The Obama administration, through the EPA, is signaling that it is willing to use the executive branch to control greenhouse gases if Congress doesn't do its job. This is so important to getting a handle on the coming climate crisis, that I am overjoyed. Oh, the roller coaster ride! This is very short and probably not a real diary, but I didn't find it in a search and it is WONDERFUL news.
Short bit from HuffPo:
The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated, signaling that the Obama administration is prepared to contain global warming without congressional action if necessary.
Kerry called the use of the EPA a "blunt instrument," but this is a strong signal that one way or another that the Obama administration intends to do something about the climate crisis.
Lastly,
The way was opened for the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to cut climate-changing emissions by the Supreme Court in 2007, when the court declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Act. But the court said the EPA must determine if these pollutants pose a danger to public health and welfare before it can regulate them.
EPA Rocks!
Update: RLMiller has the lowdown on the EPA and GGs. Links galore.
EPA action is not a full substitute for the climate bill. Briefly, the EPA is slow, a ripe litigation target, politically perilous for Obama, can easily be subverted by an anti-environmental President, and doesn't assure other countries that the United States can reduce carbon emissions. (People needing more convincing of these points can read Everything you always wanted to know about EPA greenhouse gas regulations, but were afraid to ask, with fluffy bunny pictures; The dangerous myth that the EPA's endangerment finding can somehow stop dangerous warming if the climate bill dies, or my diary on alphabet soup.) Which is not to say that Democrats should rush to bargain away the EPA's ability to regulate carbon.
Here is just one of RL's links: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About EPA GGs
Editors around the country are also writing editorials acknowledging global warming.
Update: Here's a snippet of that story:
Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.
56 papers in 45 countries, from huffpo
The Guardian has a story on "How the Global Climate Change Editorial Came About."
And I'm testing different ways to say "global warming," such as "climate crisis." Please chime in as to how it sounds to your ears.
Happy Monday, everyone!
Update: ABC, with AP writer
xysea's diary asks Americans to get with the program and accept the "inconvenient truth" of climate change.
Laughing Planet has a great diary (with pictures) on how the Himalayan glaciers are breaking apart, which is no laughing matter because huge populations depend on them for water.
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse gives us her usual plethora of links to explore the truth of climate change, with some video of the deniers, too.
Cartoon Messiah speaks of war and climate change: "The death of every soldier, civilian, and militant insurgent is an offense to the Earth."
A new site, debunking the climate gate hack: swifthack