Republicans Hate You

Love money:

Republicans have blocked efforts to bring a global warming bill up for a final Senate vote after a bitter debate over its economic costs and whether it would push gasoline prices higher.

Democratic leaders Friday fell 12 votes short of getting the 60 votes needed to end a Republican filibuster on the measure. The vote was 48-36.

Majority Leader Harry Reid now must decide whether to pull the bill and push the climate change issue to next year with a new Congress and a new president.

The bill would cap carbon dioxide coming from power plants and factories with a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 71% by mid-century. Opponents say it amounts to a huge tax increase and would lead to higher energy prices.

"It's a huge tax increase," argued Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a prominent coal-producing state. He maintained that the proposed system of allowing widespread trading of carbon emissions allowances would produce "the largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal."

That New Deal really sucked something horrible. Most Americans think so too, especially the ones who suck this country dry with their social security paychecks.

(emphasis mine)

Personal Carbon Rationing

This is a pretty cool idea:

Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.

The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain's CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.

Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.

Not sure how I feel about it if everyone has the same allowances, but it could be a good starting point.

In related news, commander prissypants will, in all likelihood, veto the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill that is being debated in the Senate.

Wake up NYT

Even if McCain disagrees with Bush on an issue, that doesn't mean he's leading on it.

For example, compare McCain's plan to either Obama's or Clinton's. It's a no-brainer.

John McCain supports lukewarm measures that won't accomplish anything. If global warming is an important issue, the Dems are by far the stronger party.

Devilstower has the rundown.

Bush's EPA Sides Against California

Surprise:

The Bush administration blocked California's plan to put tighter limits on automobile tailpipe emissions, handing a victory to the auto industry on the same day the president signed an energy bill that mandates the biggest boost in federal fuel-efficiency standards in more than 30 years.

Late yesterday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson blocked California from going further than the federal government does in curbing auto emissions that contribute to global warming, setting up a clash with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Just remember, Bush gets it:


Update: Waxman smells something fishy.

In a letter to EPA today, Chairman Henry Waxman of the Oversight Committee requests that the agency preserve and produce all documents relating to Administrator Johnson’s decision to block California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. The investigation follows prior committee inquiries on highly questionable attempts by the Department of Transportation to lobby Congress regarding California’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Gore Speaks Truth

I can't wait for the right-wing to start whining like the childish asshats they are for this:

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore drew cheers at 190-nation talks by saying the United States was the main block to launching negotiations in Bali on a new global climate treaty.

Efforts to start two-year negotiations on a pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol flagged on Thursday, the penultimate day of the December 3-14 talks, after the European Union accused the United States of lacking ambition.

"I am going to speak an inconvenient truth," Gore told an audience of several hundred, playing on the name of his Oscar-winning documentary.

And in low tones he added: "My own country the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress in Bali," spurring rapturous applause and cheers.

Of course, none of the criticism will be substantive, but rather it will consist of attacks on Gore.

That didn't take long.

Bush Administration Interfered with Climate Change Science

My favorite Congressperson publishes a report.

Leading the Pack

There's you in "U.S.," but there is "us:"

Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations at U.N. talks in Bali on Monday as part of a "roadmap" to work out a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009.

"It's prejudging what the outcome should be," chief negotiator Harlan Watson said of a draft suggesting that rich nations should aim to axe emissions of heat-trapping gases by between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Prejudging... heh. This is really the fault of all those scientists who have prejudged the future.

Can somebody remind me when we became the most backward industrialized nation in the world?

Best Climate Movement Presidenter in Chief Ever

Bush.

So Long and Thanks for All the Ice

The Arctic:

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.

Black Is White! Up Is Down!

Global warming is a hoax!

Global warming is causing more frequent hurricanes in the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, according to a study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The increased frequency of tropical cyclones ``is largely a response'' to a 1 degree Celsius rise in sea water temperatures since 1905 that was caused by greenhouse gases, the study found. Since 1995, the North Atlantic has experienced an average of 15 tropical storms a year, of which eight became strong enough to be called hurricanes. That compares with 10 tropical storms and five hurricanes per year from 1930 to 1994, the report says.

