"...First, these systems are not yet reliable. Nor are they conscious. They’re not deciding to do anything that might be harmful to us. The real potential for harm is in humans using them, and therefore we do need to regulate them.
Second, just because we don’t understand precisely how they work yet doesn’t mean they’re magic. It’s just that they’re very complex. We will be able to understand them. We just need to do the science, and to do the science we need these systems not to be entirely in the hands of for-profit corporations..." --Melanie Mitchell, New Scientist 22 April 2023 p49--
I wonder if advanced aging senior "deep neural networks" will conduct a reflective retirement review of their lifetime work...probably not without a memory.
“...The problem is that the task of prediction is not equivalent to the task of understanding,” said Allyson Ettinger, a computational linguist at the University of Chicago..."
...why intentionally permit people during a pandemic to randomly spew harmful viral particles that inflict carnage on others before they voluntarily get vaccinated or involuntarily get infected and thereby vaccinated...
...essentially the US Supreme Court and Texas Court are mandating vaccination with carnage when vaccination without carnage is available...and that is truly some wacky shit!
...kudos to President Biden..no need to wait for hedge-funds to start investing in syndicates before deterring wacky policy for upending women's choices about childbirth...
...the Supreme Court's zealots (aka "conservatives") appear to be pursuing a path of irrelevancy or martyrdom and oblivion depending one's perspective...
...WTF, a slang abbreviation that our citizenry are asking a lot during white nationalist governance of the unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. and GOP-RNC cum RAG (Ruse, Artifice, Gimmick) Party Senate...
...wow, wonder what Representative Conaway (R-TX 11th District) will "call for" after the entire Mueller Report is provided to Congress and made public and he's read it...he will read it before talking about it, won't he...?
...kudos to the House of Representatives for intervening in Texas v USA and introducing legislation to ensure Americans have affordable comprehensive healthcare coverage℞...billionaires' budget burdens and religious zealots' myths about female reproduction are of quaternary or quinary concern, if they are of any concern...
...billionaire Bezos (Amazon) builds jobs in New York like billionaire sports team owners and others build stadiums, golf courses, and arenas, with rent-seeking at the public's cost...
...it's going to take more than billionaire sponsored or funded billboards, rent-seeking, monopolies, addictive products, and chants of "disruption", a euphemism for the gimmick of cannibalizing existing assets...
...expectations for and of our billionaires significantly deviate from the requirements of a leading 21st century nation...
...the judges opinion has no immediate impact on Obamacare...it is important for our citizens to continue enrolling in and using Obamacare...the goal of comprehensive healthcare for all our citizens will face obstacles, even if some are a bit brazen...like using the 2017 tax law mostly benefiting our wealthiest citizens to declare healthcare for our poorest citizens unconstitutional...believing if you topple one domino you topple them all...
States rights and libertarian zealots often substitute dogma or inferior, and nefarious state solutions in lieu of superior federated solutions, which cut harm to their residents and our citizens (e.g. secure health, education, shelter, and nutrition). Such is the damage of the zealots' dogma!
A corporation does not have a constitutional right to place into the stream of commerce any sh*t, addictive, or harmful product a snake-oil salesman labels "innovative".
Texas religious zealot Robert Jeffress thanked god for giving us the "gift" of, Trump!
Ah, can we return god's gift or re-gift it to another nation, which is "praying for unity", say Caracas, Venezuela (elev. 2,953')?
Instead of "a day of prayer" let's have "a day of good government" that sends seed money (say $100B) to help the residents of Galveston (elev. 6.89'), Texas City (elev. 9.8'), and Beaumont (elev. 16.0') et al.
Do not attach a "prayer", but a reminder that good government leadership is not a gift from god, but extraordinary citizens with the ability to consult geospatial specialists or elevation maps when regulating the building of Texas structures, especially residential structures!
Associate Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia dies at age 79—he preached a static and stale legal pedanticism that neither our language nor Constitution could carry.
