by Laurence LewisThis is the sense of urgency and priorities that we need:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was in Portland Thursday touting a new residential energy efficiency program here, vowed to continue fighting climate change even if it costs Democrats politically in the next election.
"This is about saving the planet, not the Democratic majority," Pelosi said after touring a newly weatherized home in Northeast Portland. "We have to be thinking about the next generation, not the next election and that is what this conversation is about.
She's obviously been reading the science. A few weeks ago, the National Research Council released its comprehensive report on the consequences of climate change. As reported by Nature:
For example, the report shows that each 1 °C of warming will reduce rain in the southwest of North America, the Mediterranean and southern Africa by 5–10%; cut yields of some crops, including maize (corn) and wheat, by 5–15%; and increase the area burned by wildfires in the western United States by 200–400%. The report also points out that even if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is stabilized, the world will continue to warm for decades. If concentrations rose to 550 parts per million, for example, the world would see an initial warming of 1.6 °C — but even if concentrations stabilized at this level, further warming would leave the total temperature rise closer to 3 °C, and would persist for millennia.
And it rendered some explicit conclusions:
"The report says an 80% cut is meaningful," says Jay Gulledge, director of the science and impacts programme at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia. "I've never seen that stated before, but it is based on the best calculations for the carbon cycle."
But even if the world's leaders finally got serious about addressing the issue, it's not as if the problems will just go away:
For example, carbon-dioxide-induced warming is expected to be nearly irreversible for at least 1,000 years, according to two studies published in 2008 and 2009 (refs 2,3). "There is more certainty [in this report] than we've seen before," says Steve Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. "It is blunt, direct and clear. Unlike the IPCC reports you don't see any hedge words."
Pelosi made the case that federal investments in greenbuilding will create millions of jobs. Which is an important point to keep emphasizing. But unlike most politicians, she clearly understands the larger picture.
"We have to make up for a lot of lost time," said Pelosi, blaming the Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders for refusing to address the threat of climate change seriously. "We have a moral obligation to preserve the planet."
If only others would follow her lead.
continued at Daily Kos...
