View topic - Warmest spring on record

Numbers are in for the U.S., from the left-leaning Washington Post... this is something the right-wing news services might choose to ignore.

With the presidential election only four months away now, other news reports say Obama has some unfinished climate change business on the agenda, while Romney promises more energy development, with fossil fuels of all kinds considered, ramping up offshore drilling, Arctic drilling, drilling and fracking, coal mining and coal-fired electricity generation.

IIRC, the polls have Obama winning at this time... the wildfires combined with violent storms and power outage affecting millions during a heat wave in the eastern states might help focus voters on what needs to be done.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/cap ... _blog.html

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I would suggest that the record heat, drought, and floods we are experiencing in North America this year is a taste of what will be the "new normal" in the near future.

How did we come to the point where climate was left vs right wing issue?

Kinguq

Climate change as hoax
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... me_oneline

That's what I've been thinking for a while now.

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Kinguk said


It is about the money, and the few, which is really a sad state of affairs the the Human race is getting into, but sooner or later like the French Revolution and Arab spring
there will be a backlash, and people will not be offering the few cake....

N.C. considers making sea level rising illegal......
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plu ... e-illegal/

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... scientists

then there is the Georgian Bay issue....
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editoria ... lair-river

Sooner or later the right wing politicians are going to have to change their stripes, but for many species it could be too late,
Jeff

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

The republican presidential candidates were mostly deniers IIRC.... Perry, Santorum, Bachmann, Gingrich. Romney doesn't seem to want to say anything on climate one way or the other (might cost right-wing votes). Rush Limbaugh broadcasts denial regularly. There are other high-ranking republicans (eg Imhofe) denying climate change.

Republicans have been blocking climate change related bills in Washington as well, probably the same ones still arguing over evolution.

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If this is a thread about American politics, it belongs in the Off Topic forum.

I'll be moving it to OT if it continues in this vein.

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Barbara, everything is political, so maybe this belongs in Environment after all... just a thought.

Here is something environment related... corn farmers in the midwest are threatening crop failures if this drought continues. Please note I've left out any comments from midwest politicians on the matter (eg. angry table pounding to DO SOMETHING).

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I'm thinking it's time to re-define the focus of the "Environmental Issues" forum.

Probably way overdue, actually.

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Trouble is the Harper Government is just ignoring data, underfunding the Science aspect of it so there is no "Canadian" Data and the big enviro groups are still more worried about their tax status than to actually draw a line in the sand, and us weeee people just rant on the forums and send our letters and get answers that mean zilch or as in the NWPA ignore us completely.....
But in the small ridings where the Con. support is strong many areas are now running into low well problems..... The tide will change....
And speaking of tides and sea levels being higher.. isn't the Bay of Fundy awfully close to the North east US.....
Too much silence from the Canadian side,
Jeff

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

Not entirely true.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/13 ... y-20120613

He was very outspoken, decisive, and science based as a Governor. "Romney frequently repeated a central thought, people at those meetings said: That climate change is occurring, that the United States has the resources to handle its vast impact ... Romney pushed to close old coal-fired plants, encourage the development of renewable energy and contain sprawl ... Indeed, one of Romney's top environmental staffers, Gina McCarthy, now runs the air pollution unit of the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama. John Holdren, a scientist Romney turned to on at least one occasion to discuss climate change, is the White House senior advisor on science and technology issues."

If he's changed his mind as a Presidential candidate, I think this says far more about the electorate in the US (rather than Romney's own perspective, or his outlook as a Governor of a progressive State in the Northeast). I have little doubt the rest of the US will be joining the consensus position on Climate Change by some future time, but not without a good deal of struggle and a fair bit of resistance to change and reactionism. A Presidential candidate can either lead or follow ... and climate change appears to be fairly low down on the national (and international) agenda at the moment. Climate politics in Canada appears to be a subset of petro-politics (at least when individual parties and regional constituencies are concerned).

Generally, people are motivated by short-term interests, politicians included. When the multi-million dollar estates on the Florida coast begin to get swallowed up by the sea, we may finally see our governments getting serious. Unfortunately, by then we'll have lost precious time in addressing this issue. Personally, I don't think there are many political systems that can adequately deal with climate change. In the U.S. and Canada for example, the political system has been completely hijacked by corporate interests, and unless that changes we're cooked.

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www.mikemonaghan.ca

Pretty bleak outlook, it's hard to disagree.

On the cheerful side - I visited your website and am blown away by the photos, particularly the slide-show/video. Damn good work and I like the music too...!

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Idylwyld,



I ran across this quote in a report on China... it speaks to problems with democratization and how short attention span with voters draws focus away from bigger-picture, longer-term issues.



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/opini ... .html?_r=2

Here in Canada, our dictator Stephen Harper is suppressing scientific evidence in order to accelerate economic development at the cost of environmental well-being (the recent scientists' protest march in Ottawa being evidence for that, that unusual steps are being taken by those in power... normally, scientists are a pretty quiet bunch buried in books). Whether this has any backlash in the next election remains to be seen, my bet is that it will be forgotten quickly as the popular media pumps up the latest hot news going on elsewhere.

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