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

Forget the physical contest, the new “Rebel Billionaire” will be a true reality competition but this time determined by wit.  The prize is big–$25 million–and the challenge, well, it’s simple: save planet earth from the impending threats of global warming.  Easy.  According to this story from the Associated Press, Sir Richard Branson, Virgin group chairman and global warming activist, announced today that he would give a $25 million prize to the first scientist who comes up with a way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.  Branson explains, “man created the problem, therefore man should solve the problem.”  Here’s an idea, let’s plant trees…show me the money!

Yesterday NH Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan and Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen announced that the nationwide scramble to move state presidential primaries earlier is only helping NH and hurting everyone else.  Kathy Sullivan explains “everything like this that happens is just making NH more important.  The more states that move up , the more important we become and, ironically, the less important they become because there will be so many of them.”  As of right now if the NH Primary is to be held on January 16th, which has not officially been determined, then there could be up to 16 states holding primaries or caucuses in the two weeks following.  (Read the entire story from the Union Leader here.)

Also, here’s an interesting piece in the Nashua Telegraph.  According to the writer “the world is flat,” which makes this whole “global warming” thing even more absurd because we all should know “our earth is not a globe.”  If you can see through to the sarcasm–so thick that it’s hard to detect–you might get a good laugh:

Who would any sensible ordinary person believe?

A talk-show host or a couple of thousand climate change scientists from 113 countries?

…hmm.  it’s a hard one!

Why, a talk-show host, of course!

Maybe this conversation between John Stewart and Steven Colbert will help clarify things.

Representative Peter Welch, a freshman Democrat from Vermont, has one-upped Barbara Boxer in her attempt to lead by example in the fight against global warming.  Boxer’s swapping bulbs and so is Welch, but he’s taking it one step further.  On Monday he announced that he’s making his two offices (one in Vermont and one in D.C.) “carbon neutral” by conserving energy, like turning down the heat, and buying $672 of carbon credits offsetting 56 tons of carbon dioxide.  Bill McKibben, an author on climate change, says “on the one hand, it’s true that one-by-one, we’re probably not going to get this job finished.  But on the other hand, what he did is incredibly significant because his office is in the House of Representatives.  That is where the work has to take place.”  (Read the entire story from the Boston Globe here.)

Today William Stevens, former science writer for the New York Times, contributed “On the Climate Change Beat, Doubt Gives Way to Certainty.”  Stevens describes a sort of climate change timeline that he believes now “describes the endpoint…of a progression” beginning in 1990 with scientists reporting evidence of human influence on warming, to the IPCC’s latest report declaring a 90-99% certainty that human activities are impacting climate change.  Stevens believes “it appears likely, if not certain, that whoever is elected president in 2008 will treat the issue seriously and act accordingly, thereby bringing the US into concert with most of the rest of the world.” 

New Hampshire Representative Jim Pilliod (R-Belmont) was also encouraged (or discouraged) by the IPCC’s recent report.  In this letter to the Concord Monitor Pilliod writes that each report since 1990 has “concluded the certainty of a human effect” on climate change.  Noting impacts to the water cycle–intense weather events, runoff, and standing water providing optimal breeding grounds for mosquitoes–Pilliod says he’s concerned with the threats to the public’s health.  “As a member of the medical community, it is my obligation to call on our elected officials to act to reduce global warming pollution.  The health of the public is at stake.”

This article in The Wall Street Journal also reports on the IPCC study, but unlike Stevens’ article this one brings up the issues of the troubling uncertainties.  Computer models used for the report based recent findings solely on the impact of heating the existing water in the world’s oceans, not taking into account current rising sea levels from the melting of glaciers.  Another uncertainty is the impact of clouds on climate change–clouds trap heat from the sun and warming oceans sends more water vapor into the air which is what creates clouds. 

Yesterday Rudy Giuliani filled a statement of formal candidacy with the Federal Election Commission declaring “I’m in this to win“…couldn’t he have come up with something a little more original?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reevaluated former conclusions about human impact on climate change.  Their previous assessment, published in 2001, estimated that there was a 66-90 percent chance that human activities were responsible for recent warming.  The new report, scheduled for release on February 2nd in Paris, is expected to confirm a much stronger relationship–a 90 percent chance that humans are significantly influencing climate change.  (Read the entire article from the New York Times.)

Tomorrow night the President will deliver his much-anticipated State of the Union address.  There has been a lot of speculation that he will use it to address the issue of global warming.  Yet Ben Lieberman of the Heritage Foundation reminds us that a bold statement in last year’s address, “America is addicted to oil,” only made “people expect extreme action, and there really hasn’t been” any.  Betsy Loyless of the National Audubon Society says, “We have a White House that has yet to deliver on its own rhetoric about ending our dependence on fossil fuels, and up to now has placed its emphasis on Big Oil.”  Bush is expected to call for an increase in the use of ethanol, but he will probably not touch on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (More about this from Eileen Claussen of the Pew Center, in an NPR interview yesterday.)

Many are looking to the President to take action, but former Vice President Al Gore says “this really shouldn’t be approached as a political issue.”  National Public Radio’s “Living On Earth” interviewed Gore at one of his “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show trainings in Nashville, Tennessee.  Gore believes that there needs to be a change “in public opinion that [will] make it possible for political leaders in both parties to do what’s necessary.”  If Bush pays attention to the news–evangelical Christians, congressional members, and corporate leaders all calling for action against climate change–then maybe he will see that public opinion has changed and now it’s time to take political action.

Of course, there’s noise coming from NH as well…On Saturday, Foster’s Daily Democrat published “Seacoast Residents Take Aim at Global Warming.”  If it’s true what Gore says–that we “need to go to the grassroots level…to the maximum extent possible”–then Saturday’s article seems the latest evidence that NH is on the right track.

2006 was recorded as the warmest year in the U.S. in 112 years.  Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said we “should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate.  Burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in greenhouse gases, and there’s a broad scientific consensus that it is producing climate change.”  (Read the entire story in the Washington Post here.)

NOAA isn’t the only organization warning us about the impending threats of global warming.  On Tuesday in a speech for the 14th annual “Operation Sierra Storm” meeting NASA scientist James Hansen said “global warming is already starting, and there’s going to be more of it.  I think there is still time to deal with global warming, but we need to act soon.  Humans now control global climate, for better or worse.”  Hansen went on to say that in order to combat climate change it is critical to have international agreement on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  (Read the story in the New York Times here.)

Today the Boston Globe printed “Middle School Kids Serve as Climate Change Reminders.” Yesterday Bill McKibben accompanied by 40 middle school students began what will be three weeks of hearings for Vermont lawmakers on global warming.  McKibben explained the science of global warming and gave examples of its impacts that are already being felt.  In six of the past seven years, he explained, Lake Champlain has not frozen shore to shore, which is significant when looking at 250 years of records that show this is a rare occurence. 

Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Yogurt, is tired of the passive government action in the fight against global warming.  The Union Leader’s “Granite Status” announced that Hirshberg is so fed up that he’s contemplating a run for the U.S. Senate in an attempt to unseat John Sununu.  Hirshberg criticized Sununu’s “failure to face the facts about climate change and his complete lack of leadership on any initiative to reduce our dependency on polluting energy sources.”  Hirshberg said he will make a decision soon.