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The Guardian and the  Independent both report today that a new study by the Global Carbon Project , led by Professor Corinne Le Quéré, of the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, has found that there has been a 29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008. This, writes the Independent,

means an annual increase in emissions of just over 3 per cent over the period, compared with an annual increase of 1 per cent between 1990 and 2000. Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000 and resulted from the boom in the Chinese economy.

And it means a far higher increas in global temperatures than predicted by the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast just two years ago. The study argues that we could be on course for a 6C rise in temperatures by 2100. If in doubt about the implications of such a rise, i.e. the combustion of the rainforests, the acidification of the oceans and the consequences of irreversable tipping points, I suggest you read Mark Lynas' book "Six Degrees. Our Future on a Hotter Planet", a detailed description of a truely apocalyptic future.

Yet there are still people around who do not accept the human factor in climate change. Thomas Friedman, the voice of choice for mainstream liberal America, rebukes these incorrigible deniers in his column in the New York Times today - from a purely American perspective and for pure self-interest ( and, yes, there could be worse reasons for campaigning for a change of America's energy policy).

So, as I said, you don't believe in global warming? You’re wrong, but I'll let you enjoy it until your beach house gets washed away. But if you also don't believe the world is getting more crowded with more aspiring Americans — and that ignoring that will play to the strength of our worst enemies, while responding to it with clean energy will play to the strength of our best technologies — then you’re willfully blind, and you're hurting America’s future to boot.

And the world's, I might add.

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... what has a melting glacier in Argentina  to do with hanging laundry outdoors in Florida?

Quite a bit.

An common sight in Europe (sometimes even a tourist attraction), hanging laundry in your back yard is  not allowed in parts of America. Many communities,  gated, private, otherwise, have specific rules against it. It pushes down property prices. Or that's what they believe - clotheslines make a neighborhood look poor. But since everybody uses a dryer instead, by NOT hanging your washing you are producing a lot of CO2.

In fact, writes Alexander P. Lee from the Project Laundry List,

the tumble dryer is the second largest energy-consuming appliance...There is no such sense as an Energy Star dryer; these machines are inherently inefficient, using natural gas or electricity to heat air.

Some Americans start to question these community rules and  try to change it,  writes the New York Times.

Should Americans have the right to hang their laundry outdoors, even if many of their neighbors oppose it and community rules ban clotheslines as unsightly threats to property values? Legislators in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have prohibited anti-clothesline rules, and similar action is being considered in several other states.

If the rules are changed, it would be inefficient, energy-wasting suburbia that could help prevent emissions. And yes, laundry will smell a lot nicer.