Climate Change? What Climate Change?

Science & Technology (alternative energy)

President Bush calling for offshore drilling

Perhaps we spent too much time watching Monty Python movies and singing "Always look on the bright side of life," but we thought that there was perhaps a good side to high gas prices, that people would change their habits to adapt, and suddenly the world would be filled with small efficient cars, lots of mass transit, all food would be locally grown and every new home would be New Urbanist or multifamily, mainly in reborn Buffaloes or Detroits with a bicycle in every garage and an organic chicken in every pot. Oh, and CO2 levels would drop like a stone in this bucolic New Jerusalem.

Alas, it is not to be; instead, the instructions from the Wall Street Journal are Drill! Drill! Drill! and George Bush, perhaps with an eye towards the fuel riots going on around the world, jumps and proposes the new Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: 1) drilling offshore, 2) drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 3) adding refineries, and 4) extracting oil from shale, which makes the Alberta Tar Sands look environmentally benign.

Andy Revkin notes that " President Bush’s statement today on oil could be interpreted by some as proof positive, at least for the final months of this administration, that oil still trumps broader energy and climate issues." You can read the entire Bush speech at ::Dot Earth.

Europe Switching Back To Coal
Over in Europe, utilities are switching back to dirty coal from expensive natural gas, and buying carbon credits to offset it. "Yet another reminder that tackling climate change is a mind-bender. And that there’s no free lunch." ::Wall Street Journal

So much for the New Rationalism.

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