Carbon Global Market Reached 8.3 Billion in 2009 and is Poised for Robust Growth Post 2012

Carbon substantiality is now a core business issue.

The Golden Arches and Energy Policy | Transit Miami

This morning CNBC reported that 65% of McDonalds’ sales are derived from their drive-thru business. As long as we have drive-thrus in this country we can pretty much forget about any real serious energy policy.

[We're all gonna die: Average American burns 1/6 gallon of gas annually waiting in drive-thrus]

The good people at the Sierra Club point out that “the average McDonald's drive-through wait is 159 seconds, [so] we can calculate that the company's consumers burn some 7.25 million gallons of gas each year. The figure for the entire US fast-food industry? Roughly 50 million gallons.” The club contends that expansion by fast food chains in China and India will boost that burn rate to 30 billion gallons a year.

These worries have sparked a mad dash to rid municipalities across North America of drive-thrus.

Flashback: Obama Burned 9,000 Gallons of Jet Fuel for One Earth Day Speech | NewsBusters.org

President Barack Obama burned roughly 9,000 of jet fuel yesterday, Earth Day, and that only to deliver one speech in Iowa, reports CBS News's Mark Knoller in an April 22 Political Hotsheet blog post.

[Gore's hoax makes this woman sad]: 16 tips for avoiding climate burnout | Gillian Caldwell - Grist

I have spent my lifetime face to face with some of the most brutal and inhumane acts ever committed, but nothing has been as traumatizing for me as trying to get action to tackle the climate crisis.

As a long time human rights defender and prior Executive Director at WITNESS, I helped produce and direct films on rape as a weapon of war and amputations in Sierra Leone's recent bloody conflict, I conducted an undercover investigation into the Russian mafia's involvement in trafficking women for forced prostitution, I investigated hit squads in apartheid South Africa, and I spent countless hours in editing rooms watching first hand images of death, destruction, and devastation.

But spending my days and nights trying to get our country to tackle global warming is more emotionally demanding than any job I have ever done.

Gillian Caldwell | Grist

Gillian Caldwell is campaign director for 1Sky.