Is It Getting Hot In Here... Or Is It Just Me?

Stroll with me and see if you notice a trend here...

A 21-page report for policy makers was released this week in Paris. Formed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization, a group of climate experts unanimously linked–with 90 percent certainty–the increase of average global temperatures since the mid-20th century to the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The evidence for warming having happened on the planet is unequivocal, said U.S. government scientist Susan Solomon, who also is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We can see that in rising air temperatures, we can see it in changes in snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. We can see it in global sea rise. It's unequivocal, she said.

Did the Bush Administration take note? Oh mais oui!

Administration officials at a news conference praised the report today acknowledging they would certainly study the report and take recommendations seriously. Yet almost in the same breath, the Administration expressed continued opposition to mandatory reductions in heat-trapping greenhouse gases and warned against unintended consequences–including job losses–that might result if the government requires economy-wide caps on carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. But the American people were assured that the Administration would take the report seriously.


On December 05, 2006, a blue ribbon panel co-chaired by James A. Baker, III, released The Iraq Study Group Report–The Way Forward: A New Approach. In 160 succinct pages, the report outlines what seems to be apparent to the average sentient observer: the US policy in Iraq is not working. The report lays out several recommendations. The Administration greeted the report with praise, and President Bush, a copy of the report in-hand, assured the American people he would study the report. Thirty-six days later, Bush addressed the nation to announce a US troop surge of 20,000 additional soldiers.


On September 20, 2004, another blue ribbon panel of ocean science and policy experts–the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy–fulfilled its mandate to submit recommendations for a coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy to the President and Congress. The Commission's final report, An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century, contains 212 recommendations addressing all aspects of ocean and coastal policy. The 16 members of the Commission called on the President to take decisive, immediate action to carry out these recommendations, which would halt the steady decline of our nation's oceans and coasts.

In response to the Commission's findings and recommendations, the President issued an executive order establishing another Committee on Ocean Policy to study the recommendations.


More study? That's strange, particularly given that just 15 months earlier in June 2003, still another blue ribbon panel of experts from the Pew Oceans Commission released their independent report, America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for Sea Change, which came to exactly the same conclusions as the US Commission on Ocean Policy's report.

America's oceans are in crisis and the stakes could not be higher, begins the Executive Summary. This nation must decide how it will choose to meet the crisis in our oceans. Fundamentally, this is not a decision about us. It is about our children, and actions we must take to bequeath them thriving oceans. These changes in our perspectives must be reflected in a reformed US ocean policy.

James Connaughton, then top White House environmental adviser, said on Capitol Hill, The Bush administration will act with force on a very high level on these issues. Three years later, Pew Commission chair, Leon Panetta, gave them a D- for how it's handled ocean issues.

So you might forgive my skepticism today with all the posturing by the Administration to actually take the climate report seriously. I'm anxious to be proven wrong, but I suspect poor study habits.