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‘What Could Be a Bigger Issue?’
-- Mike -- 02/09/2007
Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher participated yesterday in an online chat about the latest political news, and it included this exchange:
Washington: Michael, on Friday an international panel of scientists released a report on climate change, agreeing that global warming is here and that it almost certainly is a result of human activity. I was surprised (and frankly disappointed) to see that it had legs for, oh, a single news cycle. Do you see climate change as being a significant part of the debate in the presidential campaign?
Michael Fletcher: Yes, yes, yes. It feels like this issue is penetrating the public after years of floating in the realm of the abstract. The report probably didn't have legs, as you put it, because I think most of the scientific community already had drawn that conclusion. But now, for example, you see the Bush administration explaining that the president long has acknowledged the huge human component in global warming, and the president even invoked it in his State of the Union address. I bet this is only the beginning. After all, what could be a bigger issue?
Promise from the Hill
-- Adam -- 02/08/2007
John Donnelly, in an article today for the Boston Globe, suggests that the recnt attention to climate change in Washington is just the beginning. The 2007 IPCC report contributed further to increasing politicians' interest in the topic and how it might affect their constituents. Growing public knowledge of the warming threat have no doubt given new energy to the current hearings on Capitol Hill, of which Donnelly argues we will see a good bit more of in the coming year. The new Senate Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection will provide a forum for policymakers, including several presidential contenders, to learn and have focused debates about not just global warming but a whole series of impacts and solutions. It should be interesting to see where we'll be once the primaries begin and how candidates channel the inertia of the issue.
Global Warming: A Titanic Global Experiment?
-- Katie -- 02/07/2007
Former New York Times environmental reporter William K. Stevens wrote a great opinion piece in yesterday's NY Times. Stevens reflects on the sea change in scientific opinion on global warming since he covered the issue for the Times (he retired in 2000).
Throughout most of Stevens' tenure at the Times, there was still some skepticism about global warming. Although there was compelling research on global warming, many scientists were not sure yet whether it was caused by humans or a natural part of earth's cycle. But each successive report since the 1990's has had stronger evidence that humans are indeed causing global warming, leading to the latest report by the IPCC that humans are all but certainly the cause of global warming. With that knowledge, Mr. Stevens writes:
Some experts believe that no matter what humans do to try to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, a doubling is all but inevitable by 2100. In this view, the urgent task ahead is to keep them from rising even higher.
If the concentrations were to triple, and even if they just double, there is no telling at this point what the world will really be like as a result, except to speculate that on balance, most of its inhabitants probably won't like it much. If James E. Hansen, one of the bolder climate scientists of the last two decades, is right, they will be living on a different planet.
It has been pointed out many times, including by me, that we are engaged in a titanic global experiment. The further it proceeds, the clearer the picture should become.
With every successive year, we are experiencing hotter temperatures, shrinking ice caps and more storms like Katrina. And every year we are learning more about how our actions are affecting our planet. What are we waiting for? There are solutions out there to curb our greenhouse emissions. If we are not willing to take the steps to do this soon, we may not be able to stop what is happening to our planet.
Volcker on the Economy and Global Warming
-- Adam -- 02/06/2007
Paul Volcker, former Fed chair who tackled stagflation during the 70's, made strong statements in support of controlling greenhouse emissions today in Cairo, the AP reports. "Volcker said the argument that taxes on oil or carbon emissions, for example, would ruin an economy was 'fundamentally false.'" He went on to say economic controls on carbon emissions would have little negative impact on the full economy and that the ramifications would be much worse in a few decades without intervention. Taxing petroleum or resulting emissions would be an "effective" way to prevent disastrous climatic changes, Volcker argues. "A lot of people in the United States haven't been convinced that it's a problem. Now I think that is changing. The evidence is becoming so strong that may be we are building a base for a political understanding that hasn't been there before."
‘Fact vs. Fantasy’
-- Mike -- 02/05/2007
Columnist/pundit/blogger Andrew Sullivan offers this in response to last week's report on global warming:
Climate change is happening, it is almost certainly man-made, although some doubt persists as to quite how deep and swift the change will be. I write this not as a statement of dogma but as a statement of the best inference from the data we now have. This is not - or should not be - a right-vs-left issue. It's a fact vs fantasy issue. Right now, the fantasists are those saying we have nothing to worry about. We do.
