Congress is launching the “mother of all climate weeks” today

[babylonsister]

Hill gears up for big climate week
By LISA LERER | 4/21/09 4:15 AM EDT


Iceberg in Greenland.

Supporters hope new climate legislation could prevent icebergs such as this Greenland one from melting.
Photo: AP


Congress is launching the “mother of all climate weeks” on Tuesday, with a monster hearing designed to push forward global warming legislation.

Fifty-four witnesses will testify on climate change legislation in three full days before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, topped off with an appearance from Al Gore on Friday. The committee will also hear from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and high-profile representatives from business and the environmental movement.

The hearings are timed to coincide with Earth Day on Wednesday.

Three weeks ago, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the outlines of a bill establishing a cap-and-trade system. They plan to move the bill through committee and to the full House by the Memorial Day recess.

The House Science and Technology Committee will also hold a hearing on Wednesday on monitoring and measuring greenhouse gas emissions.

Over in the Senate, State Department climate change envoy Todd Stern is headlining a hearing at the Foreign Relations Committee on new global climate change agreements. Stern just returned from two weeks at the international climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany.

“In my 33 years on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I cannot remember a week of hearings quite like this one,” said Markey. “With so much at stake and such little time, I am pleased that our country’s business, science and environmental leaders are lining up to engage in this historic week of hearings.”

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21479.html

[dysfunctional press]

1. i honestly don't believe that anything substantial will be attempted until it's too late.

people don't want to worry about tomorrow's planet, if it's going to adversely affect today's paycheck.
i just hope that i live long enough to witness some of the really spectacular kind of stuff.

[babylonsister]

4. Do yourself a favor and google Gore, Waxman, Markey + environment.

Some people are dead serious in their desire to change the course of where we're headed, have been for years, and are finally getting some support from this admin. Gawd knows they never had a chance with the last one.

[dysfunctional press]

5. it makes NO difference.

as a country(or a planet)we ARE NOT going to do nearly enough to make any difference. today's economy is just more important to the vast majority of people than tomorrow's habitat.
but it should be exciting to watch as the planet slips away.

[babylonsister]

6. Then let's all just sit back and do nothing.

:eyes:

[dysfunctional press]

7. that's exactly what most politicians and people are going to do.

and it's going to make for some spectacular occurrences in the not-too-distant future.

[babylonsister]

9. 54 witnesses in 3 days in the House alone, but it's being ignored?

Did you even bother to read the OP?

[dysfunctional press]

10. "witnesses" is not the same as substantial actions.

talk is easy- doing something about it is the hard part- and that's as far as the vast majority of our 'national effort' is going to go.

it's just the reality of our society.

[lunatica]

8. Actually climate change isn't a one outcome thing

If we do something soon to mitigate the causes of climate change then the result will be that the climate gets to a point of stabilizing while not life threatening. If we don't do anything then the climate changes much more and destroys life on the planet for another few million years. It's like plugging a leak in a dike as opposed to letting the leak get bigger.

At least I hope that will be the case. It's about the tipping point and which side of it are we're on, but it's also about the climate stabilizing at some point. Will it be before we all die or after...

[dysfunctional press]

11. we aren't going to do nearly enough to stabilize anything.

people who honestly think otherwise haven't been paying attention.

[natrat]

2. those people in washington suck shit so bad, somehow the result of this will be increased emissions

[babylonsister]

3. Why did you bother responding? nt

[The2ndWheel]

12. I see, trap all the hot air inside the congressional chamber

A hell of a lot of CO2 in there this week.

If nobody in these meetings talks about economic growth as a good thing, then they might have something worth talking about. As long as the economy exists within the environment, then growing the economy will only increase the scale of our impact on the environment.