Climate Politics

The Gore wants half a million missives sent to Congress

Help Al Gore Send a Message to Congress tomorrow! (Not sure what this actually accomplishes, but hey, do it for Dreamy Al. He wants to reach 500,000.)

Tough new climate targets are all the rage in the Britain and Europe

Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.

Things are hotting-up over here on climate change. And I'm not talking about the fact that we're set to have the warmest year on record. The political temperature is rising, too.

The European Union has agreed to a joint CO2 target for its 27 member countries and their 490 million citizens. The leaders committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. But this is just a starter. The E.U. says that if other countries -- such as the U.S. -- agree to do more, we will up our target to 30 percent. So, we have 20 percent on the table unilaterally, with a chunk more if you guys step up to the plate.

Then, the U.K. government published a draft climate-change bill, which will make us the first country in the world to set legally binding carbon targets.

The bill will set U.K.'s targets -- for a 60 percent reduction by 2050 and around a 30 percent reduction by 2020 -- in statute. It will also bring in a new system of legally binding five-year "carbon budgets." These will provide clarity on whether the U.K. is on the right path to meet its commitments. There will be a new independent advisory and scrutiny body, the Committee on Climate Change, annually reporting to Parliament on progress.

Mooney on Waxman hearing

Here’s Chris Mooney’s promised post on the "new revelations" from Waxman’s hearing yesterday. From what I can tell, the big revelation is that NASA press hacks did, indeed, try to block Hansen from giving an interview to NPR. But we mostly knew that, right? And given how spectacularly failed the effort to silence Hansen was […]

Not just a green issue, but certainly it is one

Matthew Yglesias, in The American Prospect:

The time is right, wonkish Washington seems to feel, for ambitious new thinking, for new grand bargains, for new initiatives and big ideas. I'm just wondering why.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but: Don't you know there's a war on? Or, rather, two -- one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan -- and the United States is losing both.

Read the interview!

I hope that everyone will take some time and head over to read my interview with Van Jones, civil rights lawyer, founder and director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and rising star of progressive activism. His message is that largely white, affluent "eco-elites" need to broaden their coalition by reaching out to […]

Political wonks everywhere feel the electricity!

In what may be the blockbuster hit of the political season, Al Gore is testifying to Congress tomorrow — twice. Not only is his testimony expected to influence the direction of coming legislation, but it may also reveal something of his intentions on the presidential race. One way or another, there’s sure to be drama. […]

Not that they’re trying to obstruct progress or anything

Here’s a glimpse behind the scenes at how Republicans were chosen to serve on the new House global warming committee: House Republican Leader John Boehner would have appointed Rep. Wayne Gilchrest to the bipartisan Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming — but only if the Maryland Republican would say humans are not causing […]

Gag, You’re It

Congress revisits issue of feds messing with climate science You’ve seen this show before, but now it’s bigger, longer, and uncut: a heated hearing in Congress has exposed dark truths about federal interference with climate science. Brandishing more than 180 examples of doubt-injecting edits made to three climate reports, the House Committee on Oversight and […]

What You Herd Is Not What I Meant

Bush administration reinterprets Endangered Species Act The Bush administration has quietly issued a new spin on the Endangered Species Act that would have the feds protect imperiled animals and plants only in places where they’re in trouble — not where they’re thriving or have already disappeared. A memo announcing the change was posted on the […]

A case can be made

Is the fourth assessment report from the IPCC a conservative document? David Biello makes the case.