“Happening Now”

Business as Usual Scenario

13 government agencies led by the NOAA have put out a comprehensive report titled “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” which spells out a lot of the effects of a changing climate that we face over the next 100 years.  There are different projections based on whether or not emissions continue to rise as they are now, or whether certain degrees of action are taken.  You can find the report here.  The report also breaks down the impact on different regions of the country.  The significance of such a report is that the last serious one to come out was in 2000.  The Bush administation clamped down on any serious in depth national assessments actually being done or released.  The Washington Post has an article out today about this report, and there are some noteworthy lines I want to repeat.

“Harmful effects from global warming are already here and worsening, warns the first climate report from Barack Obama’s presidency in the strongest language on climate change ever to come out of the White House.  ”Global warming has already caused more heavy downpours, the rise of temperatures and sea levels, rapidly retreating glaciers and altered river flows, according to the document released Tuesday by the White House science adviser and other top officials.”

“This is not a theoretical thing that will happen 50 years from now. Things are happening now.”

“But it paints a fuller, more cohesive and darker picture of global warming in the United States than previous studies and brief updates during the George W. Bush years. Bush was ultimately forced to issue a draft report last year by a lawsuit, and that document was the basis for this new one.”

“White House science adviser John Holdren said in a statement that the findings make the case for taking action to slow global warming – both by reducing emissions and adapting to the changes that “are no longer avoidable.”"

“The report compiles years of scientific research and updates it with new data. It was produced by the interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program, relying on government, academic and research experts.“

Here is also a simple yet effective slideshow which depicts some graphs from the report

Peterson Bought Out

What Could be Inside?

A month ago, I wrote about the staggering amount of money energy lobbyists had given to members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and how coincidentally those who had received the most money were causing the most trouble.  Ever since the bill passed out of that committee, its main obstacle has been the Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson.  Peterson has sought to change something that isn’t even in the bill, which is the EPA seeking to take into account the full life cycle of biofuels so that we’re only using biofuels to replace conventional ones when there aren’t adverse effects like tropical deforestation.  This threatens much of the current ethanol industry, so Peterson has build up a voting block of 30-40 rural farm state Democrats, and is threatening to derail the climate bill unless he gets what he wants.  He also wants farmers to be able to sell billions of dollars worth of offsets on the offset market for farming practices trap which more carbon in the soil and plants.

Now I actually think it’s okay for there to be provisions in the bill where farmers can sell real and verifiable offsets on the domestic offset market we’re going to inevitably have if this bill passes.  See 8 reasons why farmers should support Waxman-Markey.  However right now the bill allows for that even though agriculture is exempt from the cap on greenhouse gas emissions.  The issue Peterson has is he wants the process by which offsets are verified to be adjusted in the bill so that the new process is tilted in favor the benefiting the big agricultural industries.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise then to find that Peterson, like his Energy and Commerce Counterparts, has been bought out by big Ag.  A table says a thousand words.

Agribusiness	$1,597,823	$1,342,814	$255,009
Communications/Electronics	$76,820	$64,700	$12,120
Construction	$97,085	$74,000	$23,085
Defense	$10,400	$10,400	$0
Energy & Natural Resources	$145,335	$138,585	$6,750
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	$617,164	$579,774	$37,390
Health	$232,870	$222,200	$10,670
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$181,785	$92,753	$89,032
Transportation	$136,750	$132,500	$4,250
Misc Business	$277,896	$238,231	$39,665
Labor	$1,064,494	$1,063,794	$700
Ideological/Single-Issue	$228,351	$208,251	$20,100
Other	$32,305	$7,000	$25,305