Final report warns, “Waiting for unacceptable impacts to occur before taking action is imprudent because … many of these changes will persist for hundreds or even thousands of years.”

“The number of days per year in which temperatures are projected to exceed 100°F by late this century” on our current (high) emissions path, A1FI

Last May, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released the first of its “America’s Climate Choices” reports (see NAS labels as “settled facts” that “the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities”).  Today, they released their final ACC report.

The good news is that the Academy is clear about the need to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions “as soon as possible” (for some reason the acronym, ASAP, sounds stronger).   The AP story got that message:  “Panel Says US Must Act Now to Curb Global Warming.”

The bad news is that the report is otherwise rather bland and conservative in that classic NAS style.  If your house were on fire, the NAS would take three months to write a report that says you should put out the fire “as soon as possible” (and, of course, you should do some adaptation planning for the potential loss of your home).

Dr. Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist at NCAR, wrote in an email that, while he agrees generally with the findings, “my quick summary is that there is a lot here that is good but it doesn’t seem to go far enough.”

The NAS also makes a mistake that is emblematic of its conservative approach, as we will see.

Read more

CAP’s Jorge Madrid, in a WonkRoom cross-post.

Addressing the right-wing think tank American Action Forum last week, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) praised the Environmental Protection Agency of previous generations, while condemning their current mission:

Read more

“In the media landscape there are climate change deniers and believers, but rarely those speaking about climate change are actual climate scientists.”

So begins a new rap video by actual climate scientists from Australia, one of the continents hardest hit by global warming pollution. The group of scientist-rappers, in coordination with the Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s comedy show Hungry Beast, rap about science, politicians, and right-wing deniers with an amusing combination of fact and irreverence. Here’s their take on the dangerous risks of positive feedback loops and intensification of extreme weather:

Feedback is like climate change on crack.

The permafrosts subtracts: feedback!

Methane release wack : feedback!

Write a letter then burn it: feedback!

Denialists, deny this in your dreams,

Coz climate change means greater extremes,

Shit won’t be the norm,

Heatwaves, bigger badder storms.

Watch it:

Participating scientists include Jason Evans, Katrin Meissner, Roger Jones, Ailie Gallant, Leanne Armand, Linda Beaumont, and a host of PhD students at Australia’s top climate research units. These scientists have extensive publication records, from projected regional climate change to how global warming pollution affects ecological distribution.

These scientists are, of course, exposing themselves to the attack that they’re acting like human beings who care about the planet they’re studying. However, as they say, “Climate change is caused by people/ Earth, unlike Alien, has no sequel.”

Before Los Alamitos High School science teachers can tackle topics such as global warming, they will have to demonstrate to the school board that the course is politically balanced….

Concerned that “liberal” faculty members could skew lessons on global warming, the board of education unanimously voted to make teachers give an annual presentation on how they’re teaching the class….

Although there is a consensus among scientists, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, that global climate change exists, the board of education said the topic is controversial enough to require a change in the district’s policy….

“We define a topic to be controversial if it has more than one widely held view,” said Assistant Superintendent Sherry Kropp,

Darn you liberal faculty members who teach science and “skew” their lessons towards scientific facts!  We demand “politically balanced” science.

Anyone can see the AAAS has an agenda:  They want the “advancement” of science.  No doubt so they can line their pockets with all that science money out there.

The guy pushing this effort knows what’s what:

Read more

French Lean Toward Ban of a Controversial Gas Extraction Technique

French lawmakers opened debate on Tuesday on proposals to ban a method for extracting oil and gas deposits from shale because of environmental concerns, throwing up the first serious stumbling block to firms that want to use the practice.

Read more

In fact, the dramatic scaling of solar manufacturing capacity is just what’s needed to keeps costs dropping

The renewable energy industry is central to addressing many national problems:  Climate change, national security, and job growth.  Its biggest international challenge is the Green Giant – the competition from China’s full-court press into clean energy.

Seemingly every week there’s another story about how China is upping the U.S. in the race to develop clean energy. This week’s news is in the solar sector, where Chinese officials say they plan to deploy 50 GW of cumulative capacity in the country by 2020. China only has about 1 GW of solar PV installed today (and no concentrated solar thermal power). But assuming it can meet those targets and continue scaling manufacturing (the country currently holds 57% of global solar cell manufacturing in the world), China is poised to become a vertically-integrated solar leader – not just an exporter of technology.

