The Left Coaster: Comment on You'd Think Someone Would Want To Do Something About This

Comments: You'd Think Someone Would Want To Do Something About This

All very true, Turkana, but what will it take for the necessary change to happen? Too many of the - to use an old-fashioned term - ivory tower elites think that all that is necessary is to lecture the world.

Do you know that in most American cities public transportation starts too late and quits too early for most working class people to get to their jobs? That most transportation policy is geared towards getting cars off the highway so those who can afford to can commute, single driver style, faster? People without an extra inch in their budget will drive whatever it takes to get to work, and that is usually an older high pollution vehicle.

Have you thought about how much a car is an instant marker of status? So much so that in this Obama stronghold of a liberal university town, the majority of vehicles are SUVs and the students (those staunch Ombama supporters) proudly drive them into school each day? And for non-students, a car is a bulwark against dehumanization.

You have to address the reality, not preach, and for that, you have to look at what is and what people actually do, not what they say.

Europe has engineering answers that would slash America's carbon production overnight. Those solutions came in response to a physical reality: the high price of energy. Take care of the working poor, make sure above all that they can get to work (there is nothing more pitiless than an American employer), then let the price of gas float high enough that the status drivers pay their fair share of the pollution they cause and the rest us of create solutions.

Posted by bonneyanne at April 25, 2008 09:07 PM

The idea of anyone who presents damning raw information is to shame people about their ignorance in the hope of stirring them our of inattention and possibly apathy. For some folks, it doesn't take much to be stirred. For others, it generates hostility. People get hurt feelings when they are called (or proven) ignorant about something. On the one hand, I can agree with bonneyanne: many of us know the problems and a good measure of solutions, we just need to do it. But I keep encountering all those people who just go around feeling insulted and feel it is more important to express their hurt feelings than do anything about the problem. It's an exaggerated sense of self-importance at the expense of what is good for everybody in the long run.

Posted by gtash at April 26, 2008 08:09 AM

"Europe has engineering answers that would slash America's carbon production overnight."

Sure.

"Since 2000, emissions of CO2 have been growing more rapidly in Europe, with all its capping and yapping, than in the U.S., where there has been minimal government intervention so far. As of 2005, we're talking about a 3.8% rise in the EU-15 versus a 2.5% increase in the U.S., according to statistics from the United Nations."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118764555108003341.html

Then there is this:

"It’s not a surprise but a bummer nonetheless: Greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising in Europe despite lots of autographs on the Kyoto Protocol and an elaborate cap-and-trade system.

Early analysis of data out today from the European Commission shows that emissions rose about 1.1% last year to 1.9 billion metric tons. That’s after similar increases in 2005 and 2006."

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/04/02/carbon-copy-europes-still-not-cutting-emissions/?mod=WSJBlog

There's more:

"So what gives? Europe was supposed to be the leader in clean energy and climate-change policies (in addition to Kyoto-style lecturing.) It all goes back to the original sin European governments committed when they set up the Emissions Trading Scheme to trade carbon permits. They gave away too many permits to polluting industries like steel and aluminum makers and power generators.

Since no one really knew what the emissions were in Europe, regulators based them on estimates provided by countries, who in turn got the estimates from companies. The result is well-known: In 2006, the first year actual emissions data became available, they turned out to be less than the caps. Not a single steel mill was modernized or coal plant sacrificed for natural gas. Europe got egg on its face—and has been trying to clean it up ever since."

Posted by manapp99 at April 26, 2008 08:23 AM

How does one exclude emissions from external sources when measuring "greenhouse gas emissions", say, in Europe? If Brazil is burning thousands of acres per day of forest, would not those emissions affect measurements around the world?

Posted by IntelVet at April 26, 2008 08:49 AM

"How does one exclude emissions from external sources when measuring "greenhouse gas emissions", say, in Europe?"

Or, for that matter, in the US?

Posted by manapp99 at April 26, 2008 09:09 AM

Getting cars off the road is a much lower priority than getting rid of coal and natural gas power plants. Looks like we're joining the league of nations moving in that direction with the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants.

This from Canada, Darlington and the Bruce nuclear plants on Lake Huron are among sites being considered by the provincial government for new nuclear units that would boost the province's 10 other nuclear units, 64 hydroelectric generating stations and five fossil fuel stations. The province needs new nuclear units to keep up with electrical demand because it is phasing out polluting coal-fired power plants.

And New York is putting together an application for a new nuclear power plant, too. Good news.

bonneyanne wants to raise the gas tax. But rising fuel prices from $1 to $4 have shown that Americans will cut back on their other expenses before they cut back on driving. People need to get from here to there. Most cars in the near future will be hybrids, so that will improve MPG and burn less fuel.

If we get the new nukes up, we can use the excess capacity at night to generate hydrogen for a new fleet of mass transit vehicles, much like what France is doing with their excess nuclear power capacity.

Posted by Muck at April 26, 2008 09:19 AM

now Turkana, the korporate ReThugs are only focused on this quarter's profits

Posted by gay veteran at April 26, 2008 10:14 AM

Speaking of the oceans, maybe some of you reading this thread would find this short Needlenose post interesting.

Posted by CMike at April 26, 2008 02:24 PM