Arrogance and inaction in the Executive Branch
This entry was posted on 5/18/2008 11:00 PM and is filed under Elected representatives,Global Warming,Leadership,Costs of INACTION.
May 14, 2008 (U.S. Dept. of the Interior news release): Secretary Kempthorne Announces Decision to Protect Polar Bears under Endangered Species Act. OK, good - it's well documented that Polar Bears are in serious trouble as a result of global warming. Seems that this would also be a prime opportunity to recognize the U.S. contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and do something to reduce them. (maybe save ourselves and future generations from some serious problems too)
No. "In making the announcement today, Secretary Kempthorne reiterated President Bush’s statement last month that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was never intended to regulate global climate change. 'Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to use of the ESA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources,' said Kempthorne. 'That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law. The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy.'" (my bold)
So what is the Executive Branch of our federal government doing to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions? Next to nothing. Hopefully the phrase "wholly inappropriate" coupled with Executive Branch inaction will be the historical high-water mark of U.S. arrogance with respect to global warming.
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It's not like the Executive Branch leaders don't know what we're facing. From abcnews.com Climate Change Brings Health Risks (Congressional hearing testimony in early April 2008)
Excerpts:
"A top government health official said Wednesday that climate change is expected to have a significant impact on health in the next few decades, with certain regions of the country — and the elderly and children — most vulnerable to increased health problems. Howard Frumkin, a senior official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a detailed summary on the likely health impacts of global warming at a congressional hearing.
Among them, the prospects of more heat waves that are of special danger to the elderly and the poor; more incidents of extreme weather posing a danger of drought in some areas and flooding in others; increase of food-borne and waterborne infectious diseases; more air pollution because of higher temperatures; and the migration into new areas of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, malaria or dengue fever as seasonal patterns change. (my bold)
Frumkin's testimony focused in greater detail and more directly on the likely human health risk of global warming than testimony given last October by the agency's director, Julie Gerberding, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It was later learned that the White House had heavily edited Gerberding's testimony, deleting whole sections of the prepared remarks including one entitled "Climate Change is a Public Concern." (my bold)
Arrogance
