is likely to emerge from that effort knowing and understanding less. Nice job, media.