“Have They No Shame?”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed the “outrage that all Americans feel” at AIG executives taking large bonuses on taxpayer money. “These people tried to separate risk from responsibility,” he said, but he was unsure whether there was any legal way to reclaim the money. “The right question is, how can they take these bonuses? Have they no shame? No sense of decency?” The right thing, he continued, would be for them to return the bonuses.
“They thought they would never have to pay the piper. The piper is being paid; not by them, but by the taxpayers,” he finished.

Hoyer also criticized a remark by former Vice President Dick Cheney two days ago that,”I don’t think you can blame the Bush administration for the creation of those (economic) circumstances.” Hoyer provided various quotes from Cheney, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Leader John Boehner, and former President George Bush to the effect that Republicans were not responsible for the current financial crisis.

“The last administration started with a January growth of 164,000 jobs. The Obama administration took over in a January that lost 351,000 jobs,” he said. Hoyer contrasted the $5.6 trillion surplus that Bush started with against the $4.5 trillion deficit that Obama inherited. “It’s mind-boggling that the former vice president simply said, ‘well, it’s not our fault.’”

It’s Not Just The Heat, It’s The Carbon

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Rep. Steve Kagan, MD (D-Wis.) hosted a conference of immunologists, and their first order of business was to tell reporters that climate change is and has been harming human health.

Paul Epstein, MD, MPH, Center for Health & the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School, said that asthma rates have quadrupled since 1980. Much of this is due to CO2. The greenhouse gas stimulates plants, including weeds, to grow more prolifically, and through longer seasons. Not only does this mean more pollen, but the pollen itself is more allergenic. In fact, he said, poison ivy is becoming stronger as well, leading to more severe reactions.

Biofuels aren’t helping; diesel particles in the air act as carriers for pollen and other allergens.

The ozone produced by combustion engines, while it might be helpful in the upper atmosphere, irritates the lungs.

Finally, the geographic range of allergenic weeds is expanding.

CO2 means, more and nastier pollen, for longer periods, in more places, he concluded.

He then addressed malaria, which is seen higher and higher up the mountains of endemic areas, more subtly in more geographic areas over time, and, less subtly, for longer seasons each year. Malaria is following the warm climate farther and farther from the equator.

Other ills following this pattern include Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever. In fact, a great many of the diseases you never want to have are spreading their range, he said.

Jeffrey Demain, MD, FAAAAI, Allergy & Immunology Center of Alaska, said insects also are more numerous for longer seasons, leading to more bites, stings, infections, and even deaths.

“We have 12 villages that are imperiled; they’re falling into the sea.” Permafrost roads are only passable for half as many days a year as formerly, limiting opportunities for subsistence hunters.

“The question,” he said, “is whether Alaska is an aberration, or a window (to the future).”

David Peden, MD, FAAAAI, Center for Environmental Medicine Asthma & Lung Biology, said that ozone and pollution don’t just irritate the lungs, but leave them more irritable to all allergens for days after exposure. The number of respiratory emergency department visits dropped sharply when traffic patterns in Atlanta were altered to accommodate Olympic athletes in 1996.

Dr. Kagen said, “there can be no doubt that climate change is taking place at a more rapid rate than anyone had expected.” He presented supporting data at the conference.

All four of the physicians agreed that carbon emissions were doing unequivocal harm to human health.

“Our World Would Be Unrecognizable”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened the first of a planned series of hearings into practical responses to climate change with, “Dr. Killen, when does climate change become irreversible?”

Dr. Timothy Killen, National Science Foundation, replied that accommodation was becoming more important than prevention. Killen said that present models are imperfect, they show a range of possibilities for each question, but the possibilities are all about how much our world is changing, not whether it is. The overall pattern of warming and increasingly erratic and extreme weather is certain, with floods and droughts occurring back to back in the same places. One other thing the models have in common, is that the changes are already more severe and rapid than predicted, he said.

This is partly because methane gas wasn’t part of earlier models, Killen said. He confirmed that methane is 30-40 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Methane is sequestered in huge amounts in permafrost. So far, only superficial permafrost is melting and releasing the gas but, if it all melted, “Our world would be unrecognizable,” he said.

Rockefeller said this is the 11th plague on man. “The science is overwhelming… The time for arguing whether carbon emission is a factor which affects the health of the earth, or whether our sea level is rising from global warming, is and must be over.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member, asked about research into weather control. Killen indicated that we could begin such studies, with better tools than in the past.

