Hahahahaha...oh, wait, I'm scared.
After six years of dodging the climate issue, the Bush administration is finally having to face it head on. They aren't changing policy -- don't be silly! -- but they are changing rhetoric.That's from an article in Grist, my favorite free online clearinghouse of environmental news (and puns!), about the Bush administration's recent open letter "clarifying" (re-creating?) its stance on global warming. I guess the publicity generated by the terrifyingly good IPCC report was just too much for the Republicans to keep their heads in the sand without looking like the nepotistic nincompoops they are. And now they're backpedaling like mad. Big business and everyone else have already started to take steps to lower their greenhouse-gas output. Quit lollygagging, White House!
Grist's analysis last week of the IPCC report gives a readable dissection of that big honkin' document. But what about more mainstream news sources? BBC.co.uk and CNN.com cover the report's congressional hearing, but CBSnews.com doesn't. The article at FOXnews.com starts with a summary of the findings,* but then keeps the tired old global warming "debate" going by mentioning a scientist's huffy departure from the Panel. The remainder of the article follows a Republican representative's (Dana Rohrabacher's) response to the report, including his dangerous statement that a graph that shows a one degree increase in average global temperature over the last 150 years "doesn't sound very alarming to me." Now, a rise of 2-3 degrees could raise ocean levels by at least several inches and cause other effects, including severe weather disturbances. Global temperatures have already risen one degree, and this guy's not alarmed? No mention is made of the scientific assessment of environmental consequences vs. degrees of warming. It's just this hick's unqualified remark. Thanks again, Fox, for your fair and balanced look at the news.
Note that the American news webistes list sponsored links above their search results, and the top sponsors are sites like BP.com and willyoujoinus.com, where you can "Join Chevron's forum and voice your opinion on environmental issues." Click here to learn more about oil companies and their obfuscation of climate science.
Sigh. This is all part of my trying to understand how science appears to have become even more hijacked by politicians in recent years. I mean, I know it's been happening since the dawn of science and politicians, but what's with abstinence-only education, creationism, and the lies about climate change all happening right now?
The IPCC is a fairly conservative body; it was convened by the UN and has to incorporate the views of scientists and governments from all over the world. And they're stating that global warming is definitely happening, the chance that it stems entirely from natural causes is less than 5%, and that no matter what we do about emissions now, we're facing centuries of warming temperatures and rising seas. (Imagine what will happen if we continue to do nothing.) Now that Bush's big-business backers are finally demanding emissions caps, maybe the "truth" will suddenly change, and in this case, I think we'll all be the better for it.
But then again, maybe stop-global-warming efforts will be irrelevant, like the International Criminal Court. Go USA!
*Check out the contrast between the top-of-story summaries of the IPCC Congressional hearing articles at CNN.com and FOXnews.com:
CNN:
- House Chairman: Officials mislead by "injecting doubt" into climate science
- Presidential contenders expound on subject at Senate hearing
- Advocacy groups' survey show many scientists subjected to political pressure
- Sens. McCain, Obama to express views on global warming at hearing
Fox:
Not enough evidence exists that humans are responsible for global warming, so current laws should not be changed to limit greenhouse gas emissions, critics of a global climate change report told a House panel Thursday.
The attitude taken by the Fox article that catastrophic climate change might not happen, so we shouldn't bother to take any steps against it, is a whole 'nother post.
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