Obama's energy secretary outlines dire climate change scenario
- From: Harry Hope <rivrvu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:31:37 -0500
A number of leading Republicans remain implacably opposed to the very
idea that global warming exists.
From The Guardian, 2/4/09:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/04/steven-chu-obama-climate-change-drought
Obama's energy secretary outlines dire climate change scenario
Steve Chu's warning the clearest sign to date of the greening of
America's political class under Obama
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Barack Obama's point man on energy issued a wake-up call today,
warning that California with its agricultural bounty could be reduced
to a dust bowl and its cities disappear unless there is timely action
on climate change.
The apocalyptic scenario sketched out by Steve Chu, the Nobel laureate
appointed as energy secretary, was the clearest sign to date of the
greening of America's political class under Obama.
In blunt and frightening language, Chu said Americans had yet to fully
understand the urgency of dealing with climate change.
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could
happen," he told the Los Angeles Times in his first interview since
taking the post.
"We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in
California."
He added:
"I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going."
California's department of water resources warned last week that the
state could be facing its worst drought in modern history, because of
reduced snow pack.
Chu's doomsday descriptions were seen today as further evidence that,
after eight years of denial under George Bush, the Obama White House
recognises the severity of climate change.
Chu is not a climate scientist, and won his Nobel for his work on
lasers.
But he was well known at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs for his
outspoken concern about climate change and his commitment to
developing clean energy before Obama appointed him as energy
secretary.
The language, though stark, was in step with a co-ordinated effort by
Obama officials and Democrats in Congress to project an image of
consensus among policy makers in Washington on the need to move
America away from fossil fuels and reduce green house gas emissions.
Chu in his interview with the LA Times said raising public awareness
was crucial to that transformation.
"I'm hoping that the American people will wake up."
He blamed warmer temperatures for the acceleration in California's
natural cycle of droughts.
Global warming had caused a decline and evaporation of the Sierra
mountain snowpack, which had served as a natural storage system for
the spring run-off that helped irrigate California's valleys and
provided water to its cities.
Chu said up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, eliminating
those sources of water.
Scientists have long cited the declining spring run-off as a
contributing cause of California's wildfires.
California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has blamed climate
change for making forest fires a year-round threat.
California's department of water resources said last week that the
state's snow pack was at 61% of normal.
The reduction is especially worrying because of the severely dry
spring of 2008, leaving the state with little water in reserve.
Two dozen local water agencies have already imposed rationing.
There are heightened concerns about water shortages in the west and
upper mid-west as well.
Earlier this year, the journal Science warned of worldwide crop
shortages because of rising temperatures.
Obama ran a strongly green presidential campaign, pledging to cut
greenhouse gas emissions 80% by mid-century.
He made his first move to redeeming that promise last week when he
ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its refusal,
when George Bush was president, to allow California and 13 other
states regulate car exhaust emissions.
He also directed the transport the auto industry to produce cars that
get 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
His warning came amid a burst of activity in Washington meant to
demonstrate the end of the George Bush era on the environment.
In the two weeks since Obama's inauguration, there have been almost
daily meetings and conferences on the environment on Capitol Hill and
elsewhere.
After the Bush era, when science and concern about the environment
took a back seat to ideology and business interests, administration
officials have taken it almost as their mantra that they put science
above politics in dealing with climate change.
They also say they will press hard to retain green measures in the
economic rescue package now before Congress, and for legislation
regulating green house gas emissions later this year.
Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate's environment and public works
committee, said yesterday she hoped to produce a draft bill reducing
green house gas emissions by the end of this year.
Henry Waxman, her counterpart in the House of Representatives, has set
an even more ambitious target, saying he aims to have a draft out of
the committee by the end of May.
_________________________________________________________
Harry
.
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