Whenever the issue of climate change is discussed in the Mainstream media the first thing the pundits do is to reach for their trump cards. Who needs to stop burning coal - coal can be clean! Look here. Trump. Carbon Capture and Storage! Beat that hippie!

So Corporate Watch is investigating these technologies, the good, the bad and the ugly, from Solar Thermal Power to giant
mirrors in space! And in the form of a Top Trumps game we'll be giving you the low down on how they work. We'll rate them
on viability, effectiveness, sustainability, and to what extent they are being used by governments and corporations for spin. Soon you too will be able to join in the top trumps
game, with knowledge at your fingertips.

Viability rating
Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by 60% by 2030. If a technology is to be a viable solution to climate change it needs to not only work, but scaled up in the next ten years. Many of the proposals we hear about - nuclear fusion,
carbon capture and storage, second generation biofuels, hydrogen - they simply won't be available in time to help us lower emissions sufficiently to stop catastrophic climate
chaos.

Effectiveness rating
Some of the 'solutions' we are hearing about don't actually reduce emissions! Hydroelectric power from big dam projects actually produces greenhouse gases, because as the water level rises and falls methane is released from decaying plants. In the tropics dams can have a greater climate change impact than using fossil fuels.

Sustainability rating
It's important that we don't forget about all other social and ecological impacts in our search for low carbon technologies.
Replacing all our gadgets with energy efficient ones is all very well but have we thought about all the extra plastic that
would need?

Scarily some wing nut scientists are researching geo-engineering' solutions:
Manipulating planetary systems to try to reverse the greenhouse effect. Research is going into spraying sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, dumping ship-loads of iron particles into oceans to promote plankton growth, spraying seawater into the air to manufacture clouds (increasing
the and using millions of sunshades in space to deflect some of the sun's rays.

With any of these technologies we have simply no idea what the effect would be on the one planet we know we can live on.
Nuclear Power is perhaps the ultimate unsustainable 'low carbon' technology. Uranium mining is a highly destructive
industry, before we even get on to worrying about the toxic waste we have to keep safe for millennia. Imagine explaining to your descendants why it was that, not content with burning all of the fossil fuels we can get our hands on and pushing
every ecosystem on the planet to the point of collapse, we have left them sitting on a ticking time bomb of nuclear
waste. When we did, after all, have another way out. Using less.

Spin rating
Just as dangerous as the climate deniers are the climate decoys. If we believe that a technological breakthrough is just around the corner then we are less likely to take difficult decisions about the impact of our lifestyles and how
much we really need. During the Climate Camp of 2006, Drax - the UK's biggest coal fired power station, made a big show of using biomass for a portion of it's fuel. This was widely and uncritically reported by most of the media. This year, as the Climate Camp came to Heathrow, the British Aviation Authority made much of their new 'eco' terminal. But since the emissions
from Heathrow's planes are worse than that of most countries,
it's not exactly the most effective thing they could do to reduce their ecological footprint.

We cannot protect our way of life. We are facing a time of big choices and fundamental questions. We have to apply our collective genius to find ways of living within the planet's means - but this cannot happen while the development of technology is led by profit driven corporations. If we don't tackle corporate power we won't tackle climate change.
A full report into the 'Technofix Top Trumps' complete with online top trumps game will be out in December. The Final
Trumps may change from the ones shown here.