Environment -- 'Final Warning To Humanity'

November 19, 2007

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, and Ali Frick

ENVIRONMENT

'Final Warning To Humanity'

"[T]he world's scientists have spoken, clearly and in one voice," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on the most recent report of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). After a rigorous multi-stage review process that includes 2,500 scientific expert reviewers, 800 contributing authors, and 450 lead authors representing 130 countries, the IPCC warns that "all countries" will be affected by climate change if carbon emissions continue to spiral. By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees celsius, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could lead to an eventual rise in sea levels of up to 1.40 meters. With "strikingly" blunt language, the report reads like "a final warning to humanity," notes Time magazine. "What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment," declared IPCC chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri.

DEBATING WAYS TO BATTLE WARMING: This weekend, Grist and Living on Earth sponsored a presidential candidate forum to discuss ways to tackle climate change, in partnership with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, California LCVEF, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, and the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy. The event was attended by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), former senator John Edwards, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). "[R]educing oil dependence and global warming is the second most important issue among independent voters," states Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress. With "little disagreement among them" on the urgency of climate change, Clinton and Edwards emphasized the need to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050, consistent with the goals of the IPCC, along with a mandatory cap on greenhouse emissions. Such plans to combat global warming can be undertaken with a very modest reduction in global annual GDP growth of 0.12 percent, notes Pachauri.

AN UNEQUIVOCAL FACT: Earlier this year, the IPCC said it was "more than 90 percent likely" that global-warming was man-made. It now reports "increased confidence in climate science," leading to the conclusion that "the time for doubt has passed. The IPCC has unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity." This increased consensus pours water on right-wing insistence that there is still debate on climate change science. "The scientific definition of that [climate change] is lacking," maintains White House environmental adviser Jim Connaughton. The traditional media are also at fault in going against the scientific consensus. For example, ABC and CNN regularly air segments claiming global warming is not human-induced.

EFFECTS ALREADY HERE: The IPCC report notes that the effects of climate change are "becoming evident already," and without due action, will be "abrupt or irreversible." The United States is seeing these ramifications today. The normally wet southeastern United States is currently suffering from the worst drought of the past 100 years. Recently, the IPCC reported that the last three decades have seen "a spring/summer warming of 0.87 degrees celsius," caused by global warming, and "earlier spring snowmelt has led to longer growing seasons and drought." Furthermore, Arizona is currently entering into its second decade of extensive drought. The intensity of hurricanes the recent California wildfires has also been linked to the warming earth.

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: The IPCC concluded that "reductions in greenhouse gases had to start immediately to avert a global climate disaster," calling on the United States and China to play "a more constructive role." "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late," said Pachauri. The White House cites the need for "the technology that will make a lasting solution possible" but pushes only "voluntary" emissions reductions. The upcoming Bali conference, which the United States will attend, "is tasked with launching a two-year round of negotiations for intensifying cuts in carbon emissions beyond 2012, when current pledges run out under the Kyoto Protocol." "We cannot afford to leave Bali without such a breakthrough," Ban said. Furthermore, the White House and EPA should cease their "unprecedented obstructionism" and allow California's request that the federal government allow the state to regulate automobile greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act. Finally, Congress can reduce greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2030 compared to business as usual by passing a comprehensive energy bill after Thanksgiving recess.

ETHICS -- EMBATTLED STATE DEPARTMENT WATCHDOG PROTESTS HOUSE HEARINGS: On Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced that the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing after Thanksgiving recess to examine whether State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard lied to Congress. In a recent hearing, Krongard testified to the committee that his brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, had never told him about his involvement on Blackwater's board of advisers. Buzzy, however, has contradicted his brother's statement: "He asked me whether I had any financial interest or any ties to Blackwater, and so I told him 'I'm going on their Board.'" Krongard is facing allegations that he blocked a House investigation into whether weapons illegally smuggled into Iraq by Blackwater employees were then "sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization." Krongard's lawyer has now written to Waxman and asked him to cancel the hearing, and Buzzy has resigned from Blackwater's board. Krongard has also stepped down from the State Department's two main internal investigations in Iraq.