Poor Outcome
-- Adam -- 02/05/2007
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a speech today that the world's poor will suffer the most harm from global warming, as quoted by Reuters. "Experts say Africa is the lowest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures, but due to its poverty, under-development and geography, has the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns," the story notes. Tribal island nations face losing almost everything as the ocean laps higher on their shores. Shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas spell disaster for already marginal cotton farmers in Central Asia. Heavier, concentrated precipitation will spur greater levels of flooding and mudslides in developing regions of Asia and Latin America. These human impacts, in additional to the problem of climate refugees I noted a few days ago, mean that global warming is also a humanitarian issue that the world must grapple with morally.
Sen. Brownback a Proponent of Carbon Sequestration
-- John -- 02/02/2007
Pulling a nondescript handkerchief from his coat pocket at a luncheon today in Columbia, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) had an interesting observation to make: “This piece of cloth is half cotton and half corn.” The Senator even boasts a rug made of corn. And in getting America energy independent, one of his “big, America-sized goals,” Brownback offered a number of proposals during his speech, including promoting ethanol fuel, hybrid-electric motor fleets and carbon sequestration.
Meeting with Conservation Voters of South Carolina members after his speech, Senator Brownback pointed out that in 2001 he sponsored the Carbon Conservation Incentive Act, which would give tax credits to landowners who devote a portion of their land for carbon sequestration. In 2000 the Senator traveled to Brazil to view how carbon sequestration projects pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it in trees and soil. Such projects not only take carbon dioxide out of the air, they provide farmers and landowners an incentive not to put all of their arable land into agriculture. Having grown up on a farm, and representing a big agriculture state like Kansas, Senator Brownback says he sees one part of the solution to global climate change coming from America’s family farmers.
It also Presents an Opportunity
-- Mike -- 02/02/2007
The big news out today is the release of a "landmark report" saying there is little doubt that global warming is caused by human activity. I'll let others speak to the science behind this report, but as I was reading the piece on it by the Associated Press, I noticed a key aspect of this issue that was not mentioned: opportunity.
Solving global warming certainly presents challenges, but it also offers unparalleled opportunities as well. Addressing global warming means ushering in a new era of energy production and use - one that relies heavily on clean, renewable sources of energy. Not only will this new energy future protect the planet, but it will also enhance our national security by reducing our dependence on oil and strengthen our economy by creating jobs related to these new energy industries.
It can be easy to feel a sense of helplessness or despair when faced with tackling an issue as grand as global warming. But the truth is we should embrace this challenge and see it for what it truly is - and opportunity for bold leadership, worldwide cooperation and genuine hope.
International Climate Experts Release Report on Global Warming
-- Katie -- 02/02/2007
Once again, the again the world's leading climate experts are making it clear that the next occupant of the White House will need to tackle global warming to reclaim a hopeful and secure future.
Today, world-renowned climate experts released a major report with further evidence that global warming is definitely occurring and humans are the cause. The International Panel on Climate Change report was compiled by hundreds of peer-reviewed scientists and representatives of 113 governments.
This report is further proof that global warming is real, it's being caused by human activity, and it's not going away. From drowning polar bears to record-breaking temperatures, the evidence is undeniable. Now it's time to turn up the heat on the need to cool down our planet.
We know we have the solutions now to solve this challenge, and our next president will be the one to implement them here at home.
To learn more about the IPCC report, click here
To see one of many news articles on this, click here.
Grim note washes up in new UN report
-- Adam -- 02/02/2007
Sea levels, according to the new IPCC report, are rising significantly faster than what most scientists were expecting. Glaciers and ice caps worldwide are seeing "widespread decreases". Specifically, in Antartica and Greenland, the report notes "increased ice sheet mass loss has often followed thinning, reduction or loss of ice shelves or loss of floating glacier tongues." Also, surface water has absorbed over 80% of heat increases since 1961, meaning thermal expansion of the oceans has played a major role in the rate of sea-level rise. This is ominous news for all Americans and the rest of the world. Hopefully presidential candidates will take this update from scientists as a call to act urgently in advancing real solutions to climate change.