...periodically an unreasoning graduate student is told by an exasperated professor their unreasoning is so misinformed “it’s not even wrong”...however, rarely will any student be told their unreasoning is "nothing" (i.e uninformed)...but that's exactly what Professor Chemerinsky has told the so called “originalists” in his latest book, Worse Than Nothing:
...the reactionary US Supreme Court majority is both harmful and dangerous to America's future...resurrecting the Articles of Confederation under a ruse of "states rights" and "originalism" or its derivative "textualism" is little more than sophistry, at best...
...unsaid are the self-delegated efforts by the Federalist Society et al., RNC-GOP, and the partisan reactionary majority on our US Supreme Court to use congressional chaos and legal sophistry to fundamentally (re)interpret laws (.e.g. healthcare, voting, religion, liberty, agencies, business, states rights etc.) underpinning the welfare state...
...the earlier (2018) lower judicial council investigating 83 complaints against Kavanaugh ended when it decided it had no authority to investigate the higher Supreme Court...not a disability for Congress with its impeachment power...
...when you begin removing the wrapping around a carefully packaged Kavanaugh you discover misleading statements, dissembling, lies, lack of candor, and earlier contact with potential witnesses...sounds like our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. and its Republican Party schlepps in the senate...
...Kavanaugh is an unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced nomination to our Supreme Court made by our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al...both are boorish, bullying belligerent liars...
...the Republican's hearing on sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh is little more than their sham (Senator Graham (R-S.C.) and Kavanaugh doth protest too much∅) efforts to continue efforts to cram-down another unfit justice...but as Bob Dylan might say "The Times They Are A Changin'"
...appointing a female proxy prosecutor to conduct questioning for the majority committee of elderly all white male senators is a wonderful metaphor for a devolving and obsolete Republican Party...
∅ ...yes Senator Graham (R-S.C.), if you stand in a line awaiting your turn to sexually assault an impaired women you are a "gang rapist", whether you actually sexually assault the impaired women...your "righteous indignation" without the required FBI background investigation and thorough vetting is meaningless...
...the "Federalist" is arguing a criminal case that doesn't exist and likely will not exist...
...nor is this a "he said-she said" or "innocent until proven guilty" case...
...it is she says with 91-98% veracity that she was sexually mistreated in a nation, which has a historical pattern of ignoring, dismissing, and mistreating women when they report sexual mistreatment (unsurprisingly, resulting in significant underreporting)...
...as a national policy on sexual mistreatment of women (and men) our nation must clearly, loudly, and continuously broadcast to our women (and men) that anytime you are sexually mistreated and report you will be believed, full stop...regardless of who your assaulter is...
...Blasey's assertion that she was sexually mistreated by Kavanaugh are enough to end his bid for a justiceship returning him to his judgeship on the DC Court of Appeals...
...conduct a fair investigate of the allegations of the sexual mistreatment and end his judgeship, if reasonable...
...FBI interviews into the background of candidates for public trust positions is de rigueur...conflating these interviews with a criminal investigation mischaracterizes their purpose... (also, National Background Investigations Bureau)
..."cramming down" Kavanaugh amid ongoing sexual assault allegations is likely to further accelerate an already fast declining Republican Party (some might say already imploded) and decaying Supreme Court of the United States...
..."educated" is just one attribute and not the most important, which "qualifies" a person to sit on our United Supreme Court...Judge Kavanaugh lacks some of those other attributes...if Kavanaugh cannot answer a "hypothetical" whether a president can self-pardon for crimes committed before or during their presidency, maybe he can articulate a "hypothetical" in which a president can self-pardon...
...Kavanaugh is "independent" like our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. is a "truth-teller"...imagine our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. as a "unitary executive" and Kavanaugh joining Scalia's dead dicta to tell us that we cannot subpoenaed, indict, prosecute or otherwise get rid of our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. so long as it occupies the Executive Office of the President of the United States...