IRAQ -- MURTHA TWO YEARS AGO: BUSH'S IRAQ COURSE IS 'FLAWED POLICY WRAPPED IN ILLUSION': This past Saturday marked two years from the day that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) boldly called for a timetable for redeployment of U.S. forces out of Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion," Murtha said, adding that his call for withdrawal was motivated by deep concern for the state of the military. "Because we in Congress are charged with sending our sons and daughters into battle, it is our responsibility, our obligation to speak out for them," said Murtha. "That's why I am speaking out." The right wing assailed Murtha as a "senile" Hitler sympathizer. The White House attacked him for "surrendering" to terrorists, and Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) called him a "coward" on the House floor. On Nov. 17, 2005, House Republicans hastily forced a vote to bring the troops home, sensing a political opportunity to isolate Murtha. The measure to begin immediate withdrawal was rejected 403-3. But events in Iraq over the past two years have vindicated Murtha's wisdom. Just this week, a majority of the House voted to pass a bill that largely reflects Murtha's original call for redeployment. The Gavel offers some metrics to assess how the situation in Iraq has changed in the past two years.

HUMAN RIGHTS -- SAUDI COURT INCREASES PUNISHMENT FOR RAPE VICTIM: A 19-year-old rape victim in Saudi Arabia saw her punishment increased by a Saudi court last week, when her sentence of 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male was increased to 200 lashes and six months in prison. "The judges more than doubled the punishment for the victim because of 'her attempts to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media,' according to a source quoted by Arab News." Four of the seven men who abducted and gang-raped the Saudi woman and the male with whom she was meeting were sentenced to only one to five years in prison, convicted of abduction because the "judges reportedly ignored evidence from a mobile phone video in which the attackers recorded the assault." The victim's lawyer, "Saudi Arabia's best-known human rights lawyer," was barred from continuing to represent her and stripped of his law license. He has said he will fight the ruling anyway. According to the State Department, women in Saudi Arabia "are considered household property."

"Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at troubling rates," says a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts. The trend could have "a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civic future," the report warns.

"Senate Democrats appear ready to omit Iraq withdrawal timelines from a supplemental spending bill in hopes of clearing in December funds for the troops -- but House leaders have no intentions of following suit." Two powerful voices in the Senate -- Carl Levin (D-MI) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) -- both suggested Democrats would strip withdrawal language in December.

Speaking to the National Bank of Kuwait yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon" and that he believes it is "unlikely" that the United States will strike the Islamic Republic militarily.

"The number of economists forecasting the U.S. will slip into recession almost doubled over the last two months, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics."

The U.S. dollar has fallen to historic lows against both the euro and the yen as worries about the strength of the U.S. economy continue. The drop has been precipitated by the U.S. credit crisis, which has caused foreign investors to "pull some of their investments out of U.S. markets and put them in other countries."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years today, "as the two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the international community to resist U.S. policies." Chavez said the dollar was in free-fall and that its "empire" must end, and proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar.

Three members of Iraq's national soccer team have left the country and are seeking asylum in Australia. When the team won the prestigious Asian Cup in July, their victory was hailed as an "inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides."

And finally: Last week during House debate on home-lending legislation, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) tried to "knock down the idea that risky mortgages are 'innovative' financial products." To illustrate his point, he offered up a metaphor: "Mr. Chairman, this necktie is an innovation. ... Ten years ago, you could not buy a silk necktie that was stain-resistant. And for those folks like me who tend to miss their mouth from time to time, the cost in new neckties in any given year was hundreds of dollars."

Former president Bill Clinton's "eco-friendly" presidential library's roof is now "going green." "Over the past two weeks, workers have been hoisting 90 species of plants and more than four truckloads of soil atop" the library to "provide insulation and capture rainwater that otherwise would just be wasted as runoff."

NEW JERSEY: "For the first time in at least three decades, New Jersey will be one of 18 states open for business on the Friday after Thanksgiving."

LOUISIANA: New Orleans's City Council now has its first white majority in more than two decades.

MASSACHUSETTS: "Enrollment in the state's new subsidized health plan is growing so quickly that the state could face a funding gap as large as $147 million."

THINK PROGRESS: Flashback: 109th Congress tried to defund Iraq watchdog, transfer authority to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard

THE SECRECY FILE: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) removes secrecy measure from Transportation-Housing and Urban Development spending bill.

CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: President Bush nominates judges who donated to his campaign.

TRAILER PARK FEMINIST: Anti-abortion video compares pregnant women to inanimate boxes.

"Troop withdrawals have already begun [in Iraq]. It's happening."
-- Fox News anchor Brit Hume, 11/18/07

VERSUS

"You're making the case that troop withdrawals are starting now, but they're troop withdrawals given that a surge was put in place this year that took troop levels to a new high. So it's not really much of a withdrawal at all."
-- NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams, 11/18/07

Think Progress

'Final Warning To Humanity'

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