Climate Bill Failure: "There's No Silver Lining To This Cloud"

Grist:

As Jon noted, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has officially announced that there will be no climate bill this year. But Jon's post doesn't fully convey the extent of the capitulation. What's happened is total and complete surrender. There's no silver lining in this cloud.

Read the whole story: Grist

Comments

[Richard2]

01:12 PM on 08/03/2010

The failure of the climate bill reflects the wishes of a majority of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Poll (July 22-23, 2010) indicates the following

"Forty-five percent (45%) say global warming is primarily caused by long-term planetary trends. Thirty-four percent (34%) feel human activity is the main contributor. Eight percent (8%) think some other reason is chiefly to blame. Voters have been shifting away for well over a year from the idea that human activity is the primary cause of global warming."

The Senate has recognized the public doesn't think the bill is needed. 37/53.

[koodetat]

11:40 AM on 07/28/2010

What really needs to happen is for people to stop touting that reducing fossil fuel emissions are the only way to stop climate change. Fossil fuel emissions are not the only source of GHG emissions on the planet and current alternative sources will only get us so far until we find the "silver bullet."

Land use and destruction, for example, are resulting in significant GHG emissions. While fossil fuels are still the dominant source, degradation and burning of peatlands throughout the world are responsible for more than 10% of fossil fuel emissions. Furthermore, peatlands also sequester large amounts of CO2. Some studies estimate that conservation of peatlands is up to 100 times cheaper than other means of sequestration and emissions reduction.

The difference is there's less money in saving swamps.

[tompoe]

11:17 AM on 07/27/2010

Our elected representatives are rejecting global warming measures, because they want voters to re-elect them to pass the global warming measures they didn't act on when elected to pass global warming measures in 2008. These are some really stupid people. They deserve the same respect we hold for child molesters.

[PolicyWonkette]

07:36 PM on 07/26/2010

Interesting article in the LA Times. What will be the right wing's talking points on this?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/climate-change-could-affect-migration-to-the-us-new-study-says.html

[Richard2]

05:46 PM on 07/26/2010

The French government had the opportunity to pass a cap and trade bill, but chose not to. The Australian government considered adopting a cap and trade bill, but the opposition party rose up and blocked it. Now a government dominated by the Democratic Party has had an opportunity to pass a cap and trade bill, but chose not to.

What does this tell us?

[PolicyWonkette]

07:36 PM on 07/26/2010

Money talks.

[BlackbirdHighway]

08:35 AM on 07/27/2010

China is implementing a cap and trade program.

[Publicola]

01:02 PM on 07/26/2010

nameunused: "Actually 'man made global warming' is dead."

So which of the following global warming science facts are you denying, nameunused, and why?

* The Earth has warmed significantly over recent decades, to what may be the highest level in two thousand years or more.

* Anthropogenic greenhouse gases including CO2 -- which is generated mostly by fossil fuel burning -- warm the Earth. Without greenhouse gases including CO2 the Earth would be covered in ice from pole to pole.

* Atmospheric CO2 has increased by more than a third since the dawn of the fossil fuel era, to the highest level in at least 800,000 years.

* The scientific evidence strongly indicates that said increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration is due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and there is no other viable scientific explanation for said atmospheric CO2 increase.

* There is a strong correlation between said atmospheric CO2 increase and said recent warming.

* Known natural forcing agents of past global warming - including changes in orbital cycles, increases in solar radiation, and natural increases in atmospheric CO2 - cannot explain said recent warming. Neither has any scientific theory to explain the bulk of said recent warming other than AGW survived scientific scrutiny.

Again these are all scientific facts. Which is to say:

The scientific evidence supporting AGW is overwhelming.

[patches12]

12:37 PM on 07/26/2010

STOP THE HYSTERIA... questions still remain about climate change and man's influence on same!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7908604/Desperate-days-for-the-warmists.html

[Publicola]

01:27 PM on 07/26/2010

An OpEd by Christopher Booker, who is not only a global warming science denier but an evolution science denier as well:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4550448/Charles-Darwin-zealots-have-made-science-a-substitute-religion.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4623686/Why-do-people-think-Darwinism-is-a-perfect-creation.html

Patches12 are you, like your source Booker, consistent in your science denial?

[TQQ]

11:55 PM on 07/25/2010

Common sense ultimately prevailed.

[DocSkull]

08:06 AM on 07/26/2010

There isn't much common sense is ignoring the reading of a thermometer because Fox News tells you it is wrong.

[TQQ]

08:11 AM on 07/26/2010

C'mon now, you're only upset because things didn't go your way.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

02:38 PM on 07/26/2010

You need to recognize you are a brainwashed member of a religion led by Al Gore.

