Clive Hamilton Says:

"In sum, the most important assumptions on which international negotiations and national policies are founded—that we can stabilise the climate at some level, that overshooting and returning to a lower target is feasible, and that we can accommodate 2 or more degrees of warming by adapting to it—have no foundation in the way the Earth’s climate system actually behaves. When one understands these facts, the state of political debate around the world takes on an air of unreality. Rich country policies—including cutting emissions by a few per cent and outsourcing most of the cuts to developing countries; waiting for carbon capture and storage technology to save the coal industry and continuing to pollute at high levels until that happens; planning the construction of new coal-fired power plants; and even, in Australia, entertaining the idea of exporting brown coal—are so at odds with the scale and urgency of the emission cuts demanded by the science as to be almost laughable. They reflect a child-like belief that climate change can be averted by ignoring the truth and hoping for the best, a form of wishful thinking whose costs will prove incalculable."

- Clive Hamilton
Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics in Australia.

Arlington County installs new bike signal on Custis trail

Arlington County has installed a bike-only signal in the Rosslyn area of the Custis Trail at the corner of N. Oak Street and Lee Highway, which went into service on Tuesday, May 17.  This is one of the intersections on the "Rosslyn Hill" section of the Custis that includes several crossings.  There have been collisions at some of these crossings in the past.  This area is definitely the most dangerous section of the Custis Trail.


View Custis Trail bike signal location in a larger map


Even the IEA can't do math. No one understands growth!!

I was looking at the IAE statistics about coal, and I came across a couple of different statements that stand in sharp contrast.  First there was this:
Total recoverable reserves of coal around the world are estimated at 909 billion tons—reflecting a current reserves-to-production ratio of 129 years.  Historically, estimates of world recoverable coal reserves, although relatively stable, have declined gradually from 1,145 billion tons in 1991 to 1,083 billion tons in 2000 and 909 billion tons in 2008.  Although the decline in estimated reserves is sizable, the large reserves-to-production ratio for world coal indicates that sufficient coal will be available to meet demand well into the future. (emphasis mine)
Above this statement on the same page was this graph

accompanied by this statement:
The growth rate for coal consumption is uneven, averaging 1.1 percent per year from 2007 to 2020 and 2.0 percent per year from 2020 to 2035.

Corporate Responsibility & Energy as Design - May 17 event at House of Sweden

House of Sweden on the Potomac River
I want to bring to your attention an upcoming event that may be of interest here in DC.  This was forwarded to me from Maja Persson, a friend and colleague who works at the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce.

Please note the information about RSVPing


The perfect bike trail bollard installation

For those of you have read my previous post on this topic, you will know that I am not a fan of bollards on bike trails.  Hence this photo of what I consider to be the perfect bollard installation.