NASA researchers confirm that automobiles are the planet’s #1 source of emissions of substances suspected of causing anthropogenic global warming:

In a paper published online on Feb. 3 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Unger and colleagues described how they used a climate model to estimate the impact of 13 sectors of the economy from 2000 to 2100. They based their calculations on real-world inventories of emissions collected by scientists around the world, and they assumed that those emissions would stay relatively constant in the future.

In their analysis, motor vehicles emerged as the greatest contributor to atmospheric warming now and in the near term. Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it.

The NASA scientists say, correctly, that conventional reports on climate change focus on chemicals, rather than the sources of the chemicals in actual economic sectors. Only by focusing on the latter, they argue, can we “identify effective opportunities for rapid mitigation of anthropogenic radiative forcing.”

So, if cars are the #1 source of anthropogenic global warming, what do you imagine might be the #1 policy requirement for rapid mitigation of the problem? Rather obvious, but utterly unmentionable…

I live in Portland, Oregon, which receives tons of praise for being the “Amsterdam of the United States,” meaning the best place to ride a bicycle for actual transportation.

This shows how pathetic our expectations are in this society, since Portland, Oregon, USA is a damned dangerous and unfriendly place for cyclists.  It is 99 percent given over to automobiles-über-alles.  This contrasts with the 99.8 percent rate for the rest of the nation.

Last week, however, the real and growing anti-car, pro-bicycle grassroots movement here succeeded in pressing the Portland City Council to pass (though not to fully fund, of course) the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030.

If enacted, this plan would divert $600 million of the city’s future transit spending into construction of cycling infrastructure, with the stated goal of having 25 percent (i.e. one percentage point less than prevailed in Amsterdam circa 2001) of all Portland commuting done via bike by 2030.

The opponents of this plan?  The usual suspects: the Portland Business Alliance, and the local right-wing, corporation-pimping capitalist-libertarian flak tank, a.k.a., the Cascade Policy Institute.

Neither of these leading lights concedes the first iota of the idea that cars-first transportation is going to burn up the planet’s petroleum supply in the next few decades.  Citizens should remember this for future reference.

Meanwhile, the Portland Business Alliance continues its fine tradition of asking for things simply because it wants things, the planet, the city, and the people be damned:

We urge that investments made in pedestrian and bicycling modes will be considered in coordination with other modes with the intention of improving the overall operation of the transportation system, and we encourage added language making that clear.

Write the date down.  Today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal is running an op-ed saying the following, in a story titled “The Next Crisis: Prepare for Peak Oil”:

But the work of the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security shouldn’t be disparagingly dismissed. Its arguments are well founded and lead it to the conclusion that, while the global downturn may have delayed it by a couple of years, peak oil—the point at which global production reaches its maximum—is no more than five years away.

Corporate politicians and the corporate media have kept this colossal issue under tight wrap so far.