...kudos to Senators Kolbuchar, Coons, Harris, Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Booker, Flake, et al...their questioning has begun to show pursuit of an imbalanced democratic governance agenda underpinned by dogma, drivel, and doctrinaire...or as the Chief Justice might say, gobbledygook...
...not only must the Senate decline to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh, it must await the renomination and senate vote on Judge Merrick Garland, before filling any vacancy on the Supreme Court...
...Judge Kavanaugh...an acolyte of the deceased Scalia, Federalist Society protege, and docent of the "originalism" dogma docket is highly unlikely to do well a primary duty of an active justice, complement court credibility...
...without credibility what is a court's announcement that a business baker can decide whether to deliver cakes into the steam of commerce based on his interpretation of the gospel according to Jesus...makes the constitutional interpretive efforts of originalism seem stupendously scientific...
He's "mainstream" while attending Federalist Society meetings with its claimed membership estimated at 70,000 (6/7th lawyers and 1/7th law students)! However, such a small clique or core cabal of lawyers committed to pursuing an extreme libertarianism (aka neo-anarchism) is hardly representative of "mainstream" America, especially if they wear black robes on our Supreme Court.
—
It is not clear if criteria of the ABA Federal Judiciary Standing Committee's rating considers such a stagnant, extreme, and dogmatic2 judicial temperament in a justice of our Supreme Court?
Efforts to disguise libertarian dogma and doctrine (aka neo-anarchism) in black robes is likely to backfire while seriously harming our Supreme Court and nation.
Justices who pretend they can interpret our frabjous1Constitution within today's context are preferable to those who pretend they can interpret it within yesterday's context.
2. Dogma by definition is stagnant and not an element in the desirable set of attributes required of any lawyer, much less a nominee lawyer to our Supreme Court. An ABA Federal Judiciary Standing Committee, which rates a dogmatic lawyer "well qualified" is either unaware of the dogma or evaluating the nominee as "well qualified" to enforce an implicit agenda.
Horrifyingly, it is possible that the the ABA Federal Judiciary Standing Committee is ignoring the dogma and evaluating a Supreme Court nominee as "well qualified" to enforce an explicit agenda?
...the Court does not seem to understand its current challenge(s)...suppose at the next Court retreat all justices retire en masse...we can then answer the Chief Justice's question...
Trump won't be the first to run a presidential campaign from jail...the charlatan, crusading conspiracist, and cult leader Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. ran his 1992 campaign from federal prison.
Fortunately, the "LaRouchians" numbered only a few thousand, weren't backed by a major American political party or endorsed by evangelical extremists. Although LaRouche did share his cell with the televangelist and fraudster James Orsen Bakker.
Originally Published February 13, 2012; Last Updated August 08, 2022; Last Republished August 08, 2022;
Kudos to the European Union for its nascent leadership on efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions—it must hang tough in the face of opposition from China, India and the United States.
There are legitimate debates over the most effective schemes for reducing earth's anthropogenic atmospheric carbon load1—there is no legitimate debate over the need for every nation to immediately implement a carbon-reducing scheme.
...nations must stop telling us how much they will reduce greenhouse gases at some future date and start telling us how much they have reduced greenhouse gases yesterday...they can begin by immediately establishing a carbon tax or price ($60-$80 per ton) and use the revenues to further reduce greenhouse gases...
...our nation is fortunate that Speaker Pelosi is in the wheelhouse and will attend this years climate summit in Spain during a period in our nation's history when the GOP-RNC Party cum RAG Party chooses to label "best evidence" as "FAKE"...
...measurement uncertainty is reduced when the sensors are closer to a point source...scientifically monitoring and measuring the global atmosphere must be a joint and transparent international effort...
...it seems useful for our leaders to stop talking about eliminating tailpipe pollution and keep up an economically maximized cap on that pollution using all generated revenue to transition away from that pollution with all diligent drought speed...an $80 per ton cap @ 429 million tons of pollution (2016) would have generated $34.320B (2016) to fund projects required to transition Californians away from the harmful pollution...