``There is an 80 percent chance that the majority of the current increases have been impacted by global warming,'' said Greg Holland, director of the research center in Boulder, Colorado, and co-author of the study. ``The bad news is that we've gone up in numbers overall, and in the proportion of major hurricanes as well.''

Just another drop in the bucket for Exxon-Mobil, who recently posted record profits. I have been doing some thinking about taxation. Should write up a rant soon. Should...

Bush Leadership Style

I know what it is I said and I said... something.

President Bush said Tuesday he is directing the Environmental Protection Agency, and the departments of energy, transportation and agriculture, to develop steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2008, but failed to call for a specific increase in fuel efficiency standards.

He said the directive came in response to a recent Supreme Court ruling saying the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, from the transportation sector.

The EPA has previously refused to regulate carbon dioxide emissions arguing that it did not have the authority to do so.

Let us review:

1. Bush makes a public statement about something but does not provide the agency with any detail... the kind that comes around when actual work is done
2. Bush's statement makes clear the obvious: the EPA should do its job
3. Bush's statement is a reaction to a Supreme Court ruling that asserts the EPA should do its job. There is no proactive leadership from the Commander Guy
4. Bush's EPA was sued by the states precisely for not doing its job. That inaction came at Bush's direction

Bush - (n.) A follower and who drags his feet, kicking and screaming. Leadership qualities consist of instinctively identifying and making a mad rush for the highest cliff around.

Insanity

If you have not yet seen this Media Matters post on Glenn Beck, hop on over. My mind was blows by how little sense he makes. But wait, there's more! Says Beck,

There's two things that really bother me. Science has become religion on this. You're called a Nazi or a fascist or whatever if you -- if you don't agree with it.

I just want to clear this up for Glenn - science - more or less - is an accurate description of how the world works. If you do not agree with reality, you are called a joke and no one should listen to anything you say.

Thanks, CNN!

Worst Idea Ever

Way to work your way into irrelevancy:

"An Inconvenient Truth . . . or Convenient Fiction"
Sorting out Sense from Nonsense on Global Warming
A REBUTTAL FILM TO AL GORE AND "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH"

...

Dr. Steven Hayward, author of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and adjunct Professor of Political Science at Georgetown University, sorts out thesense from the nonsense in this no nonsense documentary about thescientific trends in climate change and their effects on our planet.

I am sure there is no need to mention who else gives oil barrel loads of money to the AEI.

Plus, it is screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. They had better be ready to get out of Dodge.

Get Your Global Warming On

Hurricane-style.

The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be far more active than usual with an expected 17 tropical storms, of which nine will strengthen into hurricanes, a noted forecasting team founded by Dr. William Gray said on Tuesday.

In an updated outlook for the June 1-November 30 season, the Colorado State University team led by hurricane forecast pioneer Gray and Philip Klotzbach raised the number of expected storms and hurricanes from the 14 and seven, respectively, that it had predicted in December.

Know Nothing, Do Nothing

The Bush Administration.

In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a U.S. government agency has the power under the clean air law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming.

The nation's highest court by a 5-4 vote said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "has offered no reasoned explanation" for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change.

Yet another example of conservatives claiming the inability to act when it best suits them. The reason conservatives hate government is because a government that acts in the public's interest will usually clash with conservatives' interests, which represent a very small number of people. These people, however, control an enormous amount of wealth and power and it is only government, therefore, that can provide us with checks and balances on this aristocracy.

Smackdown

"Elections have consequences"

Barbara Boxer to James Inhofe during global warming hearings, in response to Inhofe's attempts at to belittling Al Gore by cutting him off. Boxer was greeted with a very loud applause from the audience.

Inhofe is the senator who has a sign in his office that reads "Global Warming is a Hoax".

Thinkprogress has the video. It's great!

The War on Global Warming

Makes more sense than one on an emotion.

