Science Happens
The Fundamentalist-In-Chief and his anti-science cohorts finally conceded that recent global warming has human causes. From a New York Times editorial:
This tardy acceptance of what mainstream scientists have been saying for years does not mean that the administration is prepared to deal seriously with the problem - by, for instance, supporting mandatory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide. But at least nobody is trying to hide the evidence.The administration's views are contained in a report to Congress accompanied by a letter signed by the secretaries of energy and commerce and the president's science adviser. It asserts that natural causes cannot explain significant warming since 1970 and says that man-made emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes are the likely cause.
White House officials, who did not go out of their way to publicize the report, clearly do not mean it to be interpreted as a campaign-year change in President Bush's position on global warming or as a precursor to more aggressive legislative and administrative measures. But they did not brush it off, as happened in 2002 when Mr. Bush dismissed a serious internal study written by his own experts. Nor did they attempt to suppress it, as happened later that year with a report on air pollution from the Environmental Protection Agency.
So this is progress, of a sort. But it won't mean much unless Mr. Bush gets serious about remedies. His program of research and voluntary initiatives has generated modest enthusiasm in industry but inspires little confidence that the warming trends will be arrested, much less reversed, in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, there are several initiatives awaiting attention on Capitol Hill that could begin to restrict greenhouse gas emissions. But they have no chance of approval unless Mr. Bush gives the nod to the Republican leadership.
A nod out the window of one of those huge SUVs you always see the guy riding in?
Never allow yourself to get too worked up by the NYT, especially the editorial pages.
Listen, cheap energy is what makes progress go. People LIKE their SUVs. And medicine and travel and fresh food and warmth in the winter and chilling in the summer and and and and...
> ...it won't mean much unless Mr. Bush gets serious...
Rosenthal (or whomever) has found another way to Bash a Republican president, what a surprise.
LYT was teasing me about this a few months ago and I answered him badly. Take two: I think it's REALLY INTERESTING that the people who want most badly to believe in GW almost by definition believe in centralized control of human behavior. They'll never cop to this, though I think that's what's all about.
Global warming is like killer bees; always coming, never here, and not subject to human management.
Also, that movie sucked.
Crid at August 27, 2004 8:09 AM
I swear I wrote that without seeing this first:
http://www.slate.com/id/2105698/
Crid at August 27, 2004 8:16 AM