Climate Politics

Health Canada primed to declare bisphenol A toxic

Canada’s health department is expected to become the first regulatory body ever to declare chemical bisphenol A a toxic substance that humans should reduce their exposure to. BPA shows up in (and leaches from) hard plastic water bottles, aluminum cans, and other containers that consumers regularly eat and drink from. The chemical, which has been […]

Bush to give speech on climate change strategy

Just over the wires from AP: President Bush is giving a Rose Garden speech on Wednesday on climate change to lay out the way he thinks the U.S. can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. White House press secretary Dana Perino says that Bush will not outline a specific proposal, but instead will spell out a strategy […]

FOE to McCain: stop pushing for pork for corporate polluters

Friends of the Earth has started a new campaign against John McCain, asking him to “stop pushing pork for corporate polluters” — i.e., to stop supporting Lieberman-Warner and stop pushing for nuke subsidies to be added to it. Here’s the ad, which is running nationally:

Bush prepares to give climate speech

As suspected, President George W. Bush will spell out a strategy for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions in a speech today. According to a White House official, “He’ll set a national economy-wide goal of stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025,” but will decline to outline a specific plan. Bush will reportedly also say that […]

A letter from a climate scientist to Nevada’s governor

The following is a open letter to Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons from noted climate scientist James Hansen.

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Dear Governor Gibbons,

I am honored to be the recipient of the Desert Research Institute's annual Nevada Medal this year and to attend the awards ceremonies hosted by you and the First Lady.

I hope that I may communicate with you as a fellow parent and grandparent about a matter that will have great effects upon the lives of our loved ones. I refer to climate change, specifically global warming in response to human-made carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants. This topic has long remained in the background, but it is now poised to become a dominant national and international issue in years ahead.

Global warming presents challenges to political leaders, but also great opportunities, especially for your state. Nevada has the potential to be a national leader in protecting the environment and implementing technologies that can mitigate the crisis posed by global warming.

First, however, I want to make you aware of rapid progress in understanding of global warming. Warming so far, averaging 2 degrees Fahrenheit over land areas, is smaller than weather fluctuations. Yet it already has noticeable effects and more is "in the pipeline," even without further increases of CO2, because of climate system inertia that delays the full climate response.

Effects of global warming are already seen in Nevada. One result is increased wildfires. Longer summers mean more dried out fuels, allowing fires to ignite easier and spread faster. The wildfire season in the West is now 78 days longer than it was 30 years ago. And the average duration of fires covering more than 2,500 acres has risen five-fold.

As the planet continues to warm, these and other impacts will grow worse for Nevada and the American West. The world's leading climate researchers conclude that, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the region faces:

How expensive is food, really?

There is no doubt whatsoever that rising food costs are hurting people all over the world. More than half of the world's population spends 50 percent of their income or more on food, and the massive rise in staple prices threatens to increase famine rates drastically. We are already seeing the early signs of this in Haiti and in other poor nations.

It is also undoubtedly true that rising food prices are digging into the budgets of average people, including me. And I've got it easy. The 35 million Americans who are food insecure (that is, they may or may not go hungry in any given month, but they aren't sure there's going to be food) are increasingly stretched. Supportive resources like food pantries are increasingly tapped. And regular folks are finding that food and energy inflation are cutting into their budgets substantially. The rises in food and energy prices alone have eroded real wages by 1.2 percent. The USDA chief economist has announced that overall food prices will probably rise by another 3 to 4 percent this year, and grain products will rise considerably more.

But there's another side to this coin. Rising food prices are, to some extent, good for farmers. Certainly, large grain farmers in the U.S., Canada, and many other rich nations have been experiencing a well deserved boom. And there are plenty of people, myself included, who have been arguing for years that we don't pay enough of the true costs of our food. Who is right? How do you balance the merits and demerits of food prices?

Analysis: Bush announcement attempt to subvert action

As David mentioned, The Washington Times reported today that "President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include." However, "it is not clear exactly what Mr. Bush will propose." Although this announcement comes as we head into the Earth Day weekend, Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino claimed it's just a coincidence.

Stephen Dinan writes that Bush and conservatives are now focusing on the possibility that "runaway" global warming legislation will cause a "disaster" and a "nightmare." Asked about The Washington Times story, Dana Perino warned today of a "regulatory train wreck with many different laws, such as the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act."

Perino all but admitted this leaked announcement is a "trial balloon" to try out new conservative talking points. When she was asked when the Bush plan would be released:

It could be never.

Watch it:

Bush to push for climate legislation?

This is in the Washington Times, so take it with a very large grain of salt: President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include. Specifics of the […]

The legislation isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than extending the 2002 bill

With the new farm bill languishing in the last stages of negotiations, many are bemoaning its lack of sweeping reform, suggesting that we have gained very little from months and years of work.

But if the new bill is not to be the visionary document that many hoped and advocated for, what, if anything, do we stand to lose if the new bill is vetoed or negotiations reach an impasse and the 2002 farm bill is extended for two years?

There are several small but important gains that we are poised to win if the new farm bill gets passed, making it an improvement over the underlying bill from 2002. These improvements include provisions that support local and regional food systems, organic production and research, beginning farmers, nutrition, and the environment, and they are the reason why Congress should pass a new farm bill.

These bright spots in an otherwise murky and massive bill are not likely to induce a major change to our broken-down food system, but they are seeds we must plant for greater reform and broader transformation in the years to come.

Bush may turn about-face, ask Congress to address climate change

President Bush may soon announce that he wants Congress to pass a climate-change-fightin’ bill, and will lay out suggestions for what that should include as early as this week, according to the Washington Times. Republican Congressfolk reportedly are cautioning the administration not to go too crazy. The U.S.-led climate group of major economies meets this […]