Photography with the Left Eye

I think I should get a finders fee every time I scoop the press (I could say MSM ("mainstream media"), but that is a term that derides the real value that the traditional press provides, especially, IMO, the print media).

Thursday the Wall Street Journal ran my story, though with their slant:

The global financial crisis is threatening efforts in the U.S. and Europe to fight climate change.

In Europe, industries and some national governments are pushing back against the European Union’s goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 20% by 2020, arguing that the midst of an economic crisis isn’t the time for costly new taxes on fossil-fuel consumption.
…
“If industry is in a difficult pass, most sensible governments will be reluctant to impose new costs on them in the form of carbon-emissions caps,” said Yvo de Boer, director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

I’m starting to see this as a convenient excuse.

Muse Erica

But in this case I don’t much like the reason.

A few days ago, I said that the likely effect of the current economic trauma on moving forward to address climate was likely to be negative.

About four days later, AP posted this, and then about a week later the SF Chronicle ran this story. In the print edition, it was in the first section, above the fold.

Big news.

And you read it here first.

Arie

I love my city. Really. With all of its quirks, disfunctions, and very messy democracy. We don’t always get it right, but we do often enough.

But the city, like any organization, is not monolithic. It has managers with agendas, dedicated employees, clueless employees, and so on.

I’m not sure which was responsibile for the waste I saw on display today. I passed by a small crew cleaning the sidewalk, with brooms. So far, so good. No ugly leaf blowers, and a show of care by the city.

But wait. There is a noise of an engine. It’s the truck that transported them and their equipment to the site. And not just a pickup, but a big flatbed. Idling. Doing nothing but wasting fuel and polluting the air. Oh, and breaking the law. Who didn’t get the memo?

Masque, last week

Today’s New York Times had an ad supplement published by the car companies (probably whoever has the ad account for the big 3)

It was a maddening twenty pages of clinging to the past.

It started with an article about how SUVs are really pretty wonderful, and the extra gas they burn really doesn’t cost that much. Funny, I just read an article (I would link it if I remembered the source) that said that the cost of a average commute in an average vehicle is about 10% of the median income of someone living in the US. So, go buy that SUV.

The next one looked at the future of cars. Their conclusion? They will be pretty much the same as today. Except maybe bigger, because those of us living in the US keep getting bigger and bigger. I guess they think by 2030 the average person will be 6′8″ and weigh 360 pounds.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for the auto industry, or wish it an accelerated death so we can just get on to a better future. It’s just so clear that it’s suicide.

Courtney

Even I, a diehard evangelist for better climate policy, have been shocked by the speed at which gasoline prices have increased. In my neighborhood, it has been about $.05 daily for the past two weeks or so. It’s approaching $4.50/gallon. More expensive gasoline sends the right price signal. But if it happens too quickly, people panic. People make very bad decisions when they panic, and in this case the decisions are (in part) going to be public policy decisions (such as the nutcase James Inhofe yammering on about a CO2 cap being a tax on the poor, and resulting in a $1 increase in gas prices by 2030 (which is, simplistically, about $.04/year). Dude, world economics are causing a $1/gallon increase…this year).

Will it go to $5? Some say that the increase will force demand down enough to keep that from happening; perhaps enough even to drive prices down a few cents. I don’t think so. The price of oil has more than doubled in the last year. Gas has gone up about 30%. That suggests to me an underlying need for more price increases. There is more pain ahead. Our transportation economy is about to figure out how to become much more efficient, because it has to. Meanwhile, to help take care of the budget crisis, California is proposing to cut $1.4 billion from public transit. Doesn’t that strike you as the worst possible timing?

Ashley.