What’s not to like about cap and trade?

Barack Obama once promoted "Cap and Trade" as an alleged method for reducing carbon emissions, but has since backed off of that idea. Thank goodness, because cap and trade is a terrible approach for several major reasons that are well illustrated by this video, "The Story of Cap & Trade" by Annie Leonard. Now, if we can only get Barack Obama to quit using the term "clean coal" as if such a thing is economically feasible.

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Clean Energy 101

If you want a good starting point for learning the facts about clean energy, The Union of Concerned Scientists is offering an excellent resource, "Clean Energy 101." If you'd like to learn about the pollution caused by coal plants, and how sustainable energy would cut this pollution, check the article called "Benefits of Renewable Energy."

A Typical Coal PlantA typical 500-megawatt coal plant produces 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year -- enough to power a city of about 140,000 people. It burns 1.4 million tons of coal (the equivalent of 40 train cars of coal each day) and uses 2.2 billion gallons of water each year. In an average year, this one plant also generates the following: 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide, equivalent to half a million late-model cars 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to cutting down 100 million trees 500 tons of small particles 220 tons of hydrocarbons 720 tons of carbon monoxide 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber 170 pounds of mercury, 225 pounds of arsenic, 114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, and other toxic heavy metals Trace amounts of uranium
Here are each of the main topics covered:

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On so-called atheist regimes

At the blog of Sam Harris, Steven Pinker points out that there is no legitimate frame of reference for characterizing murderous regimes to be "atheist," despite their lack of religiosity:

First, the premise that Nazism and Communism were “atheist” ideologies makes sense only within a religiocentric worldview that divides political systems into those that are based on Judaeo-Christian ideology and those that are not. In fact, 20th-century totalitarian movements were no more defined by a rejection of Judaeo-Christianity than they were defined by a rejection of astrology, alchemy, Confucianism, Scientology, or any of hundreds of other belief systems. They were based on the ideas of Hitler and Marx, not David Hume and Bertrand Russell, and the horrors they inflicted are no more a vindication of Judeao-Christianity than they are of astrology or alchemy or Scientology. Second, Nazism and Fascism were not atheistic in the first place. Hitler thought he was carrying out a divine plan. Nazism received extensive support from many German churches, and no opposition from the Vatican. Fascism happily coexisted with Catholicism in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Croatia.

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To spend or not to spend

According to this article at MSNBC, the failure of U.S. consumers to spend lots of money has screwed up the U.S. economy:

For the time being, it looks like American consumers are AWOL. And until they come back, don't expect to see any real recovery in economic growth and the job market. Consumer spending typically accounts for roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economy.
But here's another way of looking at things. Annie Leonard has made a good case that out-of-control consumer spending has been wrecking our society, as she explains in "The Story of Stuff." Leonard now offers a free school curriculum based on The Story of Stuff. It is called "Buy, Use, Toss?"

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