Will China, India learn to carpool?

Some people are global-warming skeptics. I'm more of a global-warming fatalist. I think we're cooking the planet all right. I just doubt we'll ever do much to stop, which is why we'll need to put more effort into coping with climate change.

Several factors can explain my outlook, but recently I came across one that is especially telling. The Census Bureau has found that carpooling in this great land of ours is way down since 1980 - despite the advent of the Internet, which is ideal for things like, oh, bringing together people with similar routes for the purpose of sharing rides.

The near-demise of carpooling goes with the plummeting cost of driving, which, adjusted for inflation, has fallen by roughly half since 1980. Sure enough, the Census Bureau reports that only 10 percent of American workers typically shared a ride to work in 2009, versus 20 percent in 1980.

Let's face it, no one really wants to carpool. People prefer to come and go without waiting for colleagues, stop at the store en route home, or leave early for a dental visit. Time and patience are scarce.

Parking and gasoline, on the other hand, are not, at least after factoring in the overall cost of living. And so we drive all over the place. Alone.

Overall, 76 percent drove to work alone in 2009, up from 64 percent in 1980. Transit commuting and walking to work are both down. Although twice as many people work at home compared with 1980, that number is still just 4 percent.

Is there any reason to think people in China and India, the world's largest developing economies, will act any different? Car ownership is booming in both, which together have more than 2 billion citizens.

Overall, the Census Bureau data for the United States is dispiriting. More than 85 percent of Americans with jobs get to them by a car, and in general transportation accounts for a quarter of U.S. greenhouse emissions.

Carpooling thus has a vast potential to cut traffic and pollution, combat global warming - and reduce the flow of dollars to nasty regimes whose rulers too often fail to use them for the benefit of their people.

Carpooling is also faster than public transportation. People who share a ride spend only an extra four minutes commuting compared to those who drive alone, but transit riders spend twice as long as lone drivers. (For the record, the mean travel time to work for solo drivers is 24 minutes.)

But nobody's much interested. And the truth is, I'm not even sure it matters, because our unwillingness to share a ride is far from the only thing that is in all likelihood condemning us to a warmer planet in the decades ahead.

Although we claim to love clean energy, we aren't too keen on nuclear power, and wind turbines are great as long as they are invisible. Better to build 5,000-square-foot "green" homes and use canvas grocery bags. It feels great to do something for the environment, doesn't it?

Just as I am doubtful that we Americans will do much to reduce our carbon footprint, I am also doubtful the world's nations can muster the cooperation to head off serious climate change. People in developing nations understandably want the same comforts and conveniences that we enjoy, including cars, air conditioning and red meat. These things are all carbon intensive.

That doesn't mean we ought to give up. There are good reasons for reducing fossil-fuel consumption, including saving money. And why make things any worse? Cutting emissions is not only worthwhile but plausible. The advent of electric cars, for instance, ought to help. Even though we'll probably drive them alone.