Historic bill in Senate to fight warming

Source: seattle post


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Counterterror_Center_Chief.html

Historic bill in Senate to fight warming
California law a model for new measure

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, October 19, 2007

(10-19) 04:00 PDT Washington - --

A bipartisan group of senators, borrowing heavily from California's efforts to fight climate change, fired the starting gun on what's expected to be a long global-warming debate in Congress with a proposal for limits on greenhouse gases affecting every major segment of the nation's economy.

Lawmakers, industry groups and environmentalists have waited months for the bill, which was introduced Thursday by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut.

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"Today will be remembered as a turning point in the fight against global warming," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
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Several Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors, including Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine. "I'm convinced this bill does represent a tipping point," Collins said Thursday.

Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican and leading climate change skeptic in Congress, took to the Senate floor to denounce the bill. He warned it could cost average families several thousands of dollars in additional energy costs.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Counterterror_Center_Chief.html

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Its a start folks!

these type folk do not realize that the game is over!



Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Bush Aide Rejects Climate Goal: Science Adviser's Stance at Odds With Panel on Warming
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3034340#3034340
3034340, Bush Aide Rejects Climate Goal: Science Adviser's Stance at Odds With Panel on Warming
Posted by DeepModem Mom on Fri Oct-19-07 12:17 AM

Source: Washington Post

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 19, 2007; Page A02

The president's top science adviser said yesterday there is no solid scientific evidence that the widely cited goal of limiting future global temperature rises to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is necessary to avert dangerous climate change, an assertion that runs counter to that of many scientists as well as the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

John H. Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said at a news conference that the target of preventing Earth from warming more than two degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, "is going to be a very difficult one to achieve and is not actually linked to regional events that affect people's lives."

A wide number of scientists, as well as European leaders and many U.S. lawmakers, have endorsed the goal of limiting global temperature rise to that level. That roughly translates to holding the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide or equivalents, compared with the current level of roughly 385 parts per million.

The atmosphere has already warmed by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit compared with pre-industrial levels. In its April report, the IPCC outlined a range of environmental impacts that could transpire if temperatures rise 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above 1980 levels. These include placing between 20 and 30 percent of all species "at increasing risk of extinction" damaging most coral reefs; and "increased morbidity and mortality from heat waves, floods and droughts."

Marburger said that while there is general agreement that human activity is producing too much carbon dioxide and "you could have emerging disasters long before you get to two degrees. . . . There is no scientific criterion for establishing numbers like that."...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101802243.html?hpid=topnews