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[quote]
The US Republican party has won a vote against the existence of climate change.

The 31 Republican members of a US committee proposing a bill that will curb the power of the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gasses, have succeeded in voting down an amendment that notes climate change is nonetheless happening and is a real threat to human health.

Joe Barton of Texas contended that the science of the issue was "not settled." Rolling Eyes

Republicans last year blocked Democrate attempts to pass climate change legislation, and have been pushing to reduce the power of the EPA.
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you mean the right is outta touch with reality? you don't say!
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to be fair even the left wing in the US is to the right of anywhere else.

the problem lies with the people who vote. look at trump raising the possibility obama wasnt born in the US.
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Texas, home of big oil money and global warming denial, is in a bit of a hot spot ...

"Texas is suffering one of America's worst outbreaks of wildfires since the state's ruinous fire season of 2006. The driest March in recorded history has left vast swaths of the Lone Star state a "massive tinderbox that has exploded with devastating effect." "


http://theweek.com/article/index/214147/texas-out-of-control-wildfires-by-the-numbers
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Latest Republican attacks on the Environment Protection Agency have failed.

A bill prohibiting the EPA from regulating carbon pollution was passed in the House, but failed in Senate.

Background to this, environment groups - even moderates - that previously turned a blind eye to Obama's weak environment policies, have been radicalised. In response, the White House announced the president would veto any budget resolution that restricted EPA authority.

http://www.thenation.com/article/159954/how-climate-science-was-saved-now?rel=emailNation
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OneHappy said:
Joe Barton of Texas contended that the science of the issue was "not settled." Rolling Eyes


Hardly surprising seeing as many contend that the issue OF science hasn't been settled.
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A major international study suggests that sea level rise this century will be in the range 0.9 - 1.6 meters.
This exceeds the last IPCC report which estimated about 0.5 meters by 2100.
In the last few years the oceans have risen about 3mm a year.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/sea-levels-rising-higher-and-faster-20110504-1e8j7.html
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Yeah i find it hard to believe that it wont progress exponentially. Warmth = more water vapour which is another green house gas.
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mississippi's flooding
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Renewable energy can power the world says landmark IPCC study.


"Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world's energy supply within four decades - but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power.

Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually.

Sven Teske, renewable energy director at Greenpeace International, and a lead author of the report, said: "This is an invitation to governments to initiate a radical overhaul of their policies and place renewable energy centre stage."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/09/ipcc-renewable-energy-power-world?&;
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A legally binding act by the UK government has pledged to halve carbon emissions by 2025 (compared to 1990 levels).

Opponents have set up legal provision for review of this target if they are not matched by other EU countries. Further UK targets are 60% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. This is the most ambitious legally binding emission reduction target set by any developed country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/17/uk-halve-carbon-emissions?&;


Targets were proposed by the UK Committee for Climate Change (CCC), a government body designed to take the politics out of climate change legislation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/may/17/carbon-budget-huhne-greenest-government?&;
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Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history.

Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/carbon-emissions-nuclearpower
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The year 2010 may have been the most extreme in terms of weather since the explosion of Indonesia's Mount Tambora in 1816

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/27/climate-change-extreme-weather-2010
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"He [Don Brash] says even if a case can be made that human activity is behind an increase in global temperatures, it is not obvious that this is necessarily a bad thing for the planet.
He says human societies thrive in both Singapore and in Finland, even though average temperatures in both places could hardly be more different."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10735481
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I now rate Brash a complete retard Neutral
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correct me if I'm wrong but did Brash just give the same speech hide has in the past?

I may be confused and it may be John banks

whatever its amusing in his and that parties patheticness
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Polling at what? 2% even? LOL. Broken the reserve Banks.
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President Obama has sent the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline back for re-review.

350.Org founder Bill McKibben has often stated that if this pipeline is built, by opening Canadian tarsand deposits to extraction it will mean "game over for climate change."

"It’s important to understand how unlikely this victory is. A month ago, a secret poll of “energy insiders” found that “virtually all” expected easy approval of the pipeline by year’s end. A done deal has come spectacularly undone. Our movement spoke loudly about climate change and President Obama responded. There have been few even partial victories about global warming in the United States in recent years, so that makes this an important day."
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The money needed to counter climate change is a fraction of that already spent bailing out the banks.

Yet when the banks want money they get it instantly. When the environment needs money no one can afford it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/dec/16/durban-banks-climate-change?CMP=EMCENVEML1631
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CO2 levles now reaching 400 ppm (350 is considered the safe limit)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/when-hitting-400-is-not-good-levels-of-key-greenhouse-gas-pass-milestone-trouble-scientists/2012/05/31/gJQAVvwP3U_story.html

Rio Earth Summit a few days away.
NZ part of a group who will argue for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Avaaz campaigning for fossil fuel subsidies to be redirected to renewables.

Expect no agreement or empty promises.

WWF report accuses NZ of "20 year of inaction" and breaking promises made at last Rio Summit in 1992.
National Environment Minister unable to see beyond issues of impression management ignores substantive conclusions of the report and accuses WWF of wanting to "bring down NZ's reputation."
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Wonder if JK is ever gonna address that WWF report?

p.s. I think new posts re this should be in The Lounge, it might get a bit tarded up but @ least there'll be some discussion
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That is, the meter or so of sea level rise predicted for the NC Coastal Resources Commission by a state-appointed board of scientists is extremely inconvenient for counties along the coast. So the NC-20 types have decided that we can escape sea level rise – in North Carolina, anyhow – by making it against the law. Or making MEASURING it against the law, anyhow.

Here’s a link to the circulated Replacement House Bill 819. http://www.nccoast.org/uploads/documents/CRO/2012-5/SLR-bill.pdf The key language is in section 2, paragraph e, talking about rates of sea level rise: “These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates of seas-level rise may be extrapolated linearly. …” It goes on, but there’s the core: North Carolina legislators have decided that the way to make exponential increases in sea level rise – caused by those inconvenient feedback loops we keep hearing about from scientists – go away is to make it against the law to extrapolate exponential; we can only extrapolate along a line predicted by previous sea level rises.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/05/30/nc-makes-sea-level-rise-illegal/
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Professor Richard Muller, one of the nation’s foremost climate change deniers, has finally changed his views on global warming thanks to a new study… his own.

The results of the BEST study are even more impressive considering the source. Charles Koch, one of the multi-billionaire brothers who are well known for bankrolling the campaign to deny climate change, funded the research in large part.


http://www.care2.com/causes/climate-change-deniers-own-study-changes-his-mind.html
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Arctic sea ice this summer 49% below the summer average for 1979-2000

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/


Ice scientist Professor Peter Wadhams predicts "final collapse" of Arctic sea ice in about four years

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/17/arctic-collapse-sea-ice


One impact of the melt will be accelerated warming due to heat absorbtion by the ocean - the equivalent of 20 years of human emissions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19496674


There is also a shitload of methane (a very vigorous greenhouse gas) frozen into the permafrost underneath that ice - which has already begun to bubble to the surface