The Center for American Progress has a terrific new report on “Global Warming and the Future of Coal,” by Ken Berlin and Robert Sussman.

The report explores what to do about the explosive growth in coal plant construction projected for the coming quarter century — 1,400 gigawatts of electricity by 2030, with more than 10% in the U.S. alone.

In the absence of emission controls, these new plants will increase worldwide annual emissions of carbon dioxide by approximately 7.6 billion metric tons by 2030. These emissions would equal roughly 50 percent of all fossil fuel emissions over the past 250 years.

So we must have emissions controls on the vast majority of those plants. The report looks at a variety of policy measures that might achieve that goal and recommends

Requiring all new coal power plants to meet an “emission performance” standard that limits CO2 emissions to levels achievable with CCS systems.

That is the best way to maintain coal’s viability in a carbon-constrained world.

Watch Bob Sussman discuss the report (YouTube)

Watch Ken Berlin discuss the report (YouTube)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A polar bear walks into a bar and says, “When are you going to take action on global warming?”

The bartender, President Bush, says, “If you wait until the very end of my term, maybe we’ll set a goal for 2050. By the way, we don’t get many polar bears in here.”

The bear says, “And with these policies, you won’t be getting many more!” [Ba-dum-bum-CHING! Rimshot -- okay, technically a "sting" for all you Wikipedia nerds!]

Seriously, though, the president who invented the double-U turn on climate — who has been blocking real international goal-setting — said today,

So my proposal is this: By the end of next year [translation, when I am almost outta here], America and other nations will set a long-term [translation, when we are all long dead] global goal for reducing greenhouse gases.

Read more

at 10:45 a.m. unless I get bumped by breaking news.

The subject is not global warming but what this hurricane season may do to oil prices. I will post a video when it’s available.

Yes, the guy in charge of our manned space missions, in charge of our Earth observation, heck, even in charge of our our top climate scientist, James Hansen, is a global warming denier, a Luddite.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin gave his amazing views about climate change on NPR today:

To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change. First of all, I don’t think it’s within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown. And second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.

So it is arrogant to want to preserve the climate that gave us human civilization, to avoid 80 feet of sea level rise, mass desertification, and the like. He really needs to talk to one of his employees about just what dangerous climate change means for this planet.

Note to self–do not fly on any space shuttles while this guy is in charge of making sure all the sophisticated technology works as planned.

The Best of The Top Songs About Global Warming:

• Another One Burns to Dust
• Surfin’ East L.A.
• I Want to Scald Your Land
• All My Exes Emit Greenhouse Gasses
• Hot’rnhell California
• Big Girls Don’t Fry
• We Didn’t Start the Fire, Because There Is No Fire; Well, Maybe There Is a Fire, but We’re Not Fueling It — It Was Always Burning While the World Was Turning; OK, We Are Fueling It, But We Won’t Put It Out Because It’s Not Profitable to Do So (Yet)
• Ice, Ice, Maybe
• Dry Me a River
• (I Can’t Get No) ‘Fridgeration
  and the Number 1 Song About Global Warming…
• You Can Cool Me, Al