Personal Emission Cards

But would you hand over an ID card every time you filled up your gas tank? Would you let the government track each time you turned on your washing machine or computer? How about your nose-hair trimmer?

Residents of the U.K. might soon be compelled to take such measures. Although it hasn't received much publicity outside the climate-research community, the dry-sounding yet radical idea of "Domestic Tradable Quotas" -- basically, personal energy rationing -- already has some influential backers in Britain.