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1,000,000,000 cars

One billion. By 2020 or sooner, that's how many cars and light trucks there will be on the road around the world. That's one for every 6 1/2 people on the planet -- and over 25 percent more vehicles than we have today.

So begins a piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, which, I know, you can't access without a subscription. The story continues a paragraph later, setting up the general premise: What does that one billion figure mean for the future of cars?

The auto boom will only add to the congestion in major cities, as well as deepening the world's thirst for petroleum and spewing even more carbon dioxide into the air. That will leave drivers facing rising costs and traffic headaches, and force the auto industry to deal with rising demands for fuel efficiency, pollution control and a host of other rules and regulations ...

Longer term, the struggle to accommodate one billion autos on the planet may lead to a rethinking of the car's place in society.

Rethinking the car's place in society? Not an easy task, for sure. And one that the industry, environmentalists, and others are pondering at this very moment. (And will continue to ponder, to the point that their heads hurt. And then they'll ponder some more.)

The article goes on to talk about measures already under way: taxes on cars entering city centers during rush hour, fancy-pants traffic lights that sync to traffic patterns, alternative fuels, hybrid development, and even a flying car in the works.

Says one GMer, "the next 10 years will be fascinating." Indeed.

Cohen on Gore

Richard Cohen -- a commentator I normally loathe, for reasons of interest only to other polico-wonko-dorko-blogo-types -- has a good column today about Al Gore's new movie.

In the meantime, he is a man on a mission. Wherever he goes -- and he travels incessantly -- he finds time and an audience to deliver his (free) lecture on global warming. It and the film leave no doubt of the peril we face, nor do they leave any doubt that Gore, at last, is a man at home in his role. He is master teacher, pedagogue, know-it-all, smarter than most of us, better informed and, having tried and failed to gain the presidency, he has raised his sights to save the world. We simply cannot afford for Al Gore to lose again.

Andes Are Dandy

Grist continues to hype Great Peru Giveaway So you’ve been reading about Brangelina’s Namibian nativity, and you’re thinking you wouldn’t mind heading south of the equator yourself — but without all the labor pains and paparazzi? Boy, are you in luck! Grist is giving away an eco-trip for two to Peru, and you could be […]

A Lansing Blow

Michigan demands 90 percent cut to mercury emissions from power plants Tired of other states getting all the eco-love, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has ordered her state’s coal-burning power plants to slash mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2015. Her plan will not be a cap-and-trade system, but will allow companies to produce a […]

Spinning Isn’t Everything; It’s the Only Thing

Alaska looks to controversial PR firm to promote Arctic Refuge drilling In the face of broad public opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Alaska legislature has … abandoned its push for drilling? Don’t be silly! No, the legislature’s hired a PR firm to sell the joys of drilling to a skeptical […]

Jumping the Park

Bush admin tells national parks to operate at 20 percent below budget You know what the problem with America’s national parks is? Profligacy. So says the Bush administration, which has ordered the parks to demonstrate that they can function with 80 percent of their current operating budgets. Bush is also proposing to cut about $100 […]

Wendell Berry on ‘economic development’

Right-wing critics of environmentalism lean heavily on a false dichotomy: "the economy" vs. "the environment." They pretend that human prosperity and "nature" are playing a zero-sum game. By, say, neglecting to mangle the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve for a year or two's supply of crude, we're somehow making a huge economic sacrifice. Mountaintop removal is unpleasant, the argument goes, but we need to get at that coal to maintain "economic development."

Wendell Berry, the sage of northern Kentucky, has made a career of obliterating such sophistries. Counterpunch.org has just published an interview with him. Check it out.

On an unrelated note, I declared in a recent post that "Environmentalists could intervene in the immigration battle by altering the terms of debate. But so far, they've been silent." As a correspondent pointed out, that statement "is not entirely correct." Andrew Christie of Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Committee recently published a piece linking trade with immigration. It's worth reading.

Shill news

On E Magazine, Jim Motavalli's done an interview with Frank Maisano, a guy who's spent his life as an extremely successful communications guy -- shill -- for polluting industries. Disturbingly, Maisano comes off as congenial, reasonable, well-informed. I prefer my evil people more evil, please.

Also -- I should have noted this weeks ago -- don't miss Mark Hertsgaard's piece from the recent Vanity Fair green issue. Most of it covers ground familiar to Grist readers, about how a well-funded campaign kept controversy about global warming alive long after the science was settled. What's new is the exposure of one Dr. Frederick Seitz, a former president of the National Academy of Sciences. According to Hertsgaard, Seitz helped lead an effort to produce research for tobacco companies to fight off bad publicity in the 70s and 80s. Then, in the 90s, Seitz smoothly transitioned to climate contrarianism. It's a fascinating tale.

On Tech Central Station, Nick Shulz calls Hertsgaard's piece a smear job. Eli Rabett read through the tobacco company documents and says that, no, Seitz really is a shill. Tim Lambert has a roundup.

If by ‘unparalleled’ you mean ‘suicidal and morally indefensible’, then yes, you are correct

The U.S. EPA released a new report on greenhouse gas emissions today.

From the press release, here's EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson:

"The Bush Administration has an unparalleled financial, international and domestic commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson.

Can't argue with that. And don't get me started on their made-up-metric, "greenhouse gas intensity."

$144,573 a day

Speaking of newly retired Exxon chairman Lee Raymond, an analysis commissioned by the New York Times recently determined that he made $144,573 per day for the length of his tenure with the company.

Not bad.