Obama Calls for Passage of Climate Bill as the Number of Americans Who Believe in Climate Change Drops

"The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself." - Club of Rome, Environmental Think-Tank Consultants to the United Nations

How They Are TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS in America

October 31, 2009

Climate Physics - ...The federal government is spending 1000 times more money to promote the global warming charade than is available to those scientists who are arguing against it. Never before in history has it taken a massive publicity campaign to convince the public of a scientific truth. The only reason half the public thinks global warming may be true is the massive amount of money put into global warming propaganda.

The green eco-groups have their umbilical cords in the government's tax funds. Aside from a few honest but duped scientists living on government money, the majority of the alarms about global warming - now called "climate change" because it's no longer warming - come from those who have no professional training in atmospheric science. They are the environmentalists, the ecologists, the lawyers and the politicians. They are not the reliable atmospheric scientists whom I know.

Nevertheless, our politicians have passed laws stating that carbon dioxide is bad...

In the year 2000, America planned 150 new coal-electric power plants. These power plants would have been "clean" by real standards, but the Greens managed to have carbon dioxide defined legally as "dirty;" and this new definition makes all emitters of carbon dioxide, including you, a threat to the planet. Therefore, using legal illogic, the Sierra Club stopped 82 of these planned power plants under Bush II, and they expect it will be a slam dunk to stop the rest under Obama...

America stopped building new power plants a long time ago... Our energy-producing capability is in a decline and it is taking America with it.

I used to belong to the Sierra Club in the 1960's. It used to be a nice hiking club. In the late 1960's the Sierra Club began turning its attention toward stopping nuclear power. Then I quit the Sierra Club. It continues to prosper from the many subscribers who think they are supporting a good cause. What they are really supporting is the destruction of America, brick by brick. The Sierra Club and similar organizations are like watermelons - green on the outside, red on the inside. They are telling us we have no right to our own natural resources, and in doing so they are sinking America.

Inherent in ecology are three assumptions: "natural" conditions are optimal, climate is fragile, and human influences are bad. Physics makes no such assumptions. By assuming climate is fragile, the global warming supporters have assumed their conclusion. In fact, the climate is not fragile. It is stable. The non-adherence to physical logic in the global warming camp is what makes many physical scientists say that global warming is a religion.

So we have a new age religion promoted by environmentalists, incorporated into our laws and brainwashed into our people, that is now destroying America from the inside.

Like a vast ship, America is taking a long time to sink, but each day it sinks a little further. The fearsome day awaits when America, if not quickly recovered by its real citizens, will tilt its nose into the water to begin a rapid and final descent into oblivion ... her many resources saved for whom?

Obama Sees Consensus Growing on Climate Change Bill

October 23, 2009

Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Friday he saw consensus building in the U.S. Congress on climate change and energy legislation that is considered critical to international talks on a new global warming pact.

Obama, who supports a bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, promoted the legislation during a visit to Massachusetts, saying it would transform the U.S. energy system and spur the United States to lead the world on developing technology for "clean" types of fuel.

"Everybody in America should have a stake in legislation that can transform our energy system into one that's far more efficient, far cleaner, and provide energy independence for America," he told an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, urging bipartisan support for a new law.

Obama has said he wants the United States to lead the world on climate change, but his focus on healthcare reform has dominated his and lawmakers' legislative focus for several months. A bill [Clean Energy/Carbon Tax/Cap-and-Trade] is unlikely to reach his desk by the time U.N. talks [Climate Conference in Copenhagen] on an new global warming agreement begin in December.

On Friday the president urged speed in the broader shift in U.S. energy priorities and said he believed lawmakers -- many of whom are skeptical of the energy bill -- are following.

"It is a transformation that will be made as swiftly and as carefully as possible, to ensure that we are doing what it takes to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term," Obama said.

"I do believe that a consensus is growing to achieve exactly that."

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill aimed at cutting carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and about 80 percent by 2050.

In the Senate, Democrats have unveiled a bill with a stronger target to reduce emissions blamed for global warming by 20 percent by 2020.

Both the House and Senate bills include a cap-and-trade system that limits carbon emissions, similar to the European Union's.

Companies would need permits for every ton of carbon pollution they release into the atmosphere. Utilities and factories that don't use all their permits could trade, or sell them, to companies that need more.

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee is set to release an updated version of the climate bill late on Friday, a committee aide said. The committee will also release the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis on costs of the legislation for consumers and the impact on the U.S. economy.

In addition, the Senate committee will hold a series of hearings on the bill next week.

Obama Calls for Passage of Climate Bill, Touts Energy Initiatives

October 23, 2009

Wall Street Journal - President Barack Obama visited Massachusetts Institute of Technology Friday, aiming to propel the administration's green energy initiatives back onto the public radar.