No one among the senators or the panel questioned the reality or significance of climate change, the discussion was about what could be done.

Killen recommended specific areas of further research in order to improve computer modeling of the effects of any changes. He thought science would then yield better answers in “ten or so years.” In the meantime, we should plan for regional climate change, the local details of which were not yet predictable, rising and more acidic oceans, water scarcity, extreme weather, reduced biodiversity, crumbling ecosystems, and substantial impacts on human health.

Sean Dilweg, National Association of Insurance Commissions, recommended both insurers and government create incentives for people to drive less and use clean energy. Insurers are presently looking into other recommendations.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) suggested “something like EnergyStar on steroids.” A symbol that consumers could look for as a sign that their purchases were part of the solution.,

The Colorado River might carry 20 percent less water by 2050, Katherine Jacobs, Arizona Water Institute, said. There is a great need, she said, for the public and policy makers to be more aware of the science around climate, and to make that science part of important decisions.

Her recommendations also included plans to adapt to now-unavoidable changes, as well as defining the problems around users’ concerns, matching the timing and scale of information to decisions, and establishing credibility of sources in the minds of the public. She submitted several more technical recommendations to the committee as well.

By far the most pro-active panelist was Frank Alix, Powerspan Corporation. His company makes carbon scrubbing and sequestering equipment for coal plants. Still at the prototype stage, their equipment can remove 90 percent of the carbon from coal plant exhaust, pressurize it into liquefied form, and pump it into vast natural underground spaces, where it is expected to remain. Alix estimated that, with full implementation, total carbon emission could be reduced to about 5 percent of what it is now, for about $40 a ton.

Alix said the fastest path to adoption of the scrubbers would be a carbon tax.

Republicans Challenge Obama Budget

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


Speaking on behalf of both House and Senate Republicans, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) presented a joint Republican rebuttal to the president’s budget. Calling it, as Pence said, ”In a very real sense, a blueprint for the future,” they didn’t like it.
Spence said that Republicans would “collaborate…to both challenge the assumptions and the content of the president’s budget, as well as offer positive, substantive alternatives for responsible growth.” He said the budget spends “unprecedented amounts in new ways.”
“According to independent estimates, the government may have to hire 250,000 new federal bureaucrats just to pass out all the money,” he said, and, “This is the largest tax increase in history.” Adding that it would mainly affect small business owners filing as individuals.
Pence went on to say that the new energy tax would cost every American up to $3,125 per year.
He also said that this would be the highest level of borrowing ever.
Alexander stated that, “The question before the American people is whether the American family can afford the Democrats’ spending, the Democrats’ taxing, and the Democrats’ borrowing. And we’ve got four weeks to make that case, starting with this week.”
“This budget doubles the debt in five years, and it triples it in ten years,” he said, adding, “and there’s talk of a second stimulus package.”
Both men agreed that across-the-board tax cuts would be preferable to spending for stimulus.

What Do Geeks Dream Of?

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News



TechAmerica is a trade union representing more than 1500 technology companies that have reached a consensus on priorities for their portion of the Recovery Act.

Christopher Hansen, CEO of TechAmerica, stressed repeatedly that his membership places their emphasis on investment in innovation, and on “Not just employment now, but companies which will benefit America for decades into the future.”

The association’s top priorities are:

Health: Computerized healthcare, from software to next generation broadband to electronic medical records. “America can still lead the world in medical technology innovation,” Hansen said.

Jobs, education, training,research and development: Hansen acknowledged that maximum benefits now require shorter-term investments, but that we also need to invest now in order to have the scientists and engineers to keep America in front of technology into the future. Josh Lamel, Senior V.P., Federal Government Affairs, added that $400 million had been set aside for high risk, high potential, basic research, “So we’ll be developing technologies that we aren’t even talking about yet.”

Government Management: Modernizing government via technology and technological expertise.

National/Homeland/Cyber security: New technologies for military, intelligence and security.

Green: The group has a strong focus on alternative energy development as a long-term investment.

Immigration: The thrust here was not to restrict but to facilitate immigration for highly skilled people, especially those who are trained in America but are not citizens. Lamel noted that H1B immigration visas have become more difficult to obtain under the new bill.

Broadband: Needs to be faster and more universally available as more and more businesses depend on it. Many jobs become possible in low employment areas if broadband is available.

Trade and patent policies need to encourage innovation, their position paper concludes.