Green Options

Chances are, if you run a major polluting company, you’re not reading cleantechnica. But you never know. So here’s my advice, based on my experience writing about energy; gathered into one easy quick read for the non-eco reader, on how a polluting company can benefit from the new energy bill requirements to cut carbon emissions.

Friday the 13th just got a little scarier. Here are 13 facts about the realities of global warming.

The numbers speak for themselves — we must make 2009 the showdown year for global warming action. There is no time to lose.

35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don’t dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

You don’t see commercials for biotech companies that do stem-cell research do it. You’re not seeing wind turbine manufacturers buy ad-time doing it. So why is it that the “clean coal” industry group running primetime television commercials taking soundbites and snippets from what Pres. Obama has said about coal.

Big coal’s presence throughout this long election season as a major sponsor of the presidential debates stands in striking opposition to the absence of any substantive political discussions about climate change in the debates themselves. And now Sierra Club is pushing back.