Many people I know don't want to hear about the perils of climate change anymore. I am not talking about deniers. These are folks who agree that climate change is a serious, human-caused problem with severe consequences, some of which are already occurring. They know this, but they're tired of hearing about it. Thus, a week ago, when I tried to interest a friend in talking about the final report in the National Research Council's America's Climate Choices series, it was no surprise that she quickly diverted the conversation elsewhere. Unfortunately, as Elizabeth McGowan at SolveClimate News writes, the report has also failed to spark much attention on Capitol Hill either, even though it was Congress that requested it in the first place.
Some critics think the problem may be that the report contains no recipe for action:
"It's a fabulous report with top-caliber participants," Paul Bledsoe, a senior adviser with the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, told SolveClimate News in an interview. "But simply issuing reports is not adequate anymore. My frustration is that the traditional method of communicating science is not gaining traction politically. It has to be done in innovative ways that engage stakeholders and legislators." ...
When [Bledsoe] looks at Congress these days he sees a dysfunctional body. Not only are many representatives and senators in deep denial about global warming, but others are fretting that such legislation that would harm the American public by boosting energy prices just as the nation is emerging from a recession and a financial meltdown.
He encourages advocates from the scientific, political, industrial and academic sectors to seize what he calls a "policy hiatus" to redouble their communication efforts about the alarming consequences of climate change. This requires using reports such as "America’s Climate Choices" to educate religious leaders, minority groups and other organizations about threats to the country, and remind them to push Congress relentlessly.
"Congress asked for this study," said Bledsoe, who has extensive global warming experience with the federal legislative and executive branches, including a 1998-2000 stint with the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Bill Clinton. "It's incumbent on Congress to read it and treat it seriously by holding hearings on it."
...
"If members of Congress challenge the assertions in the report, they should hold hearings. ... If they believe and accept what's in it, they should hold hearings.
"One way or another they should deal with it. ... I don't see how they can ignore it."
• • • • •
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:
Trying to keep a sense of normalcy failed. Now we exist in a twilight land between war and peace, security and disorder. We have no way to place the risk that Al Qaeda actually poses and instead inflate the threat of Osama to the point where it paralyzes US policy. People who otherwise live safe, surburban lives now live in mortal fear of Islamic terrorists blowing up the local mall. A fear which permeates every act and every deed in many lives. Instead of dealing with the real problems war causes, we live in fear of anything and everything and thus, are protected from nothing. ...
4)Stop eroding civil liberties without reason. Not ONE person has been arrested in the US because of 9/11. We've shipped back thousands of people on minor violations of immigration laws, leaving them embittered towards the US and perfectly able to fit into American society and train others to do so, if motivated. The means do not justify the ends when we destroy families in the process.
• • • • •
See High Impact Diaries here. See Top Comments here.