...tragically, our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. couldn't find Pittsburgh on a map, much less represent it's interests...beetroot, lemons, garlic and olive oil are tasty but are not a solution set for climate change...kudos to those able to act to mitigate the effects of climate change in spite of the overwhelmingly ignorance of our current leadership...
...nature is highly unlikely to respect or forgive their ignorance and neither will Pittsburgh nor Paris...
...cruelly, its their lack of leadership that has presented some of our most vulnerable citizens and the world with a Hobson's Choice of unemployment or jobs selling fossil fuels...
...our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. has proposed beetroot, lemons, garlic and olive oil as its solution to climate change...
...as more coal companies declare bankruptcy due to shifts toward renewable energy sources these claims will increase...it is unconscionable for our nation to do anything, but insure and indemnify all healthcare costs for those with coal mining related illness...
The global community must disabuse our leaders of industry of the notion that they can produce or offer any "product or service", regardless of the damage it inflicts on our unique planet.
We must make our expectations clear for cutting greenhouse gases, notwithstanding the imprudence of our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al.
"Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and industry comprise ∼90% of all CO2 emissions
from human activities. For the last three years, such emissions were stable, despite continuing growth
in the global economy. Many positive trends contributed to this unique hiatus, including reduced
coal use in China and elsewhere, continuing gains in energy efficiency, and a boom in low-carbon
renewables such as wind and solar. However, the temporary hiatus appears to have ended in 2017. For
2017, we project emissions growth of 2.0% (range: 0.8%−3.0%) from 2016 levels (leap-year
adjusted), reaching a record 36.8±2 Gt CO2. Economic projections suggest further emissions growth
in 2018 is likely. Time is running out on our ability to keep global average temperature increases
below 2 ◦C and, even more immediately, anything close to 1.5 ◦C."--Environmental Letters, 13 November 2017--
"...The world still faces a long, difficult path to achieving its goal. Last Tuesday, the U.N. announced a wide gap remains between nations’ current emissions pledges and the reductions needed to keep the planet’s temperature increase below 2 degrees C. Without greater ambition, the U.N. reported, the global rise could be 3 degrees C or more this century."--Scientific American, November 3, 2017
It's cruel for our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house to pretend it can "save" the coal industry or use the coal miners as props for its madness, misery and mayhem.
Unfortunately, our unfit, unstable, and unpresidential "new" alt-white-house will likely cause additional grave harm before it can be removed or replaced, but such can be the high price of manipulating democracy. Our nation is grateful to those who have dismissed the buffoonery while working hard to mitigate its harmful impacts.
"...We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The United States of America announced it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution and affirms its strong commitment to an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs. The United States of America states it will endeavour to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and help deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in their nationally determined contributions.
The Leaders of the other G20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible. We reiterate the importance of fulfilling the UNFCCC commitment by developed countries in providing means of implementation including financial resources to assist developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation actions in line with Paris outcomes and note the OECD’s report “Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth”. We reaffirm our strong commitment to the Paris Agreement, moving swiftly towards its full implementation in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances and, to this end, we agree to the G20 Hamburg Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth as set out in the Annex..."--G20, Declaration @ Hamburg, Germany dated 7-8 July 2017 pg 10--
* An articulate Australian political reporter summarizes the daily deplorable deception of our "new" alt-white-house. As party partisans come to its defense, Reince Priebus articulating the "profound" statement "...he [president] believes in the things he believes in...".
Really, we'll check back periodically and see what they "believe in" then...we've seen this movie before! It is shocking that anybody would defend our "new" alt-white-house! But, remember an estimated 63M of our citizenry voted for it!!!
It seems anomalous at best and schizophrenic at worse for our unfit, unstable, unpresidential "new" alt-white-house to so often forecast a dystopian future and lack any leadership on efforts to dramatically cut global greenhouse gases. Boiling off earth's atmosphere can get pretty dystopian, especially for our religious zealots (some might say wackos) who mostly envision a somewhat more "heavenly" future!
