With No Obama Push, Senate Punts on Climate - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Could it be that the White House has concluded what some political analysts have quietly told me — that only a Republican president could muster the Senate votes to pass a meaningful climate bill?

[Selling the scam to nonbelievers] - Climate change should be billed as a 'health' not 'environmental' disaster - The Ecologist

Public may be more likely to accept responsibility for climate change and support mitigation action if they see it as a threat to human health, suggests research

[Remember the good old days, when CO2 levels may have been lower, and when life expectancy was 24 years?] - This Wonderful Lengthening of Lifespan

With few exceptions, 30,000 days is the average human lifespan - 40,000 if you're lucky. However, two-thousand years ago average life expectancy was less than 20 years or about 7,000 days. It is difficult to imagine, but most of our ancestors kicked the bucket before our modern legal drinking age.

Bacteria, predators, accidents, extremes in weather and the lack of a reliable food source meant humans led short, dirty, brutal existences. That is if they survived birth at all. Infant mortality rates ranged from 300 or 400 deaths per 1,000 live births in the 18th century, while we see only seven per 1,000 today.

In 1796, life expectancy hovered around 24 years. A hundred years later it doubled to 48. In our modern world of air conditioners, hand washing and booster shots, you have a good chance of living 63 years, which is the world average. However, for those fortunate enough to live in a first-world country, lifespan jumps considerably.

China to Establish Domestic Carbon Trading Program By 2015 : TreeHugger

[Well, actually, it's not a done deal, but according to some anonymous person, it could happen, or not] According to an insider speaking to China Daily on condition of anonymity, the carbon trading program is needed to help the nation meet its 2020 carbon intensity target, but "a debate is still ongoing among experts and industries regarding what approach should be adopted."

Apparently the debate (not surprisingly) is essentially similar to the one occurring in the US : Should the system start with just selected industries, should absolute caps on emissions for certain industries be imposed, should the country's existing carbon intensity reduction targets be converted into a carbon-related allowances for certain industries.