Felix Salmon, a financial journalist who blogs for Reuters, attended a panel discussion earlier this week in Los Angeles at the Milken Institute, entitled, "Solving Climate Change: Plan B." According to Salmon's dispatch, the consensus view from the panelists was that "there's essentially zero chance that a cap-and-trade bill will become law in the foreseeable future." Well, that's not exactly news, is it? What might be surprising and perhaps disconcerting to those who argue that changing individual behaviors are necessary to help reduce the kinds of carbon-intensive actions (such as flying and driving) that contribute to global warming, is this from Salmon:
One message I did get from the panel is that individual attempts to minimize our carbon footprint are not going to make any real difference. When I see people suffering a significant loss of utility because they're watching their footprint and refuse to fly, for instance, it's pretty ...