Kudos to Volvo for implicitly declaring the combustion engine† obsolete!
The combustion engine† has been obsolete and harmful for decades, but many corporate leaders seem petulantly focused on forestalling advancement to cleaner next generation products. In some cases implementing fraudulent and complex cheating schemes and cynically calling them "clean"!
† Expectations for our next generation industrialists must include the transparent and rapid obsolescence of harmful products. Science is not a cheerleader for industrialists it's their challenger and any intentional manipulation of science for purposes of product perpetuation must be castigated.
If our policymakers persist with their depraved practices of sacrificing our citizenry to the fast evolving global economy they can expect another hatemongering wingnut and charlatan to lead our nation. While globalization is beneficial sacrificing our citizenry is not!
Global markets are tools we use not tenets to we impose.
Our "new" alt-white-house is behaving like a toddler standing in the middle of a playground stomping his feet, screaming, crying, and pouting after everybody has left him behind.
Our EPA under Administrator Scott Pruitt is unlikely to carry out anything beneficial for America's future...chants of "Make America Great Again" by our "new" alt-white-house and its unfit and incompetent leaders et al. will not make it so...nor will delusions or conspiratorial assertions...or fake coal jobs data (e.g. Atlantic, The White House Exaggerated the Growth of Coal Jobs by About 5,000 Percent)
Total Coal Mining Jobs, in Thousands
Our citizens need not await a declaration by Congress or supporters that the unfit "new" alt-white-house's disjointed (some might say delusional) ramblings are irreparably harming our nation.
Kudos to our state, city, municipalities, business, and citizens for their efforts to make sure our nation will seamlessly comply with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement, which an incapacitated "new" alt-white-house is not able to do.
It is unclear how our "new" alt-white-house will "negotiate" with itself? All signatories to the Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change must carry out the Paris Agreement without our nation. Our nation will rejoin the Paris Agreement after we've solved several problems (e.g. senators opportunistically using "snowball science") with our current government. In the meantime many of our citizens, states, and congressional leaders can and will encourage our businesses to ignore our "new" alt-white-house's untenable decision and abide by the existing Paris Agreement.
Even with an unscientific, unfortunate, uncouth, unbalanced, untrustworthy, unacceptable, unAmerican, untruthful, unsavory, unsuitable, undemocratic, unethical, unprepared, unpresidential, unfit, uninformed, unbelievable, unhinged, unconstitutional, unintelligible, unpredictable, unpopular, unscrupulous, undignified, unimpeached, unpalatable, unviable, unsalvageable, and unreproved "new" alt-white-house America will do the right thing!
Our nation must proceed with all diligent speed to a minimum cap and trade carbon price of $60/tn CO2.
"...taking historic steps to lift restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion, and to cancel job-killing regulations,.."
Our "new" alt-white-house should disabuse itself of any notion that it's taking "historic" actions to remove job-killing regulations. We've historically listen to the same partisan dogma and nonsense for more than 30 years! (i.e. elimination of government intrusion and regulation is the cure-all or panacea.)
Those participating in our energy sector would be wise to assume a near energy future, which includes continued limits on coal usage. Signing an executive order implying coal is coming back is cynically cruel gimmick.
It's unclear what our "new" alt-white-house EPA administrator means when stating "...human activity in some manner impacts that [climate] change, the ability to measure with precision the degree of that impact and what to do about it are subject to continuing debate and dialog..." (@~32:10)
Our nation can simultaneously reduce anthropomorphic carbon loads while measuring the impacts of climate change with increasing precision! It's a bizarre assertion and twisted logic that requires our government not act until some unspecified measurement precision!
To our government's everlasting shame it permitted, if not actively encouraged this same bizarre and twisted logic to enable Big Tobacco to manufacture cigarettes, which is killing our citizenry by the hundreds of thousands a year to this day! Oh yah, and our scientists are still measuring with increasing precision how those cancers kill our citizenry!!