[oped1961]

05:00 PM on 07/25/2010

climate bill was useless, give-aways to coal etc
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/business/global/25carbon.html?scp=7&sq=cap+and+trade&st=nyt
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Carbon trading was meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union by making polluting more expensive for heavy industries, encouraging them to invest in cleaner technology. But even supporters admit that the system, also known as cap and trade, is falling far short of that goal. Critics decry it as just another form of financial profiteering with little environmental benefit.

[DocSkull]

08:10 AM on 07/26/2010

Corporate cheats are unique to cap and trade, and as the article states, the economic downturn produced an excess of credits. It is still better than doing nothing.

[DocSkull]

12:34 AM on 07/27/2010

*are not unique to cap and trade

[SilentSolidarity]

04:47 PM on 07/25/2010

California is the state with the most progressive language to fight global warming and the only one that keeps track with the Kyoto protocol. It currently subsidizes energy-saving appliances. Those subsidies are pretty generous! You can only save money!
http://www.cash4appliances.org/

The Kerry-Lieberman Climate bill was a joke!
-Inadequate emission targets
-It weakens the Clean Air Act
-And it invests more money in dirty technology.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/releases2/energy-bill-is-a-dirty-energy

[oped1961]

05:02 PM on 07/25/2010

agreed but california is also in trouble
good fight on some fronts but too many highways and sub-urbs have bankrupted the state
government has to control housing corporations and subsidize public transport

[rougebaisers]

02:32 PM on 07/25/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUd1xyLcuD4

[rr52]

12:40 PM on 07/25/2010

After a couple of posts on here, it's obvious to me that people are totally uninformed about alternative options out there. Start using the Internet to find out more. Watch Eco Tech on the Discovery Channel, and other Green Channels like Discovery Home. There are so many new ideas out there that need funding to get to market. It isn't until a new idea hits the market that innovation can take over and improve on it, reduce cost, and multiply.

Remember when digital watches cost a fortune, and now you can buy them in a dollar store?

A really good article to read about former doomsday predictions if industry was forced to change that never happened but actually improved our lives and made the industry better:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/29/dont-believe-climate-bill-doomsayers

This should be a time of great transition, new skill building, new jobs, young minds engaged in improvements for the future and unafraid that all the work and hope will get no where, bought out, or up by the big guys. That atmosphere is missing. In my lifetime I've seen so many advancements that never hurt the economy. I'm extremely disappointed that in the 21st century we're still rolling on rubber. I expected a Jetson's car, or my housework done by a Rosie robot. It's disappointing, when it could be exhilarating.

[cambo]

12:08 PM on 07/25/2010

Even if global warming was a hoax, it is still better to get rid of fossil fuel burning. Nobody wants to breathe in progressively toxic air.

[oped1961]

05:04 PM on 07/25/2010

they could tax gas, it used to pay for all roads, now only 66%, we all pay for roads
and subsidize public transport

[cambo]

11:57 AM on 07/25/2010

All deniers of global warming seem to have their salaries dependant on their beliefs.

[Chopin]

03:43 PM on 07/25/2010

Thanks. The original quote from Mark Twain is even better:--

"It's hard to make a person understand something, if that person's salary depends on not understanding it."

[reasonshouldrule]

07:47 PM on 07/26/2010

Nice one!

[nameunused]

08:30 AM on 07/25/2010

Actually "man made global warming" is dead. The climate bill is a natural result of the death of public belief in Man caused global warming.

If the left hadn't wrapped it all up in socialism, pushed it with the full force of propaganda and political correctness, demonized any science that showed it might not be true....then maybe more people would not be walking away from global warming.

It's the radicalized far left socialists who killed global warming as an effective tool to achieve their revolution.

[Dannyisme]

11:09 AM on 07/25/2010

Yeah, next they'll be using the full force of propaganda to push discredited evolution to push for health care. It's all a conspiracy by those radicalized far left socialist scientists. They don't talk about "social science" for nuthin', do they?

[oped1961]

05:07 PM on 07/25/2010

I don't think I should have to pay taxes directly to Al Gore or Goldman, sorry. And as a renter I can't control the electric bills much. Your carrots and sticks only harm renters. We drive only one mile to work and all my neighbors save what they can, so don't tax us

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/business/global/25carbon.html?scp=7&sq=cap+and+trade&st=nyt
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Carbon trading was meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union by making polluting more expensive for heavy industries, encouraging them to invest in cleaner technology. But even supporters admit that the system, also known as cap and trade, is falling far short of that goal. Critics decry it as just another form of financial profiteering with little environmental benefit.