Well, You Don't Say

White House admits humans causing climate change 9

The White House has begrudgingly admitted that "most of the recent global warming is very likely due to human generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations." In a 271-page report -- court-ordered and four years late -- federal scientists have created a "one-stop shop" summary of potential climate impacts on the U.S. environment, economy, and public health. The report predicts stop-us-if-you've-heard-this-one heat waves, water shortages, and severe weather (oh my!), and notes that "many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the uninsured." It also foresees a high-cost expansion of electricity capacity. "It basically says the America we've known we can no longer count on," says biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who reviewed the document. "It's a pretty dramatic picture of all kinds of change rippling through natural systems across the country. And all of that has implications for people."

Related Stories

Advertisement
Advertisement

  1. guade00 Posted 8:18 am
    29 May 2008

    And our "awesome" new plan is...to continue advocating tax cuts, let the free market take care of the problem, oppose state programs that are actually addressing the problem (like that radical "patch-work" plan in in California), drag our feet in international negotiations, and basically pass the buck to the next administration. Cheers!

    Permalink

  2. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 8:38 am
    29 May 2008

    McCain '08

    The last remaining roadblock to Grist Ecologists voting Republican has been removed!
    Welcome to the G.O.P.!

    Permalink

  3. GreyFlcn Posted 1:19 am
    30 May 2008

    IronicallyThis makes it so that Bush and McCain are now perfectly in lockstep on policy issues.

    Permalink

  4. archigeek Posted 2:55 am
    30 May 2008

    Laugh-riotJabailo: Well, other than the fact that they are fascist authoritarians and mass-murderers, yes, then they may well get another look-see from me. When the 10th level of Hell thaws. I don't know though. I remember reading some wag comment in Adbusters Magazine a couple years ago that the Republicans are the party that wants to give our country away to the corporate fascists immediately, but that the Democratic Party wanted to take a go-slow, wait and see approach. I had to think honestly about that a few seconds, and concluded that by and large, with a few exceptions, at least on a national level, the author of those comments was correct. Bravery, common sense, intellectual curiosty, and foresight are not the hallmark of most of todays political, corporate and institutional management. "Leader" is a term I use very sparingly, lest it become like the currently devalued "hero".

    Permalink

  5. usandthem Posted 4:45 am
    30 May 2008

    archigeeNow I hope that I am reading your piece correctly.The republicans want to give the whole show away to corporate facists,and so do the democrats but the democrats want to go more slowly.I can get behind that.You can't trust either party.It is a revolting,revolving game.One party screws us and screws us til we get a few grains of intelligence.Then we vote the bums out and the other party waltzes in and finesses our meager mentality until we kinda catch on that they too are just using us,ad infinitum.

    Permalink

  6. Tasermons Partner Posted 5:44 am
    30 May 2008

    Roadblock...The last remaining roadblock to Grist Ecologists voting Republican has been removed!
    How 'bout a viable and workable climate plan?
    That's a pretty good roadblock.
    Also, this would've been much less of a roadblock had they actually released it 4 years ago...when they were supposed to.

    Permalink

  7. roncastle Posted 7:15 am
    30 May 2008

    RoadblockThe folks in the current administration and their right side of the aisle counterparts aren't Republicans.  Teddy Roosevelt asked me to make this post.

    Permalink

  8. Wolverine Posted 3:50 am
    01 Jun 2008

    Republicans v. DemocratsArchigeek and Usandthem,
    As Jerry Brown once said, the only difference between the Democrats and Republicans is the pace of destruction.  While a slower paces is obviously not as bad as a faster one, neither is acceptable.  That's why I vote Green, and even those people are too conservative.

    Permalink

  9. Ariell Posted 1:42 am
    02 Jun 2008

    "Global Change"If you look at the report, the government got one last dig in.  The title of the report is "Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States".  They strategically diluted the impact of the report by omitting the words "climate change" from the title, making it virtually impossible to find.  See the report here http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/scientific-assessme ...

    Permalink

Add a Comment

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hello, Visitor!    Why not register?

Viewed
More
Commented
More
Advertisement