"We face threats to our security that seek to exploit the very interconnectedness and openness so essential to our prosperity. And the system of energy that powers our economy also undermines our security and endangers our planet," he said, speaking before 750 MIT faculty, and local business leaders and politicians. "There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs."

Mr. Obama also touted the $80 billion in energy-related spending in the $787 billion stimulus bill he signed in February, saying it "makes the largest investment in clean energy in history, not only to help end this recession, but to lay a new foundation for lasting prosperity." The stimulus package includes spending on battery technology for hybrid vehicles, energy efficiency retrofitting and renewable energy initiatives like wind and solar power.

Mr. Obama had campaigned on the promise of quickly capping U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, a break with the policies of the George W. Bush administration. But legislation that would reduce industrial emissions has lost momentum in Congress this year, as lawmakers labor over health-care system and financial industry regulations that have taken months longer than anticipated.

The president's aides had once hoped the Senate would pass a climate change bill before the United Nations' climate change summit in Copenhagen in mid-December. But now, early next year is the soonest final legislation is expected to reach the Senate floor. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled to begin hearings next week on legislation to cut U.S. emissions 20% below 2005 levels by 2020.

Aides to the president have downplayed the delay, saying it is just as good to have something in January as in December, but few in Congress think January will bring final passage of a bill.

As time has passed, opposition from industries dependent on fossil fuels has grown, and public interest has waned. A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released Thursday shows a decline in the proportion of Americans who say global temperatures are rising as a result of human activity. Just 36% say that currently, down from 47% last year.

The survey release coincided with a new Government Accountability Office study that says most federal, state and local officials have not yet taken steps to adapt to the impacts of global warming that America can expect.

In recent weeks, the White House and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have feuded over the Chamber's objections to the cap-and-trade legislation favored by the White House. Several high-profile multinationals have left the chamber over the past month because they disagree with its stance on the legislation.

Mr. Obama nodded to difficulties Friday.

"The closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology runs counter to action," he said.

After the event, Mr. Obama was slated to speak at Democratic party fund-raisers for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in Boston, and then in Stamford, Conn., for Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Number of Americans Who Believe in Climate Change Drops

October 22, 2009

The Guardian - The number of Americans who believe in global warming has plummeted, falling 20% in two years, a survey said today.

Only 57% of Americans believe there is solid scientific evidence that the Earth's atmosphere is warming, said the poll of 1,500 people by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press.

That is a fall of 77% from 2007. The number of people who believe that human activity is causing global warming also fell to just 36%.

The public uncertainty about the evidence behind global warming comes as the Senate prepares to begin debate next week on climate change legislation. Yesterday, 18 scientific organisations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming.

Michael Dimock, the associate director of the Pew Centre, said the economic crisis and the struggles over healthcare reform had squeezed out climate change and the environment as issues of concern.

"The public is just not as focused on global warming and environmental [issues] as they have been in the past."

But James Hoggan, a PR executive and author of Climate Cover-Up, blamed an intense lobbying campaign against global warming legislation now before the Senate.

"I would say a big part of this problem is this campaign to mislead Americans about climate science," he said. "This is a very sophisticated group of people who know how to create doubt and confusion and they have done a very good job of it."

The decline was sharpest among independent voters and Republicans. Republicans in Congress have almost uniformly lined up against climate change legislation. There were also regional differences, with people in the mid-west and Rocky mountain states less inclined to see climate change as a serious problem.

But the perceived lack of concrete evidence for global warming did not necessarily hurt the prospects of voting on climate change legislation, Dimock said. Half of Americans polled remain in favour of putting limits and carbon emissions and making companies pay for their emissions -- the basics of the cap and trade bill now before the Senate.

A majority, 56%, also want America to join other countries in a global agreement on climate change.

Obama: 'Cynical Claims' Attacking Energy Bill

October 23, 2009

Associated Press — President Barack Obama said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources.

Obama said some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change — claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary."

Obama said the nation's economic future is tied to its environmental promise, describing innovation as key to righting a flagging economy, saving the globe's natural resources and ensuring U.S. competitiveness.

"I do believe a consensus is growing," Obama told his audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Using familiar refrains from his campaign and his administration as Congress mulls its next move on the climate bill, the speech was designed as a nudge for lawmakers to act on a top priority of the president's.

"The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy," Obama said. "I am convinced of that."

Next week, the Senate environment committee will take up its version of a global warming bill. The legislation would cut greenhouse gases by about 80 percent by 2050 — as the president called for in his campaign — and require more domestic energy to come from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. The House passed a similar bill in June.

But with work still to be done on health care and deep divisions in Congress over the best approach to climate change, the chances the Senate will pass a climate bill by the end of the year are slim. That means U.S. negotiators are likely to not have firm targets set before 192 nations gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, to hammer out a new treaty to slow global warming.

"This should not be a partisan issue," Obama said, urging bipartisan answers on a day largely devoted to raising campaign money for fellow Democrats. "The closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight."