the shape of things to come, maldives version

The Maldives' government has held a cabinet meeting. Underwater. The way their low-lying island country will be if we don't come to grips with climate change, pronto.

those climate skeptics, what a bunch

Climate change skeptics in Congress -- all Republicans, naturally -- had their day, holding a news conference to announce an alternative to the Democratic cap and trade bill in Congress.

They're feeling a bit besieged, these skeptics. But there's no reason to feel sorry for them - they held the White House for the last eight years, doing incalculable damage to efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and maybe prevent or mitigate global warming.

If I weren't opposed to torture, that crowd would be good candidates for some enhanced interrogations. We could ask, do you REALLY not believe the science, or are you merely protecting the interests of big business? In other words, are you stupid or are you venal?

For Ohio Republican John Boehner, the stupid part is true if he really thinks somebody is suggesting that carbon dioxide is a carcinogenic...

industry is self-serving?

Well whaddaya know? The Global Climate Coalition, which despite the innocuous name worked for Big Oil and Big Coal and other industry to obfuscate and smother the discussion over the damage greenhouse gases are doing and the implications for climate and the future of human civilization, really DID know that they were full of shit on the science.

They really DID know - or at least were told by the scientists they employed who had not sold their souls - that “The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied”. That was from an internal GCC report. Written in 1995.

And yet they denied and lied and blurred. All in the name of protecting profits and bonuses and the shareholder. Never mind the damage done to the human race and the unfortunate animals and plants that have to share the planet with us.

Can't we execute some of these people? Pour encourage les autres? Unfortunately I'm opposed to the death penalty, and technically they probably haven't committed a crime in the legal sense. But even more than spewing emissions, LYING about the science to try to prevent action to avoid or mitigate the extent of climate change approaches the level of crimes against humanity.

a move on greenhouse gas emissions

I know the preference is to have Congress pass legislation to try to put us on a path to slash our greenhouse gas emissions, which with luck might make climate change less bad and in any case would probably greatly reduce our reliance on the Middle East for oil.

But the move by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announcing intent to list carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses as a danger to public health is wise. It is a back-up should Congress fail to act - and perhaps a spur to wavering members to pass something rather than leave it to the EPA.

first you gotta know where it's all coming from

Glad to see the new Administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, is moving to establish a greenhouse gas registry - a census of how much carbon, methane, etc that are being belched into the atmosphere.

You gotta know where it's coming from and in what quantities to try to do something about it. Funny, ex-de facto President George W. Bush never got around to doing this, even though it was a plan passed by Congress. Sort of a pocket veto.

revolution?

It's a bit dizzying. President Obama and his administration are going to propose big changes in health care funding explicitly aimed at "getting health-care reform done this year" as White House domestic adviser Melody Barnes said.

I really want this to work. But I still can't be sure it will. GOP leader John Boehner says "Everyone agrees that all Americans deserve access to affordable health care" then immediately starts carping about taxes on small businesses. Hey, a lot of small businesses will be relieved to be out from under the stress of having to support health insurance for their employees, a situation where sometimes a catastrophic illness for an employee can become an insupportable burden on the business as well.

And lo and behold, the budget includes revenue from a cap and trade scheme on carbon emissions in 2012. To finish that this year, as well as health care and doing whatever it takes on the banks and economies, would be a challenge. Republican Senator John Barrasso (who's he? Wyoming) called the climate thing "a trillion-dollar climate bailout."

Dude, if we could bail out our climate for only a trillion dollars, it would be the single best investment in humanity's history.

I think David Broder is actually right for once - it is a bit of a gamble. But I don't think Obama has much choice. The tanking economy makes the current health care "system" even WORSE for Americans as many of us are laid off and therefore at exposed risk of bankruptcy and worse from medical conditions no longer covered. And we may be too late on the climate anyway - Congress needs to do something realistic, especially before the year-end UN climate change conference in Denmark.

the real news

Sometimes, amid all the news about the stimulus package, our collapsing banks, the crap situations in Iraq and Afghanistan (thanks for nothing, Bush and Cheney), unfortunate plane crashes, and the like, we miss the real news.

The climate is changing. Global warming is real (although the scientifically illiterate George Will begs to differ. I wish he were right - but he isn't). And now it appears that it might be faster and worse than the scientists thought. Why? Concerns about tropical forests burning and releasing all of their carbon. And about permafrost (the "perma" is as in "permanent". Oops) melting and belching a bunch of methane into the atmosphere.

Stimulus package, fine. But how about a trillion dollar crash program on alternative energy, emission reduction, etc, starting right now? It can help (maybe) avert the worst. And if it doesn't, well our civilization won't be around to worry about paying it off anyway so no harm.

danasnarkacle

Al Gore was before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, talking again about the dangers of climate change and urging caps on emissions. Even the Republicans were respectful; apparently global warming is no longer just for Democrats.

