YET NOTHING IN THE PRESS, NOTHING FROM THE PRESIDENT, NOTHING FROM DEMS and the silence is tragic.
Progress Report:
Blair's Challenge to America
Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of President Bush's closest allies, made his position crystal clear: "if America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too." High on Blair's agenda is enlisting the cooperation of all countries to tackle the problem of global warming. America and Australia are the only two industrialized nations that have not ratified the Kyoto accords, the global agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming, which is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 16. Blair's specific recommendations for action mirrored those just released by the International Climate Change Task Force co-chaired by British MP Stephen Byers and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress. American Progress CEO John Podesta said Blair's strong advocacy, along with bipartisan support in Congress, could persuade the administration "to come back to the table and get involved with this huge challenge facing humanity." Read the full report.
THE TASK AT HAND: According to the "vast majority of international scientists and peer-reviewed reports," climate change is a "serious growing threat." Unless concrete steps are taken to mitigate the problem, "no country will be immune from the extreme weather events and rising sea levels that scientists predict will occur." The Task Force recommends 10 concrete but practical steps aimed at ensuring that global warming does not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. If global warming exceeds that point, "the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow significantly." The recommendations of the Task Force include: taking greater advantage of existing low and zero-carbon technologies, creating a global emissions trading market and, for G8 countries, producing 25 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2025.
THE HIGH PRICE OF DOING NOTHING: Addressing the climate change problem does not, in Blair's view, involve "drastic cuts in growth or standards of living." In fact, investing in low and zero-emissions technologies "provide[s] the prospect of significant business and economic opportunities." Meanwhile, the costs of doing nothing are severe. Recently, the most extensive scientific modeling on global warming ever conducted "found that global temperatures could rise by up to 11°C if emissions of carbon dioxide continue unabated." That is more than five times the increase the Task Force determined could have severe impacts in the form of flooding and extreme weather events.
KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: Efforts to reduce global warming go hand in hand with enhancing oil security. Low and zero-carbon energy sources, including many biofuels, are renewable and can be produced domestically – reducing our dependence on foreign oil. (Brazil, for example, already derives one-third of its transport fuel from ethanol produced from sugar cane.) The Task Force recommends that the United States and other major industrialized nations "divert their agricultural subsidies to biofuels instead of food crops."
BIG OIL TARGETS BRITAIN: While Blair is courageously leading an effort to bring the world together, big U.S. oil companies are bankrolling an effort to bring him down. The Guardian reports, "lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut greenhouse gas emissions." Specifically, ExxonMobil is funneling tens of thousands of dollars to industry front groups operating in Britain that produce reports that claim to "undermine" growing scientific consensus about climate change.