Earth Equity News

Candidates Not Focused on the Climate Crisis. Commentary by Nicholas D. Kristof, NYTimes, April 20, 2008. "Three respected climate experts made that troubling argument in an important essay in Nature this month, offering a sobering warning that the climate problem is much bigger than anticipated. That's largely because of increased use of coal in booming Asian economies. For example, imagine that we instituted a brutally high gas tax that reduced emissions from American vehicles by 25 percent. That would be a stunning achievement -- and in just nine months, China's increased emissions would have more than made up the difference. China and the United States each produces more than one-fifth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. China's emissions are much smaller per capita but are soaring: its annual increase in emissions is greater than Germany's total annual emissions... The next president should start a $20 billion-a-year program (financed by a pullout from Iraq) to develop new energy technologies, backed by a carbon tax and cap-and-trade system. Each of the presidential candidates favors some form of a cap-and-trade and would mark a step forward from President Bush's passivity -- although John McCain's recent proposal for a summer holiday from the gas tax would be a deplorable step in exactly the wrong direction, unless he hopes to turn his land in Arizona into coastal property. The bottom line is that none of the candidates focus adequately on climate change, for this will be one of humanity's great tests in the coming decades - and so far we're failing."