And Dana Milbank snarks his whole way thru the story. The gist? Al Gore aka "The Goracle" (Milbank's name, not mine) was on the Hill and it was all a major bummer dude, and who knew Al Gore had a sense of humor, and all The Goracle can do is scare people.

This is journalism? Milbank gets paid to write crap like this?

How do I get a job like that? If the Danasnarkacle can get paid to write such shallow tripe, I'm sure I could similarly rise to the challenge.

a little dab of intolerance for christmas

The big dude in the Catholic world, Pope Benedict XVI, gave his Christmas address. And in it he said that fighting against gay marriage and gay relationships was as important as preserving the environment.

So from the Pope to the world, a little taste of intolerance for Christmas. And stupidity too - the so-called "threat" from gay marriage pales in comparison to what unmitigated climate change could mean for human civilization. Maybe the Pope and indeed the entire Catholic leadership should spend less time hyperventilating about gay sex (not to mention covering up for its own pedophiles) and pray for some sort of solution to climate change.

promising news on climate policy?

Rumor has it that two prominent proponents of serious and quick action on climate are in line for senior jobs in the Obama Administration. Harvard physicist John Holdren is expected to be names as the president's science advisor, and Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State, is in line to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Like Steve Chu, the Secretary of Energy nominee, "Holdren and Lubchenco have argued repeatedly for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions to avert catastrophic climate change."

Good news if true. Fingers crossed. Lubchenco said recently she thought public attitudes on climate are beginning to shift. I hope so.

Meanwhile, John Marburger, the science adviser to de facto President George W. Bush, is fighting a rearguard action against the perception that the Bush Administration has been anti-science. Marburger said, "There are stupid and foolish things that have been perpetrated by employees of the federal government in the executive branch, but it doesn't mean that the president is anti-science. The president is getting blamed for every little thing that happens that people don't like in the administration."

Hey, this is really not exactly the Harry Truman presidency, is it? The buck stops ANYWHERE but at the desk of George W. Bush. Torture? An aberration by a bunch of reservist MPs from West Virginia. (Since proven false.) Katrina? Nobody saw it coming. (Except lots of people DID see it coming, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune.) Science bashing? It was the President's minions.

Shades of Imperial Russia, where all the peasants assumed that the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of the Russian nobility and bureaucracy only happened because the Tsar didn't know about it.

Sorry, serfs - the Tsar knew and approved. And Bush knew and approved of all this stuff, too. And now he's trying to rehabilitate himself in his last 30-something days in office.

chu for energy

The more I hear about Steven Chu, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Energy, the more I like.

Chu compares climate change to an electrical wiring problem:

Suppose, he said, you had a small electrical fire at home and a structural engineer told you there was a 50 percent chance your house would burn down in the next few years unless you spent $20,000 to fix faulty wiring.

"You can either continue to shop for additional evaluations until you find the one engineer in 1,000 who is willing to give you the answer you want -- 'your family is not in danger' -- or you can change the wiring," Chu said in a presentation in September.

Clearly no climate change skeptic. Chu is also strong on saying that technology and innovation can help, but believes "governments need to "act quickly" to implement fiscal and regulatory policies to stimulate the deployment of technologies that boost energy efficiency and "minimize" carbon emissions."

Wow, I can barely believe we may actually have sane people in the White House and Cabinet soon.

coal, it gets you coming and going

Coal is so neat! When you burn it, it puts all that gas into the air that will eventually return us to the Jurassic climate! Nifty!

And it isn't just really really something when you BURN it, it ALSO makes a mess when you MINE it! Hey, ho!

And now, the lame duck de facto Bush Administration, seeing coal for the magnificent resource it is to all of us except the few of us who give a shit about clean water and maintaining a climate that has sustained civilization for lo these few thousand years, is going to make it even easier for coal miners to dump entire mountain tops into valley streams.

Hooray!

wal-mart going green?

Wal-Mart has signed a deal to buy wind-generated electricity in Texas for use in its stores.

Wal-Mart only does things that it thinks will help its bottom line. So this is interesting. We could help wind and other non-fossil-fuel based energies become cost-competitive by putting a price on the damage caused by carbon emissions...

a victim of the global economic mess

Looks like another victim of the ongoing financial/economic meltdown. The European Union is considering whether or not to delay its plan to reduce emissions to fight climate change.

The Stern Report and others have pointed out that we could slash emissions dramatically at the net cost of fractions of a percent of GDP. But we are so short-sighted and fixated on the here and now that we can't even recognize the real problem. Since unmitigated climate change will make a 700-loss day on the Dow Jones look like a picnic.

what a day

Progress on the Wall Street Welfare Plan? Nope - Bush and McCain can't get House Republicans to support the Paulson deal...

