John McCain issued a remarkable statement earlier today in response to reports that runaway climate change may have begun:

America this week faces an historic crisis in our climate system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, the Southwest will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. If we do not act, every corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

Last spring, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns. This morning, I met with a group of advisers to talk about the steps that we should take going forward. I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

It has become clear that we are running out of time.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

I am confident that before Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.

Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

A blogger can dream, no? I will say that I didn’t have to change very many words from his actual remarks today.

Related Posts:

• Is the financial crisis more dire than the climate crisis?
• Turns out McCain doesn’t care about global warming, the greatest threat we face
• Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 6: What the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill debate tells us

The UK’s Met Office issued a blunt statement yesterday, “Global warming goes on,” that begins:

Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand. The evidence is clear — the long-term trend in global temperatures is rising, and humans are largely responsible for this rise. Global warming does not mean that each year will be warmer than the last, natural phenomena will mean that some years will be much warmer and others cooler. You only need to look at 1998 to see a record-breaking warm year caused by a very strong El Ni±o. In the last couple of years, the underlying warming is partially masked caused by a strong La Ni±a. Despite this, 11 of the last 13 years are the warmest ever recorded.

Strong stuff from the UK’s official provider of climate and weather-related analysis, which is actually within the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The UK’s Guardian reported the story as “Met Office says climate change deniers deluded.”

The Met Office has put together an interesting figure to show that global warming has continued at a pace of 0.17°C per decade since 1975 (red line), although the decadal trends (blue lines) have fluctuated wildly.

As the Met Office explains:

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I have not been blogging on the new tax credit package, since it’s hard to justify getting people’s hopes up over this given how badly the enviros and the Dems messed up on coastal drilling.

But the Senate has passed out a (flawed) tax bill, and now it is in the hands of the House Dems, who have yanked out some of the dirtiest incentives. Here is today E&E Daily piece, which describes the state of play:

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I have a new article in Salon on Sarah Palin, “The fungible candidate.” But it is really about the (lack of) judgment of John McCain. He famously said of his VP pick, “She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”

As we’ll see Palin lacks both breadth and depth of knowledge on the subject.

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The AP reports:

Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an month-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election….

Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto, Obey said.

Amazing, really. Would Bush have shut down the government before the bailout bill was passed — assuming the Democrats had been smart enough to do the stopgap spending bill (with limits on drilling plus a renewable tax credit extenstion) first?

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