On July 11, the Bush administration again refused to address global warming. This time they defied the Supreme Court by issuing a request for additional comments - an "Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" -- on global warming regulations, rather than the so-called "endangerment determination" that the Court's ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA compelled and senior Environmental Protection Agency officials had argued for.
"(Friday's) action caps off eight years of catastrophic negligence on the part of an increasingly irrelevant administration, and removes whatever shadow of a doubt that may have existed about whether it was going to fail to live up to its obligations to the American public, the law, and the Supreme Court to do something real on global warming," said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club chief climate counsel.
"The American public, Congress, world leaders, and even career government officials are counting down the days until this administration leaves town and a new president undoes the damage done by President Bush and makes up for nearly a decade of lost time -- time we didn't have to waste in the first place. And the first thing the next administration will do is toss the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking into the circular file."
Read more about the Bush Administration's legacy of global warming inaction and meddling in this Washington Post article.
New Climate Justice Fact Sheet Released
No community should bear disproportionate risks of harm because of their demographics or economic condition -- but that is what will happen with global warming if we don't take action.
The Sierra Club just released a new fact sheet about this issue, entitled "Global Warming and Environmental Justice: The Burden on Vulnerable Populations." Go to our fact sheets page to read it and learn more about the problems and the solutions.
Global Warming Problems and Global Warming Solutions
Speaking of problems and solutions we have two news articles of note this week. First up, global warming means much more extreme heat waves, according to a study from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. From the article: "(The) numbers are blistering because of the drying-out effect of a warming world. Most global warming research focuses on average daily temperatures instead of these extremes, which cause greater damage."
And then we come to a Los Angeles Times article about scientist Carl Hodges, who's using saltwater to grow a crop that could help with energy issues. A way to use rising oceans to power the world? Perhaps. Read it!