G8 summit: U.S. should take a stand against global warming

Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of the Pew Environment Group, Mark Helmke, senior professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Jennifer Morgan, director of the Climate and Energy Security Programme at E3G discussed the U.S.'s role in the upcoming G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan.

Morgan said that the U.S. needs to take the lead on global warming legislation.

Helmke said that Henry Paulson, Secretary of Treasury, is proposing a clean technology fund in which developed nations would help fund clean technology for developing countries through the World Bank.

Clapp said that a treaty on climate legislation could be reached in Copenhagen in 2009, but U.S. legislation might slow it down. Climate legislation might be proposed, debated, but not passed because 67 votes are hard to get, said Clapp.

NIA report says that global warming may threaten national security

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and Permanent Committee on Intelligence held a hearing to discuss the results of a National Intelligence report that gauged the potential risks global warming and climate change may have on national security from now until 2030.

The report, “National Intelligence Assessment on the National Security Implications of Global Climate Change to 2030”, found both positives and negatives with the outcome of global warming. Dr. Thomas Fingar, deputy director of National Intelligence for Analysis, said that in North America, net cereal crop yields will increase by 5 to 20 percent between now and 2030. Also, the growing season in the U.S. and Canada has extended an average of two days per decade since 1950.

However, the report also found that the global mean annual average temperature has risen 0.13 degrees Celsius per decade during the period 1955 to 2005, which doubles the rate observed from 1906 to 2005. Since 1993, the global sea level has risen 3 mm per year, but for most of the 20th century, it rose only 1.7 mm per year.

Chairman Edward J. Markey asked Dr. Fingar if global warming will multiply existing international problems like “social tension, environmental degradation, and weak political institutions” that seem to be underlying causes of terrorism. Dr. Fingar said that the “laundry list” of problems listed by Chairman Markey resembles the list of “conditions and preconditions” that may lead to alienation and terrorism recruitment.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) asked Dr. Fingar what level of confidence he applied to the report. Dr. Fingar said his level of confidence is “low to moderate.”

“There was uncertainty about the climate change projections that we took as the baselines. There was uncertainty about the impact on the individual countries,” Dr. Fingar said. This “cascade of uncertainties” reduced the confidence level.

The report is different than a National Intelligence Estimate because Dr. Fingar and his colleagues depended on open sources and outside expertise. Currently, a portion of the report is classified, but Rep. Pete Hoekstra (D-Mich.) requested that the full report be made public.

Supporters say clean up U.S.’s act with “Climate MATTERS Act”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and other supporters of the “Climate MATTERS Act” held a news conference to discuss the ways in which the bill would fight global warming while contributing to the economy at the same time.

The bill emphasizes the combination of marketplace and science to address global warming, which would provide economic opportunities like “green jobs”, said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). According to Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), venture capitalists invested over $2.2 billion into more than 200 clean technology deals in 2007. 1,700 scientists are calling for an 80 percent reduction in global warming pollution by mid-century, said Lexi Shultz, deputy director of the Climate Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

According to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), the number of miles driven by Americans is increasing 3 times faster than population. The bill would help reduce high gas prices by investing in alternative fuels, said Rep. Doggett. Currently, the transportation sector accounts for one-third of the global warming pollution, according to Colin Peppard, transportation analyst for Friends of the Earth. With only 5 percent of Americans having access to rail transportation, it is important that alternatives be considered, Peppard said.

Rep. Van Hollen said that this bill is important because it will help revamp the relationship between the U.S. and international community, which was hurt when Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol. The bill contains strong provisions for implementing a cap-and-trade program, especially when it comes to auctioning pollution allowances, Rep. Doggett said. According to a press release from the Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, Environmental Defense Fund, and other environmental groups, auctioning allowances can “give polluters strong financial incentive to innovate, deploy clean technology, and achieve deep pollution reductions.”

Rep. Blumenauer said that the next 6 months will determine the public outset for solving the global warming problem.

Politics and science do not mix well

The Center for American Progress held a discussion on “Science is the Stuff of Progress” to celebrate the release of a print version of its online magazine, Science Progress. Neal Lane, former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Clinton, said that the success of scientific research depends on a forward-looking political agenda and that the expansion of Science Progress will help encourage more funding to research.

Lane said that science and innovation are what America was built upon. He added that the government’s support of research and science must be restored with integrity so that science is not used to satisfy partisan desires. He said that policy must be based on the best science, rather than warped by politicization. He added that funding for high-risk research, especially on stem cells, is necessary.

Kit Batten, the managing director of energy and environmental policy at the Center for American Policy, said that the Bush administration has politicized science, inhibiting necessary progress. Andrew Baden, professor and chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland said that U.S. infrastructure is in decay. He said that public universities have obsolete labs.

Climate change is not just about polar bears

The adoption of the polar bears into the ESA has put a “charismatic face” on the campaign for climate change - polar bears, said Jonathan Adler, law professor at Case Western Reserve University. Adler and others spoke of the negative and positive effects of listing polar bears as a threatened species due to climate change and the shrinking of the sea ice.

Adler said that the main purpose of listing polar bears as threatened animals is merely for informational purposes, so people are aware of what is going on. From a legal standpoint the consequences of this action is that the legislation is not discretionary and that citizens will have the ability to create change through litigation. In the end, the threatened animal listing probably won’t help polar bears, Adler said, but it may work to change the ESA through legal action.

On May 14, 2008, Dirk Kempthorne, interior secretary announced that the Department of the Interior classified polar bears as a threatened species, giving them protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This was the first listing of a species under the ESA where a threat was identified as anthropogenic climate change. In the discussion today, experts discussed the ramifications of this new classification of polar bears.

Bryan Arroyo, assistant director for the Endangered Species program at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that people can no longer dispute the validity of climate change. It has been proven with the best of our scientific abilities, with a 90 percent probability, that climate change is influenced by the human release of green house gases. While the science is not final or perfect, it is the best that is available right now and must be acted upon, Arroyo said.

Arroyo said that climate change is not an issue for the United States, but a global challenge that needed to be dealt with. He said that climate change is “not just about polar bears” but that it affects every aspect of human life. There is a documented lessening of sea ice, a 39 percent reduction from 1999-2000 and the prediction is that ice will recede further. Arroyo called for a comprehensive review of the ESA, which hasn’t been reviewed in 16 years.