First the good news. Discussions seem to be moving forward between Canada and the US on a cap-and-trade system to put a limit on emissions and allow industry to buy and sell emissions rights.

But as the economy continues to slow down, everyone seems to be getting nervous about the negative consequences of cap-and-trade schemes. Understandable, sure.  Yet one has to wonder whether there ever will be a good time to consider the positive ones.

There are now reports out of Australia this week that its carbon trading plan needs rethinking, because of the burden imposed on businesses.  And there are similar concerns in Europe.  The European Roundtable of Industrialists recently sent a letter to the European Union Commission warning that the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) threatens to destroy the competitiveness of European industry.

Of course, there’s always another side to the story. In fact large European emitters are dumping their pollution permits (to emit a certain amount of GHG) on the market. Why? Because for many of them, industrial output has fallen so low that they don’t have to pollute as much. And since permits were mostly given out free when the ETS was set up, their sale allows firms to cash in while making few environmental sacrifices. The problem is that the sell-off is depressing the price of carbon, thereby making renewables projects less affordable.

The point of putting a price on carbon was to change behaviour (better achieved through a carbon tax, if you ask me), not save businesses from slipping into the red. Obviously we want a system that will allow business to thrive. But why should a downturn be reason enough to deter countries from making progress in curbing their emissions? First, let’s get the rules in place. The economics will then follow. Adjustment can be made afterwards.

Time to heed the words of the Iron Lady.

I just came across an amazing car entering production in California. It is called the Aptera and it is beautiful. Powered electrically, a 100 mile range and the upcoming hybrid version gets a mind-boggling 300 mpg. Who says the whole world can’t have cars? It is safe, sleek and damn cool. Though not as fast as a Tesla Roadster, it is much more affordable (28k vs. 100k for the Tesla).

Last week, I spoke about how automation can help us break the Malthusian cycle, this is just another example of how we can have our cake and eat it too. One of the things that I love with the Aptera is their attention to detail. They have completly redesigned the windshield wiper to avoid any drag. A traditional windshield wiper on a traditional car has MORE drag than the entire Aptera! Their fantastic website has a lot more information; but in short,  they have completely re-thought how cars should be built.

At Nimonik, we are constantly fine tuning the look, feel and words on the site. Details matter, a lot. Personally, I am holding out on any car purchase until I can get an electric car, just a couple more years…

Here is a review from Popular Mechanics:

Travel back in time to see historical imagery, dive below the surface of the ocean and record a tour of your journeys…

Today Google Inc. announced the launch of Google Earth 5.0 which includes a new feature: Ocean in Google Earth which combines sea floor terrain and expert content to provide users with an opportunity to explore some of the most difficult-to-reach parts of the world.

• Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google said:

  “In discussions about climate change, the world’s oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue. About one-third of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere ends up in the oceans. Furthermore, biodiversity loss in our oceans in the next 20-30 years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, but this goes unnoticed because we can’t see it. This is why today’s launch of Google Earth 5.0 is so important - it gives us an opportunity to change everyone’s perspective.”

  Al Gore also made a speech at the launch event in San Francisco:

  “With this latest version of Google Earth you can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet’s surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world’s oceans that cover almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions of this magical experience. (…) Moreover, with the new historical imagery feature, you can look back in time and see for yourself the unprecedented pace of change taking place on the Earth — largely because of human influences. For example, you can watch the melting of the largest glacier in Glacier National Park—the Grinnell Glacier—image by image, for the last decade.”

We are very pleased to offer the world our federal information free, without a any sort of login. Simply visit http://www.nimonikapp.ca

Since the new version, we have offered federal content free to those who create an account, but we found many people were turned off by the hassle of creating yet another username and password. We understand. To remove that burden, we have made our Federal information (Bulletins, Legislation and Topics) available without any sort of login. The interface is not as nice as the one you get with an account, but it should give you a taste of the site.

Also, you cannot comment or create facilities without an account, but again, we hope this gives you the incentive to sign up for one of our affordable plans. 

Send us any comments or feedback you might have.