I've been mocking the hide-under-the-bed-and-cover-your-head thinking of the politics of limits for a long time. Idiotic policies like Kyoto and a gaggle of spiritually kindred national policies - especially but not uniquely in Europe - simply blink reality.

By 2020, China's burning of fossil fuels could annually emit carbon dioxide equal in mass to 2.5 billion metric tonnes of pure carbon and up to 2.9 billion tonnes, depending on varying scenarios for development and technology, the new report states. By 2030, those annual emissions may reach 3.1 billion tonnes a year and up to 4.0 billion tonnes.

That compares with global carbon emissions of about 8.5 billion tonnes in 2007.

...The U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimated that the United States emitted about 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon in 2007 . . .

This isn't news, it's just a news story. We've known this for a long time. If both Europe and the US ceased to exist - whisked away by omnipotent aliens to seed another planet - emissions would still exceed the natural draw down rate and concentrations would continue to rise.

The need for energy will continue to rise as it has for all of human history. All the childish talk about addictions - not just to fossil fuel but energy in all forms - is political and ideological manipulation for instrumental purposes. No one benefits except politicians and bureaucrats, and they only benefit in the short term. If you must see monsters in the mist, look there. We have some prime candidates on display here in the US at present.

This isn't a political issue, it's a technological issue that creeps and cranks exploit. The need for energy will not diminish unless civilization collapses, and even that will only be temporary. Using energy wisely is smart, but will not diminish the need for ever more of it - quite the opposite. The more we have and the better we use it the more we want and need. This isn't something to lament any more than living long and well is a misfortune that we must bear.

All the human energy - mental and physical - and all of the material resources that the world has squandered on the foolish notions of limits could have been more fruitfully applied to the real issue of producing more energy and using it effectively to achieve our objectives - including atmospheric management.

This will not happen so long as there are enough fools who will empower charlatans that promise impossible changes to societies and economies that will miraculously repeal reality.