Has no one at the State Department been made aware of the problems surrounding the scientific evidence concerning global warming?Or do they just really don't care and will go down the road anyway regardless of its effect on the U.S. economy?
I think its they don't care and they believe they know best.
US climate report publicized in run-up to Senate bill
Source: Reuters Alert net
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - An environmental coalition publicized a new U.S. draft report on climate change on Monday, one week before the expected unveiling of a compromise U.S. Senate bill that aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The Project on Climate Science, a coalition of environmental groups, publicized the report in advance of Earth Day on April 22, a spokeswoman said. The report was released with little fanfare on April 7 and posted on the Federal Register on April 8.
The report, a draft of the Fifth U.S. Climate Action Report that will be sent to the United Nations, says bluntly: "Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced ... Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases."
Without action to stop them, climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions will rise over 8,000 megatonnes by mid-century, the draft said. By adopting measures detailed in a bill passed last year by the U.S. House of Representatives, these emissions will drop beneath 2,000 megatonnes. They're now about 6,500 megatonnes.
The United Nations measures greenhouse gas emissions in megatonnes, or million metric tons. The effects of climate change are already evident, the draft said: warming air and oceans, vanishing mountain glaciers, thawing permafrost, signs of instability in the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and rising sea levels.
The State Department draft, now open for public comment, precedes the expected April 26 unveiling of Senate legislation by Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham and Independent Joe Lieberman.
Supporters of the bill hope this will pave the way for the full Senate to debate and pass a measure in June or July. The State Department report will ultimately go to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate reports to this body were in 1994, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
The draft report is available online at http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/rpts/car5/index.htm.
