On E2, Nike, eBay and others are asking Senators to “get stalled climate and energy legislation back on track.”
Reuters reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will start analyzing the comprehensive climate and clean energy bill. “The EPA analysis is an important step in the legislative process.” “We are sending the bill to be modeled now with Lindsey Graham’s consent,” Senator Kerry told reporters.
Green Inc. focuses on a new EPA report released yesterday called “Climate Change Indicators in the United States.” The report is full of interesting data points and graphics including:
- “The portion of North America covered by snow has generally decreased since 1972, although there has been much year-to-year variability. Snow covered an average of 3.18 million square miles of North America during the years 2000 to 2008, compared with 3.43 million square miles during the 1970s.”
- “In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities increased by 14 percent from 1990 to 2008.”
Gernot Wagner, EDF economist notes:
“The EPA report is a terrific reminder of the fact that climate change is not some distant phenomenon our grand kids may or may not experience. We can already see some of the direct effects all around us. It’s also good reminder of the certainties among the sea of uncertainties surrounding climate change. We don’t know all the details, but the general direction has become increasingly clear. And the parts we don’t know are even scarier.”
Graph from EPA report Climate Change Indicators in the United States