Suppression of data will likely be the preferred solution to our global warming problem during the alt-white-house's short-term.
Its actions should not dissuade all other nations and leading states (e.g. California, New York, Canada, China, E.U., Mexico et al.) from moving forward with efforts to limit carbon loads and protect the global environment.
Fortunately, old scientific speak is pushing back against our “new” alt-white-house speak (aka lying)!
Wow, comrade Trump is already generating preinaugural Nixonian-like enemies lists of DOE scientists.
On the bright side he hasn't begun shooting our climate or other scientists, yet. Perhaps, he's awaiting senate confirmation of his choice to head DOE, a religious zealot (wacko?) named Rick Perry2, to pray that our pesky climate scientists go away?
What can possibly go wrong at the DOE run by a praying clown under a comrade Trump government (regime?)?!!!
Kudos to Rhode Island's for its wind power pilot project, notwithstanding its initial higher price points or preinaugural comments by comrade Trump and his climate clowns.
If America's "Rust Belt" wants to continue rusting, their state leaders will "stick with Trump"! Our nation and the world is moving on to cleaner energy with or without the putative titular successor to President Obama!
Excellent! China works with Africa and America works with China (or not?) on reducing levels of greenhouse gases, notwithstanding prognostications that Trump's government (regime?) will prefer and pursue regressive unscientific goals and solutions.
Implementation rules are important to make sure that each nation's annual emissions reduction progress reports are directly comparable, both intranational and international over time.
India has ratified the Paris Agreement on October 02, 2016, effectuating the agreement's framework for signatory nations. Kudos Mr. President et al. (look forward to reporting at the annual SXSL)
Candidate Hillary Clinton is correct that the coal jobs are going away (fast), which is not to say that our current congressional leadership should not legislatively mitigate the impacts of the coal jobs displacement.
However, a significant proportion of our current congressional leadership are content to chant "free market", "lassie fair", political, and economic slogans instead of legislating policies that will mitigate the impacts of the coal jobs displacement.
It seems preferable to change the slogan chanting proportion of our current congressional leadership instead of criticizing her message.
We can't wait to begin studying each nation's plan to reduce their anthropomorphic atmospheric carbon loads and measuring the resultant global reductions.
As each nation's plan is analyzed and measured it will be useful to recall a quote oft attributed to W. Edward Deming: "In God We Trust, All Others Bring Data".
The expectation is that many more coal mines will follow. The unexpected is that our congressional leadership will tell our citizenry that "free market" laissie-faire neo-anarchists' sincerely and strongly held beliefs will autonomously mitigate the well-known and understood economic dislocations, which will occur.
The camera method of monitoring point source emission of methane is not so new, but it's nice that to learn that point source measures correlate well with regional measuring and monitoring.
Mr. President, no nation, developed or developing, should be required to choose between the rapacity of an economic system and a repressive military system, which your assertion at approximately 2:15 implies!
President Obama must make clear that our nation will lead by immediate implementation of the challenging changes required to ensure sustainably neutral anthropomorphic contribution to global warming.
Other world leaders must demonstrate this same leadership at the upcoming climate conference where hard decisions will be required to transition all global economies to cleaner forms of energy.
Delaying the formation of carbon markets (pollutants) will simply produce a higher initial price per pollutant tonnage, given a pollutant price-probability curve reasonably required to mitigate or offset the probable harm.
Negotiators must immediately establish global carbon markets notwithstanding pleas from the high polluters to slow-walk negotiations at the low end of a pollutant price-probability curve (e.g. $10/tonne CO2) or the low polluters to no-walk at the high end of a pollutant price-probability curve (e.g. $80/tonne CO2).
The current pollutant load has already effectively determined an outcome for the negotiations (e.g. between $20-$40/tonne CO2)—the sooner markets is are established for pollutants the sooner innovation can begin moving the price down the pollutant price-probability curve.
Which is not to say that the polluters' pleas are noise level—but what professional negotiator is not skilled at filtering the noise?
