flap and trade

“Cap and trade also did little to improve public health. Coal emissions are still significant contributing factors in four of the five leading causes of mortality in the United States — and mercury, arsenic and various coal pollutants also cause birth defects, asthma and other ailments. Yet cap-and-trade schemes are still being pursued in Copenhagen and Washington.”

Or so says James Hansen (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies) in The New York Times.

This is the missing link in the climate change scenario – pollution is toxic to most vertebrates, including Homo erectus asphaltus. You don’t need global warming to make the heady decision to rid the atmosphere of noxious fumes. And we’ve known this for decades.

posted by Mudd