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Here’s what we have to accomplish

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The supply-side solution developed in the Bright Lines exercise, drawing on Bill Hare's Greenpeace International paper "Climate Protection: The Carbon Logic" (PDF), won little support from first readers. It is included in this proposal as a concept to be explored because no other solution could be determined to meet the dictates of the climate timeframe -- and the strong responses it provokes are evidence of its strong narrative value.

A supply-side response -- imposing a cap on extractions in 2015 with 10 percent reductions at 5 year intervals until emissions are stabilized at pre-industrial levels, as shown in the accompanying chart, for example -- is the ideal climate policy. A cap and phase-down would set clear market parameters for fossil fuels phase-out and establish future economies of scale for renewables and efficiencies, encouraging early investment and driving innovation. Capping extractions would, in effect, move forward the global response to exhaustion of oil and gas reserves, a great challenge even if climate change were not a problem.

Mitt Romney (R) endorses Hitler’s energy policy!!1!

New York Sun has the details. (h/t: Wolcott)

Using earth to save the earth

(Part of the No Sweat Solutions series.)

In my last post on material intensity, I mentioned green building as an example of how to indirectly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, before building one wind turbine or making one factory more efficient. Because green building is more familiar than most types of material intensity reduction, I'll use it for my first examples.

After all, building construction worldwide uses about 40% of mineral and metal products, and 25% of forest products*. And we have experts in green building on this blog who can comment on the examples that follow.

Let's start with "super-block" or "super-adobe" construction, invented by Nader Khalili, California architect/author and founder of the Hesperia, California-based Cal Earth Institute. It is similar to rammed earth: Wet soil under pressure (mixed with a little cement) turns into a sturdy and long-lasting building material. Khalili's innovation is to pump the soil into bags that are continuous coils and bind them with barbed wire.

Willy Wonka would be pissed

The FDA is thinking about allowing Big Chocolate to pass off waxy imitations as the real deal:

Photos and voices from Step It Up 2007 rallies across the U.S.

As promised, albeit a few days late, we've published an audio slideshow of Step It Up Seattle, which also includes some photos from other Step It Up events from around the country. For post Step It Up 2007 action, check out the national website.

Grist would like to produce more multimedia content in the future, so please let us know what you think in comments.

Some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen in a long time

Remember that wacky Federal Way, Wash. father who opposed showing An Inconvenient Truth in public schools? ("Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore!") Well, he's back, and on the Daily Show:

The responsibility era

The editors of The New Republic make a simple point that can’t be made often enough: The conservative notion that reducing GHG emissions in the U.S. is pointless unless China and India do the same is a moral grotesquery. We created the problem. Ethically and geopolitically, we are responsible for leading the way to a […]

On the latest eco-conscious denim trends and events

"Who are the big, fat, tall people that buy the jeans we make?"

That's the question that Jasmine, 16, innocently asks in Micha Peled's documentary China Blue, a clandestine view of three girls' lives in a Chinese sweatshop. I felt pretty embarrassed watching Jasmine cut the threads off our blue jeans during her 20-hour workday. It's the same Catholic schoolgirl guilt you get when the burly, bearded dude walks in on you because the gas station's bathroom lock is broken, or when your parents or roommate come home when they just weren't supposed to. Once again, we've been caught with our pants down.

But this time, we're participating in one of the largest human-rights abuses of all time. Which makes denim a damn good product around which to strike up a conversation about social issues.

Sorry, trusty Blue Jeans. You know I love you. You've been there for me through all occasions -- my birthdays, my late-night outings, my first kiss, my first break-up ... When I don't know what to wear, you're there for me ... but now, it's time to hang you out to dry ... if only to make a point.

AEI brings us the good news on climate

How about that fascinating ad in Gristmill today for the new video courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute! An Inconvenient Truth ... or Convenient Fiction? aims to present us with an alternative to the "climate extremism" that is "popular with Hollywood and other pessimistic enclaves" and seeks to assure us everything is A-OK. They're even doing screenings around the U.S. In, uh, three locations. Anyone else give this AEI spin project a spin yet?

[editor's note, by David Roberts] This seems like a good time to draw attention to Grist's advertising policy, to wit: we don't screen ads for political or ideological content. If we did that, every ad that did appear on our site would carry an implied endorsement, and we don't want to get into that briar patch. The main thing to note is: advertising is advertising, editorial is editorial, and never the twain shall mess with each other.

From Betting to Böögg

We’ll see your catastrophe and raise you an apocalypse Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets: An online gambling service is offering a whole new way to get screwed by climate change. Looking for better payoff? Put some greenbacks on the leatherbacks; we’re all-in on Colburtle. Photo: iStockphoto Every day is Earth Day — especially Sunday […]