President lauds graduates and entreats their age demographic to aggressively accept climate change challenges required to reduce and mitigate its impacts.
Kudos to our President and EPA for the extraordinary efforts aimed at reducing the United States's contribution to atmospheric carbon loads—hopefully, swiftly pushing through the inevitable challenges and litigation!
Whatever else "government overreach" means it does not mean more accurately costing carbon's contributions to the United States economic activity.
Our coal users appear to use the phrase "government overreach" as a euphemism for continuing their unmeasured, unconstrained, unaccountable and uncontested burning of coal, regardless of the harm or external costs?
It's always been an illusion that the full costs of our energy usage can be externalized, but that illusion continues to delay, impede or prevent meaningful multilateral reforms necessary to immediately mitigate and minimize our energy usage.
All alternatives but international cooperation are excluded by these enormous global impacts and costs. Article includes a link to the Nature study citing an updated Page09 model (initially developed by the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change).
Hopefully, we will soon begin our "struggle" to reduce atmospheric CO2 loads, too.
The price of a 33 grams cartridge of C02 to fill bicycle tires is approximately $10. A metric ton of CO2 at this price is approximately $30,303.
A pollution permit priced at $6 per ton of CO2 seems like a bargain, even if the material cost for the metal bicycle tire fill cartridge is subtracted.
UPDATED 11/12/2012 NYT, E.U. Postpones Charges for Airline Emissions EU has postponed its mandatory carbon tax on airlines for a year to enable the global airline sector to voluntary adopt guidelines that reduce the amount of carbon they spewed into our atmosphere.
EU has threatened to reinstate its carbon tax if meaningful voluntary guidelines are not adopted within the postponement year.
Sadly, on the rare occasion when our totally dysfunctional Congress is able to agree on something, it's to impede efforts too reduce the carbon load spewed into the atmosphere by airlines.
Understandably some nations may not appreciate Germany's unilateral efforts to tax domestic and foreign airlines' carbon emission. However, instead of impeding Germany's nascent efforts to reduce carbon loads other nations must join those efforts by implementing common, cooperative, and complementary airline carbon-taxing schemes.
It seems useful to note that nature is not a respecter of human hubris or fairytales and that the fossil record indicates extinction is a more probable outcome than adaptation.
Substituting fairytales for facts and praying that "God" somehow solves a problem does not seem like an optimal adaptive strategy. Although, one can appreciate why those depending on such a strategy would incorporate "life after" extinction into their fairytale.
Additional transparency is required about "fracking methods" so its economic externality forecasts can be updated and compared with those related to "coal methods" (with and without CO2 sequestration).
India and all other national and international airlines must opt-in to the nascent EU carbon-reducing scheme and adopt carbon-reducing schemes of their own.
Eventually, all nations must jointly agree to attach carbon fees to every purchased aircraft (and other mobile carbon sources)—the sooner, the better.
We can expect some nations to pursue the most torturous path possible to delay reducing their anthropogenic atmospheric carbon loads.
Our major airline executives have misdirected their complaints to the EU for its nascent efforts to reduce our growing and harmful anthropogenic carbon loads.
Their complaints should be directed to all national governments and aircraft manufacturers for the purpose of encouraging them to pursue joint efforts aimed at immediately reducing our growing and harmful anthropogenic carbon loads.
Perhaps citizens living in the "carbon counter-measure nations" can express their preference for airlines and corporations, which join the EU's nascent efforts to immediately reduce atmospheric carbon loads?
"Under the draft EU proposal, tar sands are assigned a default greenhouse gas value of 107 grams of carbon per megajoule, showing buyers it has more environmental impact than conventional crude with 87.5 grams."
Reuters, EU won't drop aviation CO2 scheme: Instead of joining the urgently need efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions, specifically global CO2 (~390+ ppm), some nations are threatening retaliation. Hopefully, their retaliation will take the form of adopting a carbon-reducing scheme that includes airplanes.
