I saw a blog that compared gold prices with oil prices. It was a Ron Paul related blog and so I did not dive too deeply in, but it did have one graph that showed the price of gold as compared to the price of oil. They were in lock step.

It is not that oil prices are moving up.

It is that the dollar is moving down.

If we were Einstein, we would not be able to tell which one was moving since it is all relative. But we have other currencies and other commodities to compare oil with.

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I always took with a strong pinch of salt the aviation industry’s claims that they are working to become environmentally friendly. In this profit-ridden, ruthless business, the point is to get more people flying. And thus increase carbon emissions.

So it’s no surprise that a report that had been ’suppressed’ (an euphemism for censored), and which has now come to public attention, has revealed that climate change emissions by the airline industry, airport noise, and local air pollution are all trending sharply upwards. All this according to a report based on information contained in U.S., European and UK government databases maintained by regulatory agencies. The technical report was submitted to the 7th US/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar held in Barcelona, Spain last summer.

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Jamie Lerner is something of a hero in green, sustainable urban planning. He’s become known for creating a strategic vision of cities for people, not for cars.

As one of Brazil’s most popular mayors, Lerner was elected three times. He helped transform the southern city of Curitiba from a collection of shanty towns to a pleasant and sustainable city of three million. In the video below, Lerner talks about sustainability from a city planning perspective and the role it plays in the fight against climate change.

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Last week we blogged about the US presidential candidates’ stance on climate change, and concluded that Obama and Clinton were very similar, although we thought Clinton was somewhat more advanced because of her views on nuclear power, which she rejects unless improvements are made.
However, No Impact Man has written a blog that got us thinking differently. He mentioned an editorial in the New York Times that said:

Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton have hit on a new way to pander to American voters: a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The proposal may draw applause and votes from Americans feeling the pain of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline. But it is an expensive and environmentally unsound policy that would do nothing to help American drivers… Fortunately, Mr. Obama has not caved to the rising calls for cheap energy and has refused to follow his rivals down this misguided path…

No Impact Man rightly points out that the proposal clearly indicates how McCain or Clinton would treat the climate issue if they became president. That is, not seriously at all. Decreeing a tax holiday on gasoline is like offering cheaper liquor to a recovering alcoholic. Not a wise idea.

So, congratulations to Obama for not lowering his politics to such a populist and irresponsible level. Clinton and McCain have betrayed the best interests of the American public and the world at large.