This story on the Forbes blog seems to have misunderstood the implications of China’s strategy:

Read more

On Wednesday, ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva outraged many on Capitol Hill when he released a statement calling it “un-American” to end subsidies to the Big 5 oil companies “” ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. A press release referencing the subsidies posted on the company’s website was headlined: “ConocoPhillips Highlights Solid Results and Raises Concerns Over Un-American Tax Proposals at Annual Meeting of Shareholders.”  Think Progress has the story and video.

Read more

Our guest blogger is Jorge Madrid, a CAP Research Associate.

Addressing the right-wing think tank American Action Forum last week, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) praised the Environmental Protection Agency of previous generations, while condemning their current mission:

This is not your parents’ EPA. Your parents’ EPA was focused on obvious problems with clear solutions. This EPA is focused on murky problems with unclear solutions. Your parents’ EPA practiced what it preached. This EPA says one thing and does another. Your parents’ EPA focused on rebuilding the environment. This EPA is focused on remaking society. Your parents’ EPA applied the law evenly. This EPA skirts the law. Your parents’ EPA knew how to learn from its mistakes. This EPA is repeating them.

Barrasso’s unfounded attacks come with an attempt to re-write history, while denying the need for action in the present. “When the EPA got started,” Barrasso said, “environmental action was essential. Our country faced undeniable environmental disasters. Environmental disasters killed people and jobs with equal force.” Action then was “morally necessary,” he concluded.

In fact, Barrasso’s predecessors denied the “undeniable” environmental disasters of the past. In 1970 conservatives argued that enforcement of the Clean Air Act would “cause entire industries to collapse.” In 1975, they argued that “EPA’s power grab could easily spread to other activities: population control, complete regulation of all business.” In 1980, conservatives said the Clean Air Act would cause “a quiet death for business across the country.”

Barrasso is, of course, one of the top deniers of “undeniable” environmental disasters. He is ignoring last year’s explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, which killed 11 people and ruined the Gulf of Mexico with millions of barrels of toxic oil. He is also ignoring the pollution from coal-fired electricity that costs the United States between $175 billion and $523 billion every year in sickness and death. He denies the imminent threat of climate change from burning fossil fuels that puts civilization at risk and is already exacerbating bouts of extreme weather throughout the nation.

Apparently Barrasso thinks that 159 million Americans living in areas that violate clean air health standards does not constitute a moral necessity. Perhaps he should be reminded that 8.5 percent of all American children suffer from asthma; or that every day in America, 30,000 people have an asthma attack, 5,000 people visit the emergency room due to asthma (and 11 people die every day) – according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Barrasso said that this is not our parents’ EPA. What he and his conservative colleagues in Congress fail to realize that this is our children’s EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency is protecting all Americans — most especially future generations — from costly damages and deadly harm.

TAKE ACTION: Act now to clean up our air: submit a public comment to the EPA. You can also comment in Spanish.

Kiley Kroh in a CAP repost.

Today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will attend the 7th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting. Clinton will be the first secretary of state to ever attend an Arctic Council meeting, underscoring its importance for achieving substantive agreements on the myriad challenges facing the region.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Warming seas mean less ice, which means increased access for shipping, fishing, and oil and gas extraction in one of the last unexploited regions of the planet. The Council has not kept pace with the rate of change occurring in the region to date and, as a result, there is an overwhelming lack of unified, strategic management structures, particularly on the issues of climate change and drilling in the Arctic.

Read more

I thought Entergy’s Hangover-laden presentation had the quotes of the week.  But Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) just topped it.

Politico has the amazing story:

Read more

Tax loopholes allow Big Oil companies to ratchet up their annual earnings at the expense of American taxpayers. Well-placed campaign contributions to their congressional allies preserve these undeserved handouts.  Daniel J. Weiss and Valeri Vasquez have the detailed numbers in a CAP repost.

Read more

The problem isn’t Obama’s policies – it’s Congress’s

“It’s always important to remind people that under business as usual, we’re losing jobs, including manufacturing jobs, every day. But where we have strong policies to create continued demand, we’re seeing actual job growth,” notes CAP clean energy expert Kate Gordon.

California, which has had the most aggressive and consistent renewable energy target, has seen a big increase in clean energy manufacturing jobs: Between 1995 and 2008, green jobs grew three times faster than the job rate in the state as a whole, and manufacturing jobs were over 20% of all green jobs created.

A recent piece from Dow Jones on green jobs highlighted a key problem in today’s national clean energy market: While the industry has seen a substantial increase in renewable energy projects under development, the number of permanent jobs has been low.   But the piece missed the real story.

Read more