| Just 4 the Planet has in recent months been urging | | | | changes in this wide range of indicators produced by |
| the US Congress to pass a major Climate Change Bill | | | | many independent groups," the report said. "The |
| introduced by Senator Kerry. We said it was time for | | | | warming of the climate system is unequivocal." The |
| the USA to "step up to the plate" and hoped that | | | | gases most likely responsible for that warming, such |
| environmental concerns would take precedence over | | | | as carbon dioxide, continue to accumulate. |
| the mighty dollar. | | | | Second was a strongly worded response from the |
| Unfortunately the mighty dollar won out and America | | | | Environmental Protection Agency to petitions that it |
| did not step up. Incredibly myopic Republican | | | | revoke its finding that "climate change is real, is |
| Senators destroyed any chances of passing the | | | | occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from |
| legislation, arguing that taxing the big polluters would | | | | human activities and threatens human health and |
| lead to higher energy price. | | | | environment." As with much climate-change |
| Now in a case of tragic irony the death of climate | | | | scepticism, the petitions were based "on selectively |
| change legislation in the Senate has been followed by | | | | edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured |
| the appearance of two government reports in the | | | | controversy," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. |
| past week that underscore the overwhelming | | | | Among other things, the agency reviewed every |
| scientific case for global warming -- and go out of the | | | | document from the "Climategate" e-mail hack at a |
| way to repudiate sceptics. | | | | respected British climate research unit. The EPA |
| First came a report on global climate from the | | | | found what four other independent studies did: that |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, | | | | the e-mails contained some "candid" language but |
| which confirmed that the 2000s were by far the | | | | nothing that seriously discredits the scientific |
| warmest decade in the instrumental record -- as | | | | consensus on global warming. |
| were, in their turns, the 1980s and the 1990s. Unlike | | | | Many climate-change sceptics will simply dismiss these |
| year-to-year fluctuations, these 10-year shifts are | | | | reports as more evidence of a sprawling conspiracy |
| statistically significant. Further, the report notes that it | | | | instead of what they really are: yet more affirmation |
| derived its conclusions from an array of data sources | | | | of the risks humanity runs if it continues to pump |
| -- not just the land-surface readings that doubters | | | | carbon into the atmosphere. |
| challenge -- from ocean heat uptake to melting land | | | | As for the US Congress we can only ask – have |
| ice to sea level rise. | | | | US legislators learned nothing from the Gulf disaster |
| "If the land surface records were systematically | | | | and the high price paid when oil lobbyists dictate US |
| flawed and the globe had not really warmed, then it | | | | energy policy. Shame on you America. |
| would be almost impossible to explain the concurrent | | | | |