Congress might finally get real on Global Warming

[Guest guest]

Editorial by Trudy Rubin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 18, 2007...

 

It's unnerving to watch the flowers on my balcony bud in January.

 

It's even more unsettling to see the trees outside my condo flower

in winter.

 

Last year's U.S. weather was the hottest on record, and the last

nine years have been among the 25 warmest on record for the

continental United States. The New York Times just ran a startling

story about melting arctic ice in Greenland, leading to a rise in

sea levels far swifter than scientists predicted.

 

No wonder speculation is mounting that President Bush may finally

discuss climate change in realistic terms in his State of the Union

speech next week. Maybe he's noticed the cherry blossoms are in

bloom in the nation's capital - this month.

 

But just in case he still refuses to tackle global warming, a

growing number of senators in the new Congress - from both parties -

are raring to go.

 

This week Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind.,

introduced a sense of the Senate resolution that calls on the United

States to address climate change through international negotiations.

Such a resolution would have died in committee last year, when

Republicans controlled Congress, and senators like James M. Inhofe,

R-Okla., labeled global warming a hoax. But with the new Democratic

majority, this bill may pass - with plenty of Republican support.

 

" This resolution sends a message that the United States wants to

continue to negotiate with the rest of the world on carbon

controls, " says Mark Helmke, who works on climate issues for Sen.

Lugar. In other words, senators from both parties are taking on an

issue of paramount foreign policy importance on which the White

House has punted.

 

One of the many mysteries of the Bush presidency is why he

needlessly undercut America's leadership role and image abroad by

his approach to global warming. In opposing the Kyoto Protocols, he

never offered any serious U.S. alternative on an issue of key

concern to our allies. He even dismissed the pleas of his close

supporter, Tony Blair, to take the issue seriously.

 

But even before last year's losses by the Republicans, the Bush

approach was being bypassed by local and state politicians, and by

growing numbers of businesses that either recognized the need to

control emissions, or understood the economic value of doing so.

 

Take California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, hardly a tree-hugger,

who signed a law that commits his state to lower its greenhouse gas

production to 1990 levels by 2020 and gives manufacturers incentives

to lower carbon emissions. Schwarzenegger wants to make global

warming into a major issue in the 2008 presidential elections.

 

Cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Minneapolis have passed

laws on decreasing pollution that contributes to global warming.

Energy executives from companies such as General Electric, sensing

future trends, have asked for carbon caps. Wal-Mart - the world's

biggest retailer - has pledged to turn itself into a company that

runs on 100 percent renewable energy and produces zero waste.

 

Like the flow from a melting icecap, this rising tide seems finally

to have reached the White House. Perhaps the president noticed that

his own administration has proposed to list the polar bear as a

threatened species, because its icy habitat is literally melting,

even as the White House refuses to unfreeze its opposition to carbon

curbs.

 

Whatever the reason, Bush finally made a slight verbal thaw on

global warming. Last July he admitted the human contribution to

global warming: " I recognize that the surface of the Earth is warmer

and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is

contributing to the problem. "

 

But public opinion is way ahead on this issue, says Claussen,

president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

 

" The public has a very different sense of the problem, " she says,

brought on by a variety of personal experiences, from dramatic

weather shifts, to Al Gore's popular movie " An Inconvenient Truth, "

to stories about, yes, the polar bear.

 

Claussen expects many bills on climate change in the Senate this

year and many congressional hearings, all of which will compel

presidential candidates from both parties to address the issue in

2008. Indeed, Sen. John McCain, who is passionate on the topic, has

just introduced an emissions-control bill, co-sponsored by

independent Joe Lieberman and Democrat Barack Obama.

 

How sad that so many years and so much U.S. prestige have been

squandered by the White House's failure to deal constructively with

climate change. Might we have a Bush version of Nixon-to-China on

this issue next week, that reasserts presidential leadership by

offering a serious plan, not just verbal spin? Most experts I spoke

to are dubious. We'll soon know.

 

** Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the

Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

----------

 

You can do your part by living your life with PURPOSE - People

United Rightly Protecting Our Sacred Earth… Begin with signing our

petition to Congress making " Climate Change, Global Warming and

Saving the Planet " this country's top priority:

 

Global Warming Petition

(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/890510358)

 

To find out more about PURPOSE and to learn how you can help save

the planet, visit any or all of these websites:

 

PURPOSE Website

(http://FreedomExpress.net/PURPOSE)

 

PURPOSE on MySpace

(http://www.myspace.com/committedpurpose)

 

PURPOSE MySpace Group

(http://groups.myspace.com/LiveWithPURPOSE)

 

PURPOSE Discussion Group

(CommittedPURPOSE/)

 

Earth Warrior living with PURPOSE

(http://360./committedpurpose)

 

Books and DVDs for PURPOSE

(http://astore.amazon.com/freedomexpres-20)

 

PURPOSE Gift Shop

(http://www.cafepress.com/freedomexpress/2008299)

 

We also suggest you write to media outlets and your elected

officials concerning issues associated with Global Warming and the

Climate Change Crises. You can use this website to contact your

elected leadership: http://www.congress.org.