During Senate Finance Committee hearings on Tuesday, November 10th, Senator Kerry was confronted by a brand of evidence-less “denialism” from an “expert” presented by right-wing AEI, the American Enterprise Institute. They are a well-known group that is ideologically in sync with the most conservative Republicans who have a strong anti-progress agenda. Kenneth Green was an “invited witness” to this hearing. Senator Kerry “outed” AEI’s Green as an amateur climatologist-wannabe, who has published no peer-reviewed studies and could list or name none to support his climate claims. (Green said he would produce peer-reviewed studies to support his assertion of no global warming, but he can’t, because none exist.) Enjoy the effective smackdown of Green.
It’s about time our Senators got tough on the climate denialists. We have no more time to waste on their trivial arguments. Now the only problem is that John Kerry supports cap and trade legislation (the Kerry-Boxer bill) and even worse, more concessions than that, because he’s working with Republicans to weaken that bill’s requirements even more. He needs to support something much stronger than his own legislation, but at least we know he understands the severity of the problem. Maybe he has something waiting in the wings for 2010.
Meanwhile, good news from President Obama: his Asia trip, now underway, will include negotiations with China on climate issues. “Obama in 11th Hour Climate bid”, says the AFP. The clock is definitely ticking.
“With the clock ticking on the high-stakes Copenhagen climate summit, US President Barack Obama will try to salvage fading hopes for a deal as he meets this month with the leaders of China and India.
Obama on Sunday starts his closely watched debut trip to China. A week later, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes to Washington in the first full-fledged state visit of Obama’s presidency.
The United States is also dispatching Energy Secretary Steven Chu to both emerging powers in hopes of making headway ahead of the December 7-18 summit in the Danish capital.
The world’s three most populous nations have all vowed action on climate change but are deeply at odds over the shape of a Copenhagen deal, which was meant to be a new global treaty but now looks set to offer a framework at best.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has even threatened to boycott Copenhagen unless the three nations move forward on their positions.”
Cross-posted on Futurism Now
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