As I sit here writing, I have the White House Health Care Summit running in the background. This is the meeting where President Obama invited Congressional leaders to sit down at the table in front of the American public and talk about how to find common ground over what has become a very divisive, political debate about healthcare.
Last week, two conservative Republican Senators, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Wyoming, called for an independent probe of the IPCC -- the international scientific body that summarizes the latest climate science -- and asked the Senate to halt all climate action until that happens.
As most of you are well aware, last week was a snow week in Washington, DC, and the odds are pretty good that there‘s something like that going on for you as well.
Our good friends in the conservative community have seized upon the moment as proof that this whole “global warming” thing is just a big scam perpetrated by the likes of Al Gore and his Legion Of Weather Nazis; their mission being only to deprive the American people of their Constitutional right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of a Ford Super Duty F-450 King Ranch Edition with the Heavy Service Suspension Package, Snow Plow Prep Package, Transmission Power Take-Off Provision, dual alternators, and supplemental cab heater.
To drive the point home, last week Senator James Inhofe’s family went to the time and trouble to build a little igloo on the National Mall for our amusement.
But here’s a question: just what has the weather been like in other places—for example, in my part of the world...or in the Senator’s home State of Oklahoma?
It’s a good question—and the Senator won’t like the answer.
The stance taken by the US Chamber of Commerce on climate change is damaging the confidence Americans have in business' ability to respond to current challenges. The Chamber has been fighting climate change legislation tooth and nail on behalf of the US coal industry that makes up a very small segment of their membership. Other business have taken notice, as the list of companies leaving the Chamber is growing. The Chamber chose to entrench its stance on the lead up to the Copenhagen climate conference and this resulted in the departure of Exelon Corp, Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM Resources, Mohawk Fine Papers, and Apple.
This Saturday, October 24, more than 4,000 events in 170 countries will take place as part of 350's International Day of Climate Action -- all calling upon world leaders to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere to a safe level of 350 parts per million. It's the largest collective display of action to fight climate change the world has ever seen.
Find and attend an October 24 event in your community:
With world leaders set to gather in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty, the stakes are high and we have no time to lose. Bold U.S. action increases the chances for a strong treaty, and by attending an event on October 24 you can make your voice for change heard.
Lindsey Graham is learning a painful lesson today. After flirting with the craziest, nastiest political movement since Fascism, he decided he needed to move back juuusssttt a hair toward the center. So, since he and his family currently reside on Planet Earth, he decided to work with Sen. John Kerry on climate change legislation. It seemed a good idea at the time - you know- since he finds things like air, water and stuff convenient, and South Carolina being a coastal state.
But, these tea baggers, you know the ones your best Republican friends tell you are honest, fear-driven, hard working Americans, they don't want anybody from the lib'rul, gummint interfering in their tsunamis, and melted ice caps and such. So, ole Lindsey finds himself in the amazing position of being attacked from the right. More insanity below.
Oil Industry Front Group Rallies for Global Warming "Taking a cue from angry protests against the Obama Administration's health care restructuring, the oil industry is helping organize anti-climate bill rallies around the nation," reports Ian Talley. The rallies are being organized under the name "Energy Citizens," an effort led by the American Petroleum Institute (API)... ... "EnergyCitizens" plans to hold rallies in about 20 states during August, targeting states "whose Democratic Senators aren't strong supporters of a stringent bill, such as ... Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mark Begich of Alaska."
Compare and Contrast:
If anyone still doesn’t believe in global warming, come to Glacier National Park.... Glaciers carved out this scenery millions of years ago, and glaciers still exist here today. When first seen by early explorers a little more than a century ago, 136 glaciers were identified, named, and documented in the Glacier National Park area. Today, there are 25 left. For the past 15 years, one glacier has been lost annually.
This is the last Bill Clinton at Netroots Nation '09 footage I'll be posting -- and it's below the fold in deference to our dial-up readers. I think Clinton is exactly right about the importance of passing health care reform, and about the effects of that reform. Ditto for climate change. I hope he is correct that we are on the brink of a revolution in our public life, an age where we engage in honest debate and seek win-win solutions instead of winning at someone else's expense. Keep hoping and keep working - we'll get there someday.
First up are Clinton's extremely timely remarks about the health care reform bill:
The third problem that the President has was best articulated by Nikolai Machiavelli in the 15th century when he said there is nothing so difficult in all of human affairs as to change the established order of things, because -- I'll switch now to Clinton's 21st Century jargon -- because the people who have got it are certain of what they're going to lose and the people who will gain are uncertain of their advance.
If we spend 16% of GDP on health care and Canada spends 11 and all our other major competitors are between 9.5 and 10, that means we're spotting all our competitors 750 to 800 billion dollars a year. If we insure 84% and they all insure 100, where is the money going? Follow the money. ... That's what the President and the Congress are facing. ... What should you do about it?
If you don't think their plan is good enough it's fine for you to advocate a public option, I personally favor a public option, and I always have. I also favored some way of letting people who are uninsured buy into the federal plan because there are 36 different options and young single people who want a more catastrophic type coverage so they wouldn't pass their cost onto anybody else would have an even less costly option there.