Al Gore, a Democratic favorite for the presidency despite pronouncements that he's not running, spoke out on his signature issue Wednesday, warning of a "true
planetary emergency" if Congress fails to act on global warming.
In a return he described as emotional, Gore testified before House panels that it is not too late to deal with climate change "and we have everything we need to get started." He urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to adopt an immediate freeze on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

You can do little things to help reduce, or entirely offset your carbon footprint. It is equally important to get in touch with your congresspeople and make sure they get on board behind the most powerful regulations being offered. This is a crisis of epic proportion. Let's do something about it.

Link.

About that Inconvenient Truth

Europe is leading. Will the U.S. follow?

European Union leaders agreed a full package of binding measures on Friday
to build a common energy policy and fight climate change, challenging the world
to follow suit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

...

The deal set targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, developing
renewable energy sources, promoting energy efficiency and using biofuels.

Probably not as long as Bush is in office. As long as Lee Raymond and other petroleum company CEOs funnel significant amounts of money to faux respectable think tanks like AEI and Cato, and the media continues to not put two and two together, we will never get out of this.

The U.S. will take its stance of "Europe's plan sucks! It doesn't do jack!" but will not offer any credible alternative that is different from the status quo. Maybe we can do with some more emissions / GDP ratio. That sounds like an uber-successful idea for curbing emissions. While we are at it, we should chop down some more forests so emissions will not have any place to hide and we can destroy them with some nukes. Sweet.

That Global Warming Thing

The game is on. Temperatures are rising and sooner or later everyone will be doing the opposite of rats scurrying away from a sinking ship. Weather patterns have already become more erratic this early out. This should not come as a surprise to any reality-based person, but it is still depressing. It took them long enough, but the bigwigs are finally starting to get their act together.

"The degradation of the global environment continues unabated ... and the
effects of climate change are being felt across the globe," Ban said in a
statement after last week's toughest warning yet mankind is to blame for global
warming.

In comments read on his behalf at the start of a week-long Nairobi
gathering, Ban said all countries would feel the adverse effect of climate
change.

"But it is the poor, in Africa and small island states, who will suffer
the most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming."

You can say that again. The poor are the least capable of helping themselves and will be hit hardest by food shortages - maybe we can stop burning our excess grains now - and natural disasters for which the rich bear most of the blame. They and their conservative surrogates will no doubt say things reminiscient of Katrina such as "Who would live in that kind of place anyway? They were asking for it" and "Why didn't they leave? They knew it was coming" without taking into account the harsh reality that they are incapable of doing so. This is akin to the rapist's excuse of "She was asking for it" or "She didn't say no."

That is exactly what these conservatives are. Rapists and psychopaths who have no empathy for their fellow man. Such people are the first who deserve to be thrown to the wolves, not those who happen to be victims of other people's circumstances.

A Bribe by Any Other Name

Is still a bribe.

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group
funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate
change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an
ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered
the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the
UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Travel expenses and
additional payments were also offered.

The UN report was written by international experts and is widely
regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science. It will
underpin international negotiations on new emissions targets to succeed the
Kyoto agreement, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments
were given a draft last year and invited to comment.

The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20
of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond,
a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of
trustees.

This is disgusting. The legs that global warming skeptics are standing on could not be any more transparent and rotten. The IPCC report states the following:

there is a 90% chance that human activity is warming the planet, and that global
average temperatures will rise by another 1.5 to 5.8C this century, depending on
emissions.

It makes me really sad to think about it. This is something that has been evident for at least the last 20 years - just ask Al Gore - but anyone who said so was marginalized in the - corporate bought and owned - media. Moreover, this collective denial was orchestrated by those who stood to gain the most from hurting the most and furthered by those who believed them. The impact is now irreversible.

As a people, we are too far past the time when we put stock in blind faith and refused to examine and learn from reality. Let us study facts. Let us study people. Let us study the world around us and cast off false assumptions. Let us grow. It is all too clear what will happen if we do not.

(sorry, guess the bribe story touched off a bout of self righteousness)