U.S. projects 19 percent emissions rise (We're Doomed & a Global Warming Barf Alert!)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/3/07 | John Heilprin - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - By 2020, the United States will emit almost one-fifth more gases that lead to global warming than it did in 2000, increasing the risks of drought and scarce water supplies.

That projection comes from an internal draft report from the Bush administration that is more than a year overdue at the United Nations. The Associated Press obtained a copy Saturday.

The United States already is responsible for roughly one-quarter of the world's carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases that scientists blame for global warming.

The draft report, which is still being completed, projects that the current administration's climate policy would result in the emission of 9.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases in 2020, a 19 percent increase from 7.7 billion tons in 2000.

Doing more than slowing the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions, which remains the administration's stated goal, will be decided "as the science justifies," according to the draft report. The biggest source of the gases is the burning of fossil fuels, chiefly oil, coal and natural gas.

But an authoritative U.N. report last month from hundreds of scientists and government officials said global warming is "very likely" caused by mankind and that climate change will continue for centuries even if heat-trapping gases are reduced. That report was approved by 113 nations including the United States.

It was the strongest language ever used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose last report came in 2001.

Despite the dire outlook, most scientists say huge sea level rises and the most catastrophic storms and droughts may be avoided if strong action is taken soon.

"We're on a path to exceeding levels of global warming that will cause catastrophic consequences, and we really need to be seriously reducing emissions, not just reducing the growth rate as the president is doing," Michael MacCracken, chief scientist at the nonpartisan Climate Institute in Washington, said Saturday. Until 2001, he coordinated the government's studies of the consequences of global warming,

The administration's internal draft covers inventories of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, projected environmental consequences and policies to limit emissions and risk. The New York Times reported on the draft in Saturday's editions.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has been coordinating the draft report. A spokeswoman, Kristen Hellmer, said it "will show that the president's portfolio of actions and his financial commitment to addressing climate change are working. And the president is always looking at ways to address our energy security and environmental needs."

Hellmer blamed the delay in completing the fourth U.S. Climate Action Report on the "extensive interagency review process" the draft must go through. The report, which was due no later than Jan. 1, 2006, is required under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Among the consequences of a warming world anticipated in the report is "a distinct reduction in spring snowpack in the northwestern United States," which supplies much of the water in that region, the report says.

Warmer temperatures expected from more greenhouse gases would only "exacerbate present drought risks in the United States by increasing the rate of evaporation," it says.

Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch, a nonprofit watchdog program, said Saturday he expects the final report will evade a full discussion of how global warming might affect the nation.

"I think it is very likely that the main reason the report has been held up for more than a year beyond the deadline is because the administration is reluctant to make an honest statement about likely climate change impacts on this country," said Piltz, a former senior associate with the federal Climate Change Science Program.

The U.S. spends $3 billion a year to research technologies to cut global warming and $2 billion on climate research. Bush has formed a partnership with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea — producers of half the world's greenhouse gases — to attract private money for cleaner energy technologies. He envisions using more hydrogen-powered vehicles, electricity from renewable energy sources and clean coal technology.

Shortly after taking office, Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a U.N. treaty that requires industrial nations to cut global warming gases by 2012 by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels.

He argued that cutting the U.S. share to below 6 billion tons a year, as the treaty would have required, would have cost 5 million U.S. jobs. He objected, too, that such high-polluting developing nations as China and India are not required to reduce emissions.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Climate Change Science Program: http://www.climatescience.gov/default.htm

Climate Science Watch: http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/

[NormsRevenge]

U.S. Climate Change Science Program:
http://www.climatescience.gov/default.htm

Climate Science Watch:
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/

[Jeff Chandler]

U.S. projects 19 percent emissions rise

Corresponds directly with the rise in popularity of Mexican food.

[goldstategop]

A 20 percent increase is enough to flood islands and coastlines all over the world by 2020? Yeah, right. Its as BS as is the notion mankind is chiefly responsible for alleged global warming in the first place.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Swanks]

What if we just increase taxes 20% to offset the 19% increase, call it a carbon tax, and be done with it? That should make Algore and Libs happy.