...
The worst thing of all and the most danger to the most people is sticking with the status quo. It is bankrupting America, making families insecure ... The second thing I think you have to do is to figure the 3 or 4 things that 100% of the people who are going to vote for this agree on has to be in the bill and the 3 or 4 things that none of us want in the bill, that we're all being accused of. ...
Then you can say whatever you want about -- here's what's wrong with the Senate plan, here's what's wrong with the House plan. Whatever you believe is fine. Trying to hold the progressives' feet to the fire is fine. Trying to get the best bill you can is fine.
But first we have to win the big argument. The worst thing to do is nothing. Here are the things that everybody wants, here are the things that nobody wants. Then, here are your differences. If you can do that you can reach millions and millions and millions of people ...
The President needs your help and the cause needs your help. This is really important. There's just one other thing I'd like to say that I wish many of you would write. It is not only the morally right thing to do, it is politically imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill now. Because one thing we know and that I've lived through is that if you get out there and then you don't prevail, the victors get to rewrite history.
I'm telling you, I don't care how low they drive support for this with misinformation, the minute the President signs the Health Care Reform Bill, approval will go up because Americans are inherently optimistic. Secondly, within a year, within a year, when all those bad things they say are going to happen, don't happen, and the good things do begin to happen, approval will explode. ... We can't let people lose their nerve, so I am pleading with you. It's ok with me if you want to keep everybody honest. If I say something you don't agree with on health care, by all means criticize me but try to keep this thing in the lane of getting something done. We need to pass the bill and move this thing forward.
Then climate change legislation:
I feel the same way about climate change. ... Again I say, the President stuck his neck out here, the Congress has stuck it's neck out and we've got to have a bill. ... There are a lot of practical things that need to be advanced before we can get there. ... This Cash for Clunkers program has worked great. ... We ought to put that on steroids when we can sell electric cars ... The biggest thing we can do to help the President economically and help our country economically is to concentrate on the least sexy part of the climate change debate: efficiency.
The problem is there is no parallel financing for clean energy in America. ... Let's take some taxpayer money and create a small business guarantee fund like the one for the SBA and have 10 times as much retrofitting done. That's the kind of thing you need to think about.
Their concern is massive ad blitz on Christian and country-music stations across 10 states. The ads, funded by a left-leaning coalition, urge support for congressional legislation to curb greenhouse-gas emissions -- by framing the issue as an urgent matter of Biblical morality.
"As our seas rise, crops wither and rivers run dry, God's creation cries out for relief," begins one ad, narrated by an evangelical megachurch pastor. Another opens with a reference to the Gospel of John, slams energy interests for fighting the bill, and concludes: "Please join the faithful in speaking out against the powerful."
...
Another left-leaning religious coalition will begin airing scripture-citing radio ads in key congressional districts this weekend, calling for legislation to make health insurance more affordable. The coalition -- which includes Faith in Public Life, Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good -- also is distributing an eight-page guide, full of Biblical quotes and health-care statistics, to encourage pastors to raise the issue in sermons.
What an excellent development! Moderates and progressives ceded faith-based policy arguments to the right about 30 years ago. Look at the mess that made: the poor are poorer, the rich are richer and the planet is on an unstable path to a new climate condition, possibly unfriendly to life as we live it. Letting the right own religion has been especially disastrous for moderate and progressive voices in the South where church based social networks are hugely influential. A few unchallenged -- and loud -- voices from the right can and do sway entire congregations on election day.
I'm surprised to see this in the Mobile Press-Register, but it makes sense they would be first in the state to pass out of the climate change denial -- rising sea levels will have an early and direct effect on the Gulf Coast region.
Since 1970, average annual temperatures throughout the region have risen by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit, the report says, and could climb another 4.5 degrees or more by late this century, depending on how much is done to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Long-term, the effects could include declining farm production, more fish kills and increases in average sea levels of up to 2 feet or more along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the report adds.
Projected increases in air and water temperatures will cause heat-related stresses for people, plants, and animals.
Sea-level rise and the likely increase in hurricane intensity and associated storm surge will be among the most serious consequences of climate change.
Decreased water availability is very likely to affect the region’s economy as well as its natural systems.
Ecological thresholds are likely to be crossed throughout the region, causing major disruptions to ecosystems and to the benefits they provide to people.
Quality of life will be affected by increasing heat stress, water scarcity, severe weather events, and reduced availability of insurance for at-risk properties.
Climate change legislation has met significant opposition from Southerners in Congress, even Democrats. I believe the entire Alabama delegation either flat-out opposes or has expressed deep reservations about it. Southern Company, parent of Alabama Power, is lobbying hard against the climate change bill but progressives, specifically the American Values Network, are pushing back. From Eric Sapp at Faithful Democrats:
The most recent ad running on Country and Christian radio throughout Southern’s service region highlights why these efforts are so important and why people of faith need to amplify this message and speak out. Southern Company, the energy conglomerate that owns a number of the utilities in the South, specifically targeted this coalition of faith and military leaders because Southern rightly saw the coalition’s moral/national security message as a serious threat and way for moderate Dems who were in more conservative districts to vote in favor. Southern unleashed the 70+ DC lobbyists it has hired this year to try to kill the climate bill (it’s already spent over $4.2 million on lobbying this year) to push back against the faith and military coalition and threaten and cajole Members thinking of lending their support.
