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They don’t get that climate is a security issue

"The Democrats' Global War on Weather" and "Jack Bauer, Climatologist???" are the headlines conservatives are using to mock efforts by progressives to finance a National Intelligence Estimate to study global warming. But climate is clearly a national security threat, as made clear in a recent CNA report from a distinguished group of former military leaders (PDF).

As but one example, a "ferocious drought and famine" were the driving forces behind the crisis in Darfur, which is "likely to be seen as the first climate change war," as the Guardian put it.

Contrary to the mocking press release, the "war on weather" is being waged by conservatives who block action on mandatory greenhouse gas controls, thereby ensuring more and more extreme weather events for many decades to come.

It is precisely because conservatives have blocked action on climate change that progressives are driven to fund a serious effort by our intelligence agencies to understand the dangerous implications of our do-nothing climate policy.

If only Jack Bauer were a climatologist -- then conservatives might listen to the overwhelming scientific evidence about the climate crisis. Better yet, put Jack in charge of U.S. climate policy -- then we would finally have a leader who believes in taking action.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Suzuki edits the Sun

Famed Canadian eco-hero David Suzuki was handed the reins to guest edit an entire edition of the Toronto Vancouver (!) Sun on Sat. May 5. “What I would love to do is put a green slant in every area,” he added, explaining he thinks the mainstream media do not do enough to highlight how the […]

Summarizin’ summaries, summarily

Here is the second half of my summary of the IPCC summary (PDF):

Energy Efficiency:

It is often more cost-effective to invest in end-use energy efficiency improvement than in increasing energy supply to satisfy demand for energy services. Efficiency improvement has a positive effect on energy security, local and regional air pollution abatement, and employment.

(In buildings):

Energy efficiency options for new and existing buildings could considerably reduce CO2 emissions with net economic benefit. Many barriers exist against tapping this potential, but there are also large co-benefits (high agreement, much evidence).

By 2030, about 30 percent of the projected GHG emissions in the building sector can be avoided with net economic benefit.

No, but we still know enough to start taking action

A few weeks ago, I was perusing Grist when I ran across an ad for A Convenient Fiction, a slideshow rebuttal of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The author was none other than Steve Hayward, who you might remember from the AEI-$10,000-payola scandal.

I had actually seen this slideshow discussed in the New York Times, and was interested to see it. In my previous communications with Hayward, he was at great pains to describe himself as someone who believed the science as described by the IPCC. I wanted to see if the slideshow bore that out.

We’re staying on top of this story

So a bunch of onetime Gore advisers and aides gathered for a meal last night: Among those longtime Gore loyalists who munched on a buffet of sandwiches and salmon at the [Gore friend and ally Peter] Knight home: Longtime powerhouse Dem fundraiser and Democratic National Committeeman Robert Zimmerman; Knight’s wife, Gail Britton; Tom Hendrickson, the […]

Denialist special tanks in the ratings

Eric Boehlert on Glenn Beck: The bad news last week was that Glenn Beck, the right-wing radio talker and self-described "rodeo clown" who broadcasts nightly on CNN Headline News, hosted a world-is-flat special about the "myths" surrounding global warming. In it, Beck rounded up the usual band of discredited, oil industry-friendly "experts" who announced that […]

One Bad Scrapple Spoils the Bunch

Regulators reveal new information on China-U.S. food links The tangled food relationship between China and the U.S. keeps getting tangledier. As new details emerge in the wake of the March wave of pet deaths, concerns about the possibility of tainted food reaching U.S. dinner tables are growing. U.S. regulators said yesterday that cyanuric acid, a […]

So What’s Plan C?

United Nations report outlines the trouble with biofuels Remember how biofuels were going to save us? That lasted about as long as an ice cream cone on a hot day. A new United Nations report says the switch to biofuels, if not well managed, could lead to rampant deforestation, food and water shortages, and increased […]

Measure Twice, Cut One of These Days

Coalition of 31 states creates greenhouse-gas emissions registry Flipping the feds the collective bird, 31 U.S. states have created a registry to track industrial greenhouse-gas emissions. The states — joined by British Columbia, Manitoba, and a Native American nation in California — represent some 70 percent of the U.S. population and all (er, both?) sides […]

Senators call for a worldwide end to fishing subsidies

The only thing worse than overfishing our oceans and driving species to the brink of extinction is the government paying to do it. That's been the case for far too long, as upwards of $30 billion (that's billion, with a "b") worth of subsidies are handed over to the fishing industry every year. A whopping $20 billion of that is used for things like boat repairs, fishing equipment, and fuel -- expenses that allow for increased and intensified fishing practices.