[Swanks]

What if we just increase taxes 20% to offset the 19% increase, call it a carbon tax, and be done with it? That should make Algore and Libs happy.

[NormsRevenge]

.

The town of Iqaluit, Nunavut Territory, Canada, about 200 miles (321 kms) south of the Arctic Circle is seen on Monday, Feb. 26, 2007. Iqaluit is the capital of Canada's newest provinces, Nunavut Territory, which was carved out of the Northwest Territories to become a semi-autonomous region in 1999. There are some 7,000 people in Iqaluit, most of whom are Inuit, nomadic hunters who have lived in the frozen climes of Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland for thousands of years. The Inuit are the first on earth to experience the impact of global warming and claim the United States is violating their human rights by being the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. (AP Photo/Beth Duff-Brown)

[SandRat]

IF you own a cat, you know the smelly truth: they break wind and it's foul. Not only that, it harms the planet. All forms of flatulence – from cats, dogs, even from Dad – contain methane, a greenhouse gas thought to contribute to climate change.


tttthhhhiiiiIIIIPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!! Now it's 20% SMELL THAT AL GORE!! thhhhiiiiIIIIIPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!

[NormsRevenge]

Climate change economist Nicholas Stern (L) and Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki share a laugh while discussing the economic costs of action and inaction in the fight against climate change during a news conference at the Toronto Stock Exchange in Toronto, February 19, 2007. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters)

[NormsRevenge]

Why, Thanks for calling Al. I'd love to buy some credits.
How many do you have available?

London's mayor Ken Livingstone, pictured, will on Tuesday unveil plans to cut greenhouse emissions in the capital in an effort to take the lead in the global battle against climate change(AFP/File/Carl De Souza)

[goldstategop]

Why would the Inuit be upset? A warmer climate creates a longer growing season, improved health and other benefits. They should be thanking instead of blaming the United States for improving the lot of all humanity.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[CyberAnt]

Great .. I hope it rises 50% and gets rid of all these stinking democrats. Life would certainly be better for the whole world.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[. . . increasing the risks of drought and scarce water supplies.]

The warmest recorded U.S. temperatures of the 20th Century were in the 1930's when the Dust Bowl occurred, yet man-made greenhouse gas emissions were much less. The coldest temperatures in the 20th Century U.S. were between the 1950's to the mid '70's, a period of postwar industrial and transportation expansion.

Who are they trying to sh*t?

[Retired Chemist]

Doesn't China have 500 dirty coal fired power plants on the drawing board?

[NormsRevenge]

I think it's at least that,, plus 40 nuke power plants..

too bad we couldn't build 40 new nuke plants here,,, or even drill anwr

[goldstategop]

The Green Left are technophobes. They're also neo-Luddites. What unites them is a hatred of our technologically advanced civilization.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Thrownatbirth]

"I want to take those profits."

- H.C.

[Richard Axtell]

We are being asked to simply believe all this, and stop asking questions... stop thinking. Then, they will eventually tell us what we are required to do to "save" the earth, and consequently ourselves. By then, to dispute this "truth" will literally have become a crime. We will then have no recourse but to adjust to the ever greater demands by a neotechnocratic totalitarian elite, that we lessen our standards of living, as we dismantle our economy.

We may notice and even publicly point out that none of what we are sacrificing will have any noticeable effect... that China, India and other ascendant nations will have taken our place as the number one "carbon emitters" on the planet. To no avail, as we will have lost so much economic and political will and energy that the realization that this has all been a massive and obvious fraud and hoax, will not matter.

The facts will be as they are, and the US will have been reduced to 3rd world status, because we have acquiesced and have given up our rights to a future.

[pnh102]

U.S. projects 19 percent emissions rise

Someone tell algore to turn his heat and A/C down!

[vrwc1]

The United States already is responsible for roughly one-quarter of the world's carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases that scientists blame for global warming.

Bull crap! All of humanity is responsible for approximately 5% of the world's carbon dioxide, so it's impossible for the United States to be responsible for "roughly one-quarter of the world's carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gases"!