Lest there remain any hope smoldering in wannabe-centrist hearts about Bush's change of course on global warming, White House press flack Tony Snow put it decisively to rest yesterday, saying: "I want to walk you back from the whole carbon cap story ... The carbon cap stuff is not accurate. It's wrong."
And again: "If you're talking about enforceable carbon caps, in terms of industry wide and nationwide, we knocked that down. That's not something we're talking about."
This is something Iraq War critics have had to deal with for a long time, with great frustration -- the constant, unshakeable belief that now, surely, Bush is going to see the error of his ways and shift to a more sensible, popular strategy. So too with global warming. I shall speak slowly:
This is George W. Bush we're talking about.
No matter how desperately you may pine for bipartisan comity and unity and "common sense," nothing in Bush's record -- nothing -- indicates that he shares your fondness for such. Give it up. He's not going to change course once he's decided. Quit jumping at shadows. Figure out how to make progress without federal help. Move on.
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d41295 Posted 4:59 am
17 Jan 2007
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JackEast Posted 5:22 am
17 Jan 2007
King Knute made fools of his flatters when he mocked their praises that he could move heaven and earth by having his throne moved to the edge of the sea , commanded the tide not to rise, and having the tide continue to rise and the sea swirl around his throne.
Mathew Fox quotes Hildegard of Bingen's statement in the 12th century: "If humans interfere with the web of creation, God's justice will allow the earth to punish humanity".
Two scientists writings I would suggest for people concerned about the future of life on this planet are those of William Ruddiman and Peter Ward.
William Ruddiman had published in Scientific American in March 2005 an article titled "How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate". In late 2006 he published a book on the topic titled "Plows, Plagues and Petroleum:How Humans Took Control of Climate". He presents evident that human activity began adding CO2 and methane to the atmosphere thousands of years ago.
Peter Ward got an article published in Scientific American in October, 2006 titled "Impact from the Deep". In 2006 he published a book titled "Out of Thin Air". In these publications he presents information about how atmospheric CO2 and O2 levels have affected evolution and a mechanism for several of the mass extinctions in the past by CO2 rising above a critical level .
Jack East
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Steve Bloom Posted 5:23 am
17 Jan 2007
While any tax will always be accompanied by some degree of resentment, it remains that much of that resentment has to do with how the money is being spent. If the Iraq war had been directed toward removing the Baathists from power and then getting out ASAP while leaving Iraq in a stable condition (albeit in three pieces), I think it's fair to say that there would be far less resentment about the war. In the case of existing gas taxes, resentment is limited because motorists perceive that they receive a direct and related value from the resulting highway work. In the case of a carbon tax, if the money goes alternative energy etc. rather than into a general fund, similarly any resentment would be much reduced.
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LegumeSam Posted 9:14 pm
17 Jan 2007
What? They're not offering that?
http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/
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bookerly Posted 12:05 pm
18 Jan 2007
Actually, the one ray of hope from Da Moron In Chief, is that he really doesn't believe what he is saying, so it is potentially possible for him to just change and say something else, all the while believing that it is what he has been saying all along.
That said, I have no illusions that either he or the Democrats are going to do much "real" about global warming this election cycle. I would love to be proven wrong.
patrick
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