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For reducing the climate crisis

There are ongoing debates about the best way to address global warming, with most centering on whether a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme is best (or some combination of the two). There are also some lively, though less extensive, debates about the extent to which we should balance our attempts to reduce global warming with mitigating its effects.

I would like to shift the focus a little and ask the question: which policies will best promote technological innovation? Simple demographics and economic trends make it impossible to significantly curtail greenhouse gas emissions without major technological advances.

Lieberman-Warner bill — draft language

Available here.

How coal CO2 is different from oil CO2

Our top climate scientist has sent out a really, really long email (where does he find the time?), mostly discussing comments on his recent essay on coal. I think Hansen is the clearest thinker on climate among the top scientists in the field, so I will reprint the email, breaking it up into several postings. The first one addresses "Coal-CO2 versus Oil-CO2":

And demonstrations

One of punk's great anthems was one of the Clash's first great songs:

White riot
I wanna riot
White riot
Riot of my own.

This was a sincere wish on the late Joe Strummer's part, and to some extent, his wish came true.

The punk movement was a riot in music. His audiences were uncontrollable and he liked that, mostly. He saw a few riots and wanted more, to get people stirred up, showing their desires, demanding change.

Could the ferment in present-day environmental interest be showing up in spontaneous demonstrations?

I have seen a few examples in the news of what sounds -- at least from afar -- like environmental riots.

This kind of demonstration of environmental rage rarely, if ever, seems to happen in the this country, so perhaps we -- including reporters -- aren't primed to expect it and report on it.

But consider:

15 Green Religious Leaders

These men and women represent many different religions, but they’re all spreading the eco-gospel. Read about them, then tell us which spiritual leaders have inspired you to greener heights in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Photo: Nikolaos Manginas Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I “Crime against the natural world is a sin,” says […]

GM will offer clean diesel passenger cars in 2010

GM is planning to bring diesel Saturns and Caddies to the U.S. market in 2010. (A Caddie that gets decent mileage? Who'd have guessed?) They join Nissan, Honda, DaimlerChrysler, and of course Volkswagen in planning to market clean diesels that will meet the new 2008 regulations on NOx and particulate emissions from diesel vehicles.

Missing from this list of diesel adopters is Toyota, which is saying that clean diesels "... would end up being more expensive than gasoline-electric hybrids," a market segment which it dominates.

Oh, the excitement!

Speaking of the Lieberman-Warner hearing on carbon legislation: it’s going on right now, and Brad over at HillHeat is liveblogging it.

Like Christmas for nerds

For the hardcore dorks out there, the U.S. EPA has just finished an extensive economic analysis of Senate Bill S.280, the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act. This analysis is likely to carry considerable weight as Lieberman and Warner put together their new cap-and-trade bill. I’m going to look at this a bit later and […]

A review

For a few days after reading The Upside of Down, I annoyed most of my friends and family by reciting chunks of Homer-Dixon's work back to them -- I couldn't get it out of my head. I do this a lot to people, but not usually for days and days on end after reading a book.

The Upside of Down isn't an environmental book, exactly, though it does deal with environmental and energy issues. While it shares some themes with more explicitly environmental books (like Jared Diamond's Collapse), the core of the book is more political and sociological. Homer-Dixon is asking why societies collapse -- what are the pressures our society faces today, and what, if any, are the positive results from the kind of collapse he's talking about?

An interview with the directors of Arctic Tale

Adam Ravetch gets up close and personal with his subject. Photo: Arctic Bear Productions After the surprise success of March of the Penguins in 2005 — a film about, well, penguins … marching — it’s pretty clear that people like movies about cute animals in cold places. So it’s no surprise that National Geographic Films, […]