This ad campaign is an excellent example of progressives reaching out to people of faith, as well as an indication of the obvious -- people of faith are already a big part of the Democratic party.
“Light into Darkness”
Script:
The Gospel of John teaches that evildoers operate in dark places, hiding their deeds. But those who do what is right, do so in the light.
As Congress begins work on climate legislation to protect God’s creation, a great assembly of church leaders are backing a bill that supports working families and the poor and provides rebates directly to consumers to offset rising energy costs.
But Southern Company, the energy conglomerate that owns Alabama and Georgia has unleashed an army of lobbyists to fight the faith community and threaten law makers working to provide resources to American families.
Why? Because Southern Company wants all the money instead.
Please join the faithful in speaking out against the powerful. Call 877-88-CLIMATE to tell your Congressman to support the Waxman-Markey Climate bill that helps everyone, not just the energy companies. Paid for by AmericanValuesNetwork.org.
Has anyone heard this ad? I hope it's running on every country and gospel station in Alabama. Climate change legislation should reflect our values, which are not always the same as Southern Company's values. Some things money just can't buy, like God's green earth.
I love this ad from Repower America. Just saw it on the tube and had to share it with y'all!
"Repowering America with truly clean energy won't just save God's green earth, it'll help get our economy back on it's feet and more people back to work. The future's clean energy, so what are we waiting for?"
Congressman Artur Davis is one of those "Dem centrists." Not surprising given that Alabama is still a coal-burning state, but disappointing just the same.
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It's a few minutes past 12:00 noon in your Nation's Capitol, my home town. I'm sitting at a Starbucks at Pennsylvania & 3rd St SE, on Capitol Hill a block behind the Library of Congress Madison Building, 2 blocks from the Capitol.
I have a few minutes to have a coffee ("Sidamo"), answer some emails, and relax for a few minutes between meetings.
Yesterday I attended a Climate Change Conference downtown. Next week I plan to post a series, 2 or 3, of reports from that Conference with various "take-aways". Senator John Kerry was the luncheon speaker and delivered impassioned remarks about the state of things and the need to take action NOW, in the run-up to the December UN Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, which will -- it is hoped -- supplant the Kyoto Protocols with key nations committed to assertive, substantive, verifiable CO2 reduction strategies.
Senator Kerry at the "Meeting Energy Needs, Reducing Environmental Impact" Forum luncheon in Washington, DC yesterday
Topics for panel discussion included "U.S. Climate Change Policy and its International Implications" and "Energy Revolution: Indentifying the Gaps in R&D and Beyond".
No time to comment, but wanted to give all a heads-up and these links, fyi.
I like dogs as much as anyone, but Mike Rogers is really pushing this bomb sniffing dog thing at Auburn. What do they mean when they say "The CDRI-bred puppies are raised in collaboration with prisons systems to prepare them for detector training. About 50 puppies are typically in that pipeline, Waggoner said."
I don't have any idea whether we have ET company or not, but I know for damned sure there are heads exploding at NASA over this. Which I find quite amusing, actually.
Birmingham is in Jefferson County too, and blessed with Mayor Larry Langford. Sometimes these publicity stunts work as hoped, but this one appeared to fall flatter than a flitter.
A funny thing happened towards the end of the Ask Nancy Pelosi event at Netroots Nation today -- Al Gore popped in to answer the question on energy and climate change. And of course he was welcomed with open arms. Barack Obama might have gotten a bigger reception, but I can't think of anyone else who would have. Below are a couple of videos of the "speech" part of the program. Later I may edit down some of the Q and A session and post video of that, too.
Watching and listening to Gore, I can't help but wonder where this public speaker was in 2000. Was he just buried under all the advice from consultants and handlers, or what.
Just this week Gore issued this challenge:
“America must commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and other clean sources within 10 years.”
At a gathering of citizen journalists and political activists, it was so fitting that Gore started off by repeating that a well informed citizenry is the bedrock of our form of government. And on top of being well informed, the people need to be involved and engaged in government to make the system work.
He also talked about the north polar ice cap with obvious sadness and deep concern. The north polar ice cap is roughly the size of the continental US and has been in existence for millions of years. It is now melting and experts say there is a 75% to 80% chance that the entire north polar ice cap -- during the summer when it is most important -- will be completely melted and gone in as little as 5 years.
Gore likened our addiction to oil to the old "hair of the dog that bit you" hangover remedy. Some people say we're suffering from the consequences of a dependency on oil -- let's go drill for some more! He also pointed out that as demand for oil and coal become more scarce, the price increases while the opposite is true for renewable energy. For instance, the cost of photovoltaics is high not because of the raw material cost, but because there are limited manufacturing facilities. As the demand rises and more factories are built, the price falls.
Gore also used the phrase "stewards for future generations." Earlier this morning Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it is imperative to "preserve the earth while protecting the poor." Isn't it time we started being good stewards of both this world we live on and the people we share it with?
