If ever there was a plea to curb our dependence on fossil fuel, it's this one from Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. Based on a New York Times article dated December 4, 2011, emissions rose just shy of 6% between 2009 and 2010. That's a HUGE increase for one year. (Keep in mind, there was a near 1.5% percent decrease in 2009 during the worst part of the recession.) The news prompted McKibben to quip in an article posted the following day on CommonDreams.org that "we've all but lost the battle to reduce the damage from global warming."
See an excerpt below from McKibben's article.
The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium Published on Monday, December 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org by Bill McKibben
"The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to The New York Times it represented 'almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.'
The 2010 climate change conference in Cancun has stirred up lots of controversy. The conference started on November 29th, culminating on December 10th. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set emission reduction guidelines, will expire in December 2012 and there are pessimistic predictions for a legal continuation of the agreement.
Pessimism is a common theme of the media coverage overcastting the two week conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico. Last years summit in Copenhagen and its offspring, the Copenhagen Accord, has fallen short of making desired progress. There are many possibilities for what will come of all of this and those of us here who care about progress in climate change politics should really reflect upon the breadth of this issue.
Returning from a trip to Washington, DC to meet with legislators and understand more about the mission of the American Business Council, led me to realize the influence that public policy has - particularly on ushering in and ensuring which innovative ideas rise to the top and take hold. Take this one for example: solar roadways that end our addiction to fossil fuels and pay for themselves. Is it really that simple, or do we need to consider whether our fossil fuel addiction could be replaced by a lithium addiction. Techy experts, please weigh in...
