Since when did the Senate become climate experts?

This grinds my gears. The EPA should be driving climate policy decisions. The Senate may have some knowledgeable members when it comes to climate change, but certainly damn few experts. For Harry Reid and the rest to start blocking critical regulation of greenhouse gases is wrong. Simply wrong.

The Senate is playing politics with the environment, and it’s wrong.

This is is by Ryan Grim, on Huffington Post today:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow a vote on legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases for two years, he told reporters in the Capitol today.

Following his weekly press briefing, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked if the Senate wold vote on EPA preemption.

“Not before we leave here,” said Reid, referring to the three-week congressional schedule ahead. “This year.”

Reid’s commitment to give preemption a vote this year means that it is headed to the Senate floor during a lame-duck session, meaning that lawmakers will be less accountable for their votes — and those who aren’t returning in January won’t be accountable at all.

The commitment to give preemption a vote is related to an earlier fight over legislation from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would have blocked EPA action. In order to defeat Murkowski’s proposal, Democratic aides said, Reid promised holdout senators a vote on a two-year freeze — a measure sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) — later in the year.

“Senator Rockefeller’s EPA Delay bill is gaining momentum every day in Congress. Rockefeller is fighting for legislation to suspend — for two years — harmful EPA regulations to regulate greenhouse gases because he believes that Congress — and not the unelected EPA — must be responsible for determining our nation’s energy policy,” a Rockefeller aide wrote in an email. “Rockefeller expects a vote on this important legislation this year and he is aggressively pursuing this in Congress.”

In the absence of Senate action to address climate change, while scientists warn that the carbon concentration in the atmosphere is reaching a hazardous point, EPA regulation is the last resort.”



Does religious affiliation affect beliefs about global climate change - and science in general?

I think that’s a “yes” according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Here’s the question they asked 1,502 American adults:

 Question wording: From what you’ve read and heard, is there solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades, or not? [If “yes,” ask]: Do you believe that the earth is getting warmer… 1 - Mostly because of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels, OR 2 - Mostly because of natural patterns in the earth’s environment? [options rotated]

Here are the results:

Click to read more ...

'Too hot not to handle': Must see television

Heat waves. Melting glaciers. Rising sea levels. Catastrophic storms. Migrating viruses. Population displacement. Over the past 100 years, the mass consumption of fossil fuels, especially in America, has contributed to a dangerous warming of the earth that has adversely impacted the way we live. The cautionary documentary TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE offers a guide to the effects of global warming in the United States.

This is without a doubt, the best, clearest explanation we’ve seen yet to define the problems and offer solutions.

Click to read more ...

Everything's Cool

Mr. Maven and I just watched this, and it really helps clarify the so-called climate and global warming ‘debate’ - which was ingenously engineered courtesy of the fossil fuel lobby, aided and abetted by the Bush administration.

Had I not read Thomas Friedmans’ book ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’, a lot of this would have been real news, but even with that I still didn’t realize that the scientific discussion about global warming and climate change began to hit the media as far back as 1987!

Click to read more ...

Climate Counts: whipping businesses into shape

It’s true that the consumer choices that we make each and every day sends a message of approval - or not - to the business world. Their actions can make a big difference in the battle to stop global warming. Fortunately, there is a website for consumers to refer to - even on the fly via your cell phone - and choose accordingly.

Click to read more ...

Just what is climate change?

We’re at a tipping point, or you might call it a point of no return, with global climate change. It’s more critical than ever before that citizens at least understand the basic science, if not all the nuances and ramifications. Our national security, individual and collective standards of living, and global health depend on it.

Click to read more ...