TOON

10 Outrageous Climate Opposition Claims

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We already knew that climate action opponents were, shall we say, special. They've spent years denying the reality of global warming and doing everything possible to delay action.

But, last week's floor debate put their tortured reasoning in the Congressional Record.

We've compiled 10 of the most outrageous comments from the floor last week. Yes, they're bizarre. But, it's important to keep in mind that we are very likely to see much more of this as the bill moves to the Senate.

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10) "Wake up, America. There hasn't been any global warming, which is what we heard over and over and over again – there hasn't been any global warming for 10 years." – Rep. Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA)

No warming for 10 years? Well, not exactly true. 1998 was the 2nd hottest year on record while 2008 was only the 8th hottest. So, if you only look at those two years, you might assume there hasn't been any warming. But, 2005 was the hottest year on record and the warmest decade on record is 1998 through 2008. The trends are clear. The planet is warming. Period.

9) "You want to talk about a massive new welfare program for energy? It's in here too… It's a whole new welfare program for energy." – Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)

If you want to talk welfare, what about the hundreds of billions the oil, gas and coal industries have received in subsidies and tax breaks over the years?

8) "God has put us on this Earth as responsible stewards of these resources, and we ought to use them responsibly. This bill does not do it. In fact, it does nothing good. The only meaningful thing that it might do is provide a relatively meaningless photo op for our President in December in Copenhagen as he stands to brag about what America has done while the leaders of India and China laugh at us behind his back." – Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX)

We look forward to working with Rep. Conaway to strengthen this bill and to fight for the strongest possible international global warming treaty later this year.

7) "Energy producing states like Oklahoma will be economically punished and devastated." – Rep Tom Cole (R-OK)

Rep. Cole should have a look at climate models showing that Oklahoma could spend nearly the entire summer with 100+ temperatures by the end of the century. Talk about devastating.

6) "We should not be the first lemming to jump off the cliff." – Rep. Doc Hasting (R-WA)

That's an interesting point given that the U.S. is the only industrial country in the world that never ratified the Kyoto global warming treaty and that much of Europe is operating under a carbon cap right now.

5) "[For some, this bill is an] economic death sentence." – Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)

As opposed to the current economy in which we are held hostage by our reliance on foreign oil and in which only last summer we saw gas prices exceed $4/gallon.

4) "The whole point of cap-and-trade is to make fossil fuels, or 85 percent of the energy we consume, more expensive." – Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA)

No, the point of this bill is to cap global warming pollution, put Americans back to work building out our clean energy future, and free us from our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

3) "Do you want to throw away the economic prosperity for nothing, because that's what this bill does. And for what, to satisfy the twisted desires of radical environmentalists." – Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)

With millions of Americans out of work and the economy in recession, it might not be the best time to talk about "throwing away our economic prosperity" or to support the status quo.

2) "[This will bring us back to] hunting and gathering." – Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)

Yeah, when we look at solar panels, hybrids and windmills, that's exactly what comes to mind – hunting and gathering societies.

1) "The idea of human induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax… We need to be good stewards of our environment, but this is not it, it's a hoax!" – Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)

A global conspiracy involving thousands of scientists taking tens of thousands of measurements on everything ranging from ice core samples to the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to sea level rise, hundreds of governments around the world working to address global warming pollution, dozens of science academies that have endorsed the reality of global warming and urged action, as well as hundreds of millions of people around the world who have joined the movement to promote global warming action.

And, we're all coordinating our activities to push this hoax because…?

- Environmental Defense Action Fund

2010 species pledge set to fail: conservationists

A soldadinho-do-araripe from Brazil.

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July 1, 2009 - AFP

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The world's paramount authority on species loss has warned that pledges to roll back the threat to biodiversity by 2010 were running into the sand.

The goal set by UN parties under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 "clearly will not be met," Jean-Christophe Vie of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) told AFP.

In its new report, issued on Thursday, the Swiss-based IUCN said Earth was hurtling towards a mass extinction.

Out of 44,838 species on the IUCN's famous "Red List", 869 are considered to be extinct or extinct in the wild, it said.

This tally rises to 1,159 if 290 critically endangered species that are tagged as possibly extinct are included.

Nearly one third of amphibians are at risk of being wiped out through habitat loss, fungal infection and other risks.

More than one in eight birds are threatened with extinction, with Brazil, Indonesia and oceanic islands spearheading the peril. Nearly a quarter of mammals, especially hunted species in Asia, face a similar threat.

"Overall, a minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction," IUCN said in a press release.

"Considering that only 2.7 percent of the 1.8 million described species have been analysed, this number is a gross underestimate, but it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to all forms of life on Earth."

The IUCN analysis, Wildlife in a Changing World, was issued just before a deadline governments set themselves to evaluate their success in achieving the 2010 target.

Vie, deputy head of the IUCN's species programme, called on governments to tackle the biodiversity crisis with the same urgency with which they tackled its economic crisis.

"Economies are utterly dependent on species diversity. We need them all, in large numbers. We quite literally cannot afford to lose them."

