The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

Sen. Sam Brownback, an official presidential candidate, traveled to Iowa yesterday to where he met with conservative activists and answered questions from reporters.  Despite temperatures that didn’t reach the teens Brownback talked about how “the temperature has risen.”  Brownback explained ”It seems to me just prudent that we recognize we have climate increase and temperature change.  We have CO2 loading and we need to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.”  Throughout his talks on climate change Brownback failed to mention one key term–”global warming.”  (Read the entire story from the Associate Press here.)

Brownback’s reluctance to use this term may be related to the current Waxman hearings being debated in Congress.  The New York Times reports on the hearing that is investigating allegations that White House officials have controlled climate programs and have inappropriately censored what scientists have been allowed to tell the public.  One example was “a challenge to using the phrase ‘global warming.’”  A study released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists  reports on an in-depth survey of government scientists and separate interviews that senior scientists at UCS say “has brought to light numerous ways in which US federal climate science has been filtered, suppressed and manipulated in the last five years.”

Perhaps tellingly, yesterday potential presidential contenders took the opporunity to make their voices heard about the issue of climate change.  Sen. Hillary Clinton said “this is a problem whose time has come,” and Sen. John Mccain reiterated that “this is an issue over the years whose time has come.”  Sen. Barack Obama didn’t get caught in any shadows when he said “for decades far too many have ignored the warning.  Will we look back at today and say this was the moment we took a stand?”   Could this be foreshadowing of upcoming campaign rhetoric?

And another potential presidential wannabe is making clearthat he takes climate change seriously.  Gov. George Pataki will attend a March 1st conference in Concord, “Climate Change and Working Forests: A Conference for Citizens Concerned with the Future of NH Forests.”  For more information about the conference visit the Society for the Protection of NH’s Forests.

Presidential wannabe Sen. Hillary Clinton will be returning to the Granite State this weekend for the first time since her husband’s presidency.  If we can gauge anything from her recent trip to Iowa, it is likely she won’t be the same person who visited the state before.  According to this article in the New York Times, Clinton surprised Iowans by being assertive and answering questions, which was a different approach since her 1999 “listening tour.”  In her two days in Iowa, she criticized the Bush administration for policies that she said “favored the rich” and for pursuing policies that “encouraged global warming.”  Clinton is expected in Concord and Manchester this weekend.

Today the Senate will hold the first global warming hearing of the year.  It’s the first step towards House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s goal of having Congress pass a global warming bill by July 4th.  “It says to the American people, we are about the future” Pelosi said in this story from USA Today.  But according to this Reuter’s article, 13% of Americans won’t know what a global warming bill is about.  According to an international poll of more than 25,000 internet users, 13% of Americans have never heard of, nor do they know anything about, global warming.  Apparently heightened media coverage and a 70 degree day in January doesn’t grab the attention of all Americans.  Hmm…maybe a global warming segment on American Idol would work?

Also: This Friday, the IPCC issues its third report on global warming.  Apparently, many top US scientists, having reviewed the draft, are alarmed that the International Panel is off the mark on how bad things are going to be, and rumor has it there is a lot of rewriting going on.  It’s bound to be an interesting day, so stay, well, kind of tuned in.

For many New Englanders it’s hard to believe it’s almost February.  The temperatures may have finally plunged into the teens and a light coating of white covers the ground in most places, but after such a warm December and early January, winter just doesn’t feel the same–especially in the weight of people’s wallets. 

Yesterday the Boston Globe printed “Winter Warm-Up Costing NE Region.”  The article looks at the direct impacts the warming winter trend has had on people who rely on the region’s four seasons.  “Records show New England’s Climate…is dramatically warming–and altering the region’s character and economy as it does.”  This is old news to Granite Staters who recently, and unsuccessfully, sought federal disaster aid because of the mild temperatures impacting this season’s tourism.  And residents from Vermont to northern Maine agree–”it’s a lot different now than it was.”

US Senator and likely presidential contender John McCain spoke about such problems last week at the World Economic Forum.  McCain believes the US Congress followed by the Bush administration will take action on global warming very soon.  “I admit that it is very late, and it may not be enough, but I think that for the first time you are going to see some action on this compelling issue.”  (Read the whole story from FinFacts.com.)

Another potential presidential hopeful, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was speaking at a convention this weekend in NH, but he wasn’t talking about global warming.  Instead he talked about the war in Iraq, taxes, terrorism, and an ongoing ambiguous rhetoric of “if I do, when I do, as I do” about an official run.  (Read the entire article from the New York Times.)

A new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that 77% of Americans believe there is solid evidence that global warming is occurring today.  Interestingly this number has risen by 7% since a poll taken in June, a rise researchers believe can be attributed to this unusually warm winter season.  Despite the overall public consensus that the earth is warming, only 47% believe it is caused by human induced activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.  The February 2nd release of UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will report that scientists agree that there is a 90% chance that anthropogenic actions are influencing global warming (read the report in USA Today here).  This new information could again influence polls six months from now, but if past findings on climate change are any indicator, we’re not holding our breaths.

Barbara Boxer, the new head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is hoping to lead by example and is asking her colleagues to do the same.  She is installing energy efficient lights in her Capitol Hill office as part of a pilot program aimed at cutting electricity consumption on Capitol Hill by as much as 50%.  “Don’t you think it’s time the federal government were a model of energy efficiency?” she asked at the US Conference of Mayors last night.  She’s trying the “practice what you preach” approach, but I wonder if owning three Toyota Prius’ is helping her cause.  Someone might want to fill her in that moderating consumption is one of the many steps to reducing your environmental footprint.  (Read the entire story from the New York Times here.)