Feb
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The head in the oil sands approach to climate change
Written by Willy Ritch | Filed Under Uncategorized |
[photopress:earth.jpg,full,pp_image]As the new IPCC report on Climate Change has shown, global warming is here, it’s now and it’s inevitable. Anyone with an ounce of objectivity cannot help but acknowledge the reality of the science.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the report is that no matter what we do, we’ve already hard wired enough climate change into the planet that the Earth will warm several degrees even if we stopped polluting today. That doesn’t mean it’s too late to do anything–the scientists point out that if we do nothing the changes will be even more drastic–but it does illustrate how much damage has been done by waiting as long as we have.
The responsibility for the delays in addressing these climate change issues largely lays at the feet of the Republican Party and their friends in the oil industry. Together they have conspired to do everything they can to question legitimate science, to silence critics and to block any reasonable public policy that might have effected climate change from ever seeing the light of day.
Let’s start with Exxon. In 1998 the company developed a multi-million dollar plan to sow doubt and confusion. In this internal memo describing the plan, Exxon said “unless ‘climate-change’ becomes a non-issue, meaning the Koyoto proposal is defeated and there are no further initiatives to thwart the threat of climate change, there may be no moment when we can declare victory for our efforts.” (To see a list of all the organizations that fed at the Exxon trough, see the Exxon Secrets database.) Exxon has pulled back on some of this funding, but is still trying to introduce as much uncertainty into the science as possible.
(Meanwhile Exxon-Mobile announced this week it made more money last quarter than any other company in the history of our rapidly warming planet.)
One of conservatives’ favorite words is “accountability.” The problem is, they don’t think it applies to them. In 2002 when Congress was working on an energy bill, Republican leaders pushed for drilling in ANWAR but resisted a plan that would monitor the level of greenhouse gases that companies produce. Another see-no-evil approach to their oil and gas buddies.
Not all Republicans have had their heads completely in the sand on climate change, but the ones that the GOP has put in the key positions to oversee climate change issues have been the most virulent opponents of sensible environmental policy.
First and foremost there is Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK.) This man has about as much “gravitas” as you would expect from the head of a local NRA chapter, not a United States Senator. Yet the Republicans chose him to chair the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee, where he not only used his power to block anything to do with climate change policy, but also used the position to give us much aid and comfort to the global warming deniers as possible. (For a taste of Inhofe’s standard operating procedure, including some video, see this post.)
In 2005, reading from the Joe McCarthy playbook, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX,) Inhofe’s House counterpart, ordered an investigation into the scientist who created the “hockey stick” graph, showing dramatic increases in 20th century temperatures. When you don’t have facts on your side, try fear and intimidation.
Then, of course, there is the Bush Administration. Where do you start? With the secret meetings that Dick Cheney had to plot energy policy with his buddies from the oil companies? Think they maybe talked a little bit about how to sabotage any efforts to curb greenhouse gas emission in those sessions?
How about the Administrations repeated attempts to muzzle government scientists who were just trying to do their jobs? Investigation found 135 scientists had personally been pressured to tone down their findings in over 400 seperate incidents.
And if you think the tide has turned on climate change and that even conservatives are finally getting the message, don’t be so sure. Bush administration appointees tried their best to water down parts of the new IPCC report. In particular, according to published reports, they tried to get rid of language linking stronger hurricanes with global warming.
“They have tended to highlight uncertainties on certain issues,” a scientist involved in the negotiations said in an e-mail message sent to a reporter today. The scientist sent the message on the condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday night, the same scientist, frustrated with efforts by China and the United States to avoid language that might box them in on policy options, e-mailed that “this is becoming an impossible process.”
Finally the up and comers of the College Republicans are in the act, urging their members to hold “Global Warming Beach Parties” to mock the science behind climate change. Links to articles by the oil-industry funded Competitive Enterprise Institute are even provided to “debunk” global warming.
As Art Buchwald said shortly before he died “good luck with that global warming business.”
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