Basically, the chemicals that contribute to global warming when released into Earth’s atmosphere got released 3% more this year than last year, making the direst predictions of 2007 look optimistic.

But why get angry yet? Maybe one of the candidates will  say something fittingly urgent in tone. Maybe Jim Lehrer will bring it up. Or I’ll have the excuse to start smoking again that I’ve been looking for.

flickr: Image/mind’s-eye

The consulting firm McKinsey & Co has just issued a report saying that even without government funding, the technology for trapping the carbon emitted by coal plants and burying it might pay for itself by 2030. China and India probably won’t throw themselves into the new tech whole-heartedly at first, because it looks like it will add about a billion euros to the initial cost of building each new plant. But the EU has stepped up by ordering a slew of trial models built by 2015.

Of course, there’s the small problem of the rich West having already created a horrendous climate situation. Not the best dynamic for pressuring an ascendant China into good stewardship. We’re basically the parent that just got thrown out of Betty Ford trying to get junior to put down the vodka. I think that might have been what happened in Postcards from the Edge.

Image: flickr/thewritingzone 

A British MP just defied possible arrest to lead a charge of Segwayists through London, trying to get the Department of Transportation in England to clarify whether they’re legal to drive on roads or not. He points out that in a dense urban area, they go faster than the average speed cars are able to move in traffic, and emit virtually nothing.

I guess my confusion is still this: They go 12 mph. Doesn’t a bicycle go that fast? But I guess if you don’t want to get your suit sweaty… I forget that people still go to offices in suits.

Image: flickr/RobotSkirts

Geo-thermal engineering, apparently, is a possible answer of last resort. Scientists everywhere agree it’s really risky, but if we had to we could potentially shoot vast quantities of certain chemical agents into the atmosphere to reflect back the sun. No, not immediately comforting. But one of the plans involves a series of yachts crossing the world. Which is at least glamorous.

Image: flickr/radiant guy

The big questions, as always, are: how much, how fast how cheap? Cement Guy claims cheaper than the normal cement. And that making it in bulk is no problem. And that its manufacturing process can actually absorb emissions from polluters like coal power plants.

Cement accounts for about five percent of the carbon emissions in the world — eliminating its contribution to global warming would be the equivalent of eliminating America. Or almost eliminating China.

What a weird twist of fate that would be: if the way to make the world greener were to make it look more like one the post-industrial backdrops in the Halo games.

Image: flickr/billjacobus1

But of course the American public is fickle and freaked out about gas, and so the SUVs and light trucks that used to account for 60% of GM’s sales in the USA aren’t selling like they used to. As a consequence, GM just posted its 3rd biggest quarterly loss in its history. The leasing of SUVs has taken the biggest hit, because nobody wants to buy the used SUVs anymore–they’re now selling at a quarter of their original value. It is tempting to resort to karma talk here.

Call me a socialist, but wouldn’t it be better for everyone if making catastrophically large ski-transport vehicles was against the rules, so everybody would just stick to the fuel-efficient cars they want whenever there’s an oil crisis?  This is a pretty clear example of the free market not behaving like the benevolent god libertarians want it to be. More like a spoiled mercurial toddler or a crackhead.

Image: flickr/Rick Harris

The alleged perjury took place Jan. 24th, when Johnson told Boxer’s committee he’d made an independent decision not to allow California to enact its own fuel economy standards that would have been stricter than national ones. In reality, says the former EPA administrator Jason Burnett, Johnson seemed disposed to grant California at least a partial waiver until the White House told him not to. (Here’s a previous post about Burnett).

In case there’s any confusion over names: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is a guy from Rhode Island who wants to take Johnson down; The White House is an entity that allegedly makes Johnson dance like a little beggar child.

 Image: flickr/National Archives

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) pounced immediately today, saying the memo shows that the EPA’s administration have been turning the agency into “a secretive, dangerous ally of polluters, instead of a leader in the effort to protect the health and safety of the American people.”

The Office of the Inspector General also made a statement today, saying, basically, what the f–k, dude, you’re supposed to be on my team and this is my job:  “All EPA officials and employees are required to cooperate with OIG. This cooperation includes providing the OIG full and unrestricted access to EPA documents, records, and personnel.”

The managers who were sent the e-mail were in the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, which means they’re the guys in charge of making sure pollution laws are obeyed. So basically the legal compliance people were being told not to comply with the inspector general. Which proves once and for all that these days the EPA is The Office.

People wrote in with insults, bad suggestions (fill it with concrete, throw it in the ocean and maybe it will become a reef), and some less insane ones (find a way to donate it to people in a poor remote village somewhere who will use it efficiently, as a transport vehicle). Even if you hate PR stunts, this one poses a legit question: what are we going to do with our many, various, increasingly hated, polluting machines, given that throwing them away or burning them is so counterproductive?My suggestion (probably already voiced by somebody): take off the wheels, gut them, and turn them into stationary dwellings for homeless people, in sprawling cities where there is space for fields of dead SUVs. Which would admittedly create conglomerations resembling vast, drugs-afflicted trailer parks without toilets, yes. Let’s see you do better. Image: flickr/Kevin Saff 

If we tried that here, it would be one situation in which having a vanity plate would actually be worth it. (No numbers in WLD DOGZ). So for America I propose an alternate system: women are forbidden from driving one day, men the next. What better way to subject cultural stereotypes regarding driving habits to scientific rigor? Teenagers vs. old people would be next.

Image: flickr/zzanthras777