Editor's note: This post is part of a series. We'll be releasing one of Worldchanging ally Andy Lubershane's original comics each week until the end of the year. While many of the issues covered in the comics have been discussed on Worldchanging in the past, we hope that you'll be able to use this new medium in a different way … whether it's in your classroom, on your office wall, or to help explain ideas to friends and family.

This week's cartoon describes Cap and Trade and Cap and Dividend strategies. Both are methods for regulating the amount of carbon that companies are allowed to emit into the atmosphere. Both limit the maximum amount of carbon that can be legally emitted by issuing a set number of carbon permits, but each one has a different method for dealing with the permits from a financial standpoint. Our allies at the Sightline Institute have produced excellent research and useful writing on this topic, much of which has been cross-posted here on Worldchanging (cap and dividend is even part of the recommendations for a bright green economic recovery outlined in our letter to President elect Barack Obama). You can read more on cap and trade, cap and dividend, and other carbon-capping options by searching our archives.

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Andy Lubershane researches, writes and cartoons about sustainability from his home in Boston. He can be reached at alubershane[at]gmail[dot]com.