If we stopped burning carbon now, you and I, as Rapley points out, would starve to death in a week. Burnt carbon is our money, our lifestyle, our sense of who we are. The revolution is just too big to contemplate.
Another good response to the climate change contrarians in the wake of the CRU email hack. This one covers a lot of ground, plainly and bluntly rebutting most of the deniers' arguments and hysterical claims.
but then, all the fish would have asbestos-related diseases
This suggests that tailings from acid mine drainage environments may be utilized to enhance chrysotile dissolution without polluting "downstream" ecosystems. These results demonstrate that the addition of an acid-generating substance in conjunction with a microbial catalyst can significantly enhance the release of magnesium ions, which are then available for the precipitation of carbonate minerals. This process, as part of a carbon dioxide sequestration program, has implications for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions in the mining industry.
also, see this nature climate change article on the merits of incorporating peatlands/wetlands into a carbon credit program:
All of the carbon that we're burning now originally came from wetlands. So intellectually, it makes sense that wetlands are probably the best ecosystem on the planet to sequester carbon.
Supporters of getting wetlands on the Copenhagen agenda also argue that the move would inspire the development of an approved methodology to measure their emissions. Iceland, for instance, expects to spend the next few years not collecting credits but taking inventory of existing and drained peatlands, setting up an incentive system and collecting better data
Based off the Youtube hit...
Carbon/Silicon (a band fronted by The Clash's Mick Jones
and Generation X's Tony James) has a new album called
The Carbon Bubble. They are giving it away in the MP3 format on their site.
All our kitchens have been designed to accommodate LPG/electric cooktops. What next ? A higher dependence on electricity ? Solar options - both as converted to electricity, and perhaps using it directly through fibre ?
New York has reclaimed some space for pedestrians!
Tamminen: Carbon Insurance For Your Car May Be Down The RoadPublished: Friday, 13 Nov 2009 | 8:21 AM ETText Size
By: Terry Tamminen
ContributorWould you like carbon insurance with that latte?
You might not hear that exact question any time soon, but don’t be surprised if companies start shifting carbon risk from their balance sheets to someone else’s, using the time-honored marketplace tool of insurance. And when that happens, expect the price of products to reflect the new reality.
Terry Tamminen
Former Secretary
California EPAChina, India, and other emerging economies argue that we became prosperous using up the atmosphere and must now bear a disproportionate share of the burden to fix the problem, at least in the first few years of any new global deal.
One proposal floating around before the global climate talks in Copenhagen next month is for developed entities, like the U.S. and E.U., to buy insurance for climate change-related impacts that are likely to occur to developing nations. Flood insurance for low-lying areas of Indonesia, for example. That might be a way, some argue, to deal with the rich/poor nation divide that threatens to undermine any new global deal.
Insurance premiums may be cheaper than other forms of compensation or aid, but like any cost borne by governments or companies, it will be passed on to taxpayers or consumers.
There is also a growing movement to be more transparent about such costs, adding them as surcharges. California is flirting with car insurance paid at the gas pump, so you’re actually paying based on how much of highway system you use—and how much carbon you pump into the air—and are reminded of it each time you fill up. A carbon insurance premium could easily be included in such a gas pump surcharge so drivers pay the true cost of operating their vehicles in terms of all relevant risks, including their fair share of creating both fender benders and climate change collisions.
Allstate [ALL 28.92
0.06 (+0.21%)
] , State Farm, and The Progressive Group [PGR 17.18
0.14 (+0.82%)
] are considering the idea. They already offer lower rates for customers who drive less than average annual mileage. Because such discounts today are based on the honor system, doing real carbon or mileage-based insurance would require technology on the car to verify the driver’s habits. That’s where innovative companies like MileMeter come in, a company already doing this in Texas.
Research by the Brookings Institution concluded that such verified pay-as-you-go insurance would incentivize motorists to combine shopping trips and otherwise cut back on fuel consumption, saving about $270 a year per car and cutting oil consumption by 4%.
Indeed there are already profits being made by insurance companies in the carbon field. Chartis Insurance and AIG [AIG 36.61
0.35 (+0.97%)
] both provide insurance on carbon offset projects, essentially guaranteeing that the carbon-reducing project is completed so the buyer of offset credits will actually get the benefits purchased. As the carbon market heads towards the trillion-dollar range in the next five or six years, insuring that marketplace will also rapidly increase in value.
Swiss Re has been insuring agricultural crops against potential losses from climate change-related impacts like drought and new pest infestations. Knowing the science behind the climate change predictions, this is clearly another valuable growth area for the insurance industry.
Although I don’t know if any company has insured a coffee crop against climate change risks just yet, given the high value of the morning brew you can bet that this commodity will soon have carbon insurance percolating around somewhere. Which should put your mind at ease about always being able to get your daily dose of caffeine—even if that latte costs a few pennies more for the insurance.
______________________________
Terry Tamminen, former Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, is a partner at Pegasus Sustainable Century Merchant Bank and the Cullman Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. (Cracking The Carbon Code is a registered trademark of Terry Tamminen).© 2009 CNBC, Inc. All Rights ReservedSectors:Insurance