He added: "Governments should put as much effort, if not more, into saving nature as they do into addressing the economic and financial sectors."

Nobel Laureate 'Abducted' by Israeli Navy

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Mel Frykberg
July 1, 2009 - Inter Press Service

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RAMALLAH - Twenty-one international peace activists were seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The activists, including former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Irish Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, and nationals from 11 other countries were part of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) efforts to break Israel's naval and border blockade of Gaza.

The activists were taken to Israel's Ashdod port and from there to detention cells at Ben Gurion international airport in Tel Aviv where they await deportation.

"They simply kidnapped the passengers," said FGM founding member Greta Berlin. "I call on the Israeli occupation forces to release our people immediately. It's funny. What are they going to do? Deport us? The last place we wanted to reach was Israel."

The Spirit of Humanity left Cyprus Monday after receiving security clearance from the Cypriot authorities. It was carrying three tonnes of medical supplies and some toys.

The boat was intercepted by naval gun vessels in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The crew was warned that if they did not return to Cyprus they would be fired on. The boat refused to follow the Israeli order, and continued to make its way to Gaza.

The Israeli navy then jammed the boat's instrumentation, blocking its GPS, radar and navigation systems. The aid boat was surrounded by several naval gunboats until armed naval commandos forcibly boarded it and towed it back to Ashdod port.

"We didn't come with guns and weapons, but just with humanitarian aid, in an attempt to break the siege of Gaza and to tell the apathetic world about what is happening in the Strip, especially after the last war," FGM chairperson Huwaida Araf said in an interview with the Nazareth-based radio station Al- Shams.

"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said former presidential candidate McKinney.

"President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do," she added.

"The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of Operation Cast Lead," said Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

"Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone," she added.

The U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement has sent a number of siege-breaking vessels to Gaza with aid supplies in an endeavour to not only deliver desperately needed goods but also to draw international attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released Monday, Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair".

Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed during Israel's December-January war are still without shelter despite pledges of almost 4.5 billion dollars in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip, the Red Cross report says.

The report says hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies.

Israel allows only a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Items such as chocolate, cigarettes, fruit juice, pumpkin, schoolbooks, clothes, toys, seedlings and musical instruments are amongst the many items banned.

Several of FGM's vessels have managed to reach the stricken coastal territory with supplies, but others have been forcibly stopped.

The last vessel, also with McKinney on board, was rammed by an Israeli naval vessel several times. The badly damaged boat was forced to limp to Beirut port as it began to take water.

While most of the activists aboard Spirit were due be deported, several of the activists hold Israeli passports, including Huwaida Arraf.

Arraf, a law lecturer, was born in the U.S. to a Palestinian family from within Israel's Green Line, or internationally recognised borders. She is also a U.S. citizen.

Deporting her could be problematic, and she may face court for attempting to enter Gaza. Israeli law bans Israeli citizens from entering the coastal territory.

Several attempts by IPS to contact Arraf in detention were unsuccessful. FGM reported that it had also been unable to contact activists on their cell phones in detention.

Meanwhile, Berlin vows to continue trying to break Israel's siege on Gaza.

"It isn't over till the fat lady sings. They took our boat, so we'll get a freighter. Israel has no right to keep 1.5 million residents under siege, to occupy Gaza, and to turn it into one big refugee camp."

Judge Overturns Bush Administration Logging Rule

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Jeff Barnard
July 1, 2009 - The Associated Press

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GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge has struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests.

"I am hopeful that this is the last nail in the coffin to (President George W.) Bush's assault on our public forests," said Pete Frost, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, which represented plaintiffs in one of two cases challenging the rule.

At stake was a provision of the National Forest Management Act that required maintaining viable populations of species that indicate the health of an ecosystem, such as the spotted owl. The Bush administration changed the rule last year so it required a framework of protection, rather than maintaining viable populations of wildlife.

The ruling marked the third time federal courts have turned back attempts to change the 1984 version of what is known as the viability rule within the National Forest Management Act.

The judge wrote that an environmental impact statement done by the Forest Service "does not evaluate the environmental impacts of the 2008 rule," and the agency failed to comply with Endangered Species Act requirements to consult with other federal agencies on whether the rule changes would jeopardize the survival of endangered species.

Instead, the Forest Service argued that the rule changes themselves had no direct environmental impact until they were applied to specific projects.

The judge admonished the Forest Service for simply copying legal arguments already rejected in two court rulings into their latest justification for the rule change.

Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said in an e-mail that he could not immediately comment on the ruling.

Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics in Eugene, said until the National Forest Management Act was enacted in 1976, the Forest Service had wide latitude to do as it pleased with little oversight - a situation the Bush administration hoped to recreate.

After President Bush was elected in 2000, his administration systematically worked to increase national forest logging by changing the rules for enforcing environmental laws, but was consistently turned back by federal court rulings.

"This court decision sends the Forest Service back to square zero and upholds the promise ... that forest plans be meaningful and they actually protect forests," he said.