And both Democrats and some Republicans say McCain's parachuting in HURT negotiations. "Now that we are on the verge of making a deal, John McCain airdrops himself in to help us make a deal."

Is it even a good plan? Some 200 academic economists - ie, people not paid by Wall Street - say NO, including people like Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw who worked for the Bush Administration!

Adding to the general confusion, the country's largest savings & loan was going belly-up. They didn't even wait to Friday to do it, that's how bad Washington Mutual's situation had become. Kind of a bummer -Washington Mutual was a bank with real deposits, not just an over-leveraged investment bank like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearn, or Merril Lynch. They went overboard on offering questionable mortgages - and end up being sold for pennies on the dollar to JP Morgan.

But none of this financial bad news is ultimately as bad as THIS news - greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere quicker than expected.

Maybe the question should be, will over-leveraged Miami Beach homeowners default on their mortgages BEFORE of AFTER the rising seas swallow them?

whole lotta blowin' goin' on

Gustav, then Hannah, then Ike & Josephine coming up. A busy hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center notes accurately that this isn't unusual - there have been hurricanes stacked up before.

But Nature has a study showing that strong hurricanes are growing stronger, due to climate change. It isn't difficult to comprehend. Hurricanes grow in power from being over warm waters. Water in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico are warmer in the late summer nowadays than it was 30 years ago. So, more firepower for the storms, hence stronger hurricanes.

Welcome to your new climate.

not just global warming

Joel Achenbach says he's concerned that the discussion about climate change may cause us to forget the OTHER major environmental issues that face us. As Achenbach, the real problem is, there are too many of us humans, who "are environment-destroying creatures by nature."

It's an interesting read. Achenbach concludes,

Last week, we saw reports of more wildfires in California. Sure as night follows day, people will lay some of the blame on climate change. But there's also the minor matter of people building homes in wildfire-susceptible forests, overgrown with vegetation due to decades of fire suppression. That's like pitching a tent on the railroad tracks.

The message that needs to be communicated to these people is: "Your problem is not global warming. Your problem is that you're nuts."

You should definitely worry about global warming. But you don't need to worry about global warming when your house is on fire.

we're borrowing money from china to buy oil from the persian gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet

What's interesting about Al Gore's challenge to quit burning coal and oil to generate electricity in 10 years are the reactions.  John McCain just says, "if the vice president says it's doable, I believe it's doable."  Not exactly climate change denying, there.   Barack Obama also points out that this challenge would CREATE many new jobs.

Can we do it in 10 years?  Beats me.  But it's worth a shot.  After all, it isn't just climate change, as Gore himself made clear in saying  "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet."  As he said, all of this has to change.  And even if we don't get to 100%, any progress would be more than we've seen under de facto President George Oil Bush.

no need to speculate about speculation

Despite what many politicians - unfortunately including many Democrats - the reason for $4/gallon gasoline isn't "speculation." Really, it isn't - even Robert Novak realizes this.

Folks, it's simple - supply and demand. Supply isn't growing as quickly as demand, which is based both on growth in places like China and India and by the growth in SUVs and other gas-guzzlers here in the US of A.

And honestly, as much as it sucks to see the bill at the pumps when you fill up, this is overall a Good Thing. It's like a little carbon tax to get things started on where we as a species need to go on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The worst thing about $4/gallon gas? That it didn't happen 10 years ago.

last gasp opposition

So, despite scientific evidence that strongly supports the proposition that climate change will be deleterious to human health, the de facto Bush Administration won't act. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling that under terms of the Clean Air Act, the federal government is obliged to regulate the emission of greenhouse gasses, the de facto Bush Administration won't act. It's official: the EPA ain't gonna do a thing to regulate these emissions until Obama or McCain is inaugurated next January.

This is hardly suprising. The Bushies (and the behind-the-scene masters on energy policy issues, Dick Cheney and his office) have been shortsightedly skeptical about climate change all along. An Administration that refuses to even recognize Congress' right to call its officials before them to ask questions clearly has no problems refusing to recognize that it has any obligation to obey duly passed laws of the country, not even when reinforced by clear-cut Supreme Court rulings.

The refusal of the White House and OMB to open emails from EPA officials is sadly comical; the fact that this footdragging has cost us - the people of planet Earth - eight years of delay in trying to act to mitigate the worst effects of climate change is frighteningly tragic.

Bush's shredding of the Constitution and introduction of torture as an instrument of national policy are impeachable offenses. But his acting to prevent action on climate
change is truly a crime against humanity.