Climate 411

Claim:

“If anything, there is a case to be made that Congress is kind of rushing on the whole cap and trade legislation. Henry Waxman has said that he wants a bill out by Memorial Day. Barbara Boxer says she wants a bill out of the Senate by a similar time…

“Not surprisingly, people are fixated on the economy. Obama is fixated on the economy. This seems like a low level thing, even though scientists are saying we really need to cut emissions quickly. I think there’s a real case to be made for splitting this up and waiting until later this year or early next year on cap and trade until Obama can really focus his full attention on it and do what’s possible in the meantime.”

— Bradford Plumer, Assistant Editor at The New Republic, March 19, 2009

Truth:

While Bradford Plummer isn’t an opponent of global warming action, the question “Why rush this?” is one we hear a lot from many of those who are.

But it’s a very thin reed to stand on. We’ve debated and debated and debated the need for global warming for more than a generation.

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Claim:

“Why all of a sudden is there so much money for, like, global warming? Why is that so high on the president’s agenda? Why are they trying to shut down every coal plant? Have you checked the temperature lately? The new budget contains a cap-and-trade program that is supposed to limit carbon dioxide emissions. Oh, the trees will love it. But if it performs anywhere near as well as the one in Europe — because that one’s great — it will likely limit nothing except corporate profits and economic growth.

“…So, if we’re worried about the economy, why is that there? Remember one thing: The problem is the solution. The answer to why we’re talking about global warming is contained right there in the name — global. Global warming fits perfectly with a global New Deal, because they’re both focused on solving everyone’s problems all at once — controlling your life globally — while ensuring that America takes on the majority of the world’s burden.”

— Glenn Beck, the Glenn Beck show on Fox News, March 3, 2009

Truth:

The conspiracy theorists are out in force when it comes to global warming action, and Glenn Beck’s quote captures the sentiment perfectly.

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Claim:

“We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Iceland, which is now green. Oh I love this. Like we know what this planet is all about. How long have we been here? How long? Not very long.”

– RNC Chairman Michael Steele, guest-hosting Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio show, March 6, 2009

Truth:

If you looked up “Train Wreck” in the dictionary, do you think this quote would appear?

Hard to know where to begin with this.

As we’ve posted before, the planet is not cooling. Yes, 2008 was cooler than 2007, but it was still one of the top ten warmest years on record. And, the warmest decade on record is the last ten years.

Here is a graphic from our Climate 411 blog that shows the extent of the current warming trend:

Folks who claim that the planet is cooling simply don’t know what they’re talking about.

Oh, and as for why Greenland is called Greenland when it’s mostly covered in ice, it’s an interesting historical story. It turns out that Viking settlers used the inviting name to entice more settlers to join them. In reality, Greenland’s ice cap is hundreds of thousands of years old and covers more than 4/5 of the land.

The rest of Steele’s quote kind of loses, um, focus. Not sure how to politely respond.

Claim

“‘Cap-and-trade’ is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs and raising energy costs for consumers.”

– Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader, March 9, 2009

Truth

Opponents of global warming action certainly have their sound bites down.

For style and efficiency, Rep. Boehner gets an A (in 17 words, he certainly makes his point). For truth-telling, he gets a big fat F.

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FreedomWorks, a conservative inside-the-Beltway grassroots organization run by former House Majority Leader Dick Army (R-TX), recently released its Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Cap and Trade.

Their unsound arguments are standard fare for the climate skeptic cognoscenti. They rely on studies from hyper-conservative organizations with a history of catering to industry, while omitting more widely accepted studies, such as those from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It’s also clear from their list that they don’t have a specific problem with a proposal to cap global warming pollution, but rather with climate action in general—suggesting that they believe nothing should be done to address this crisis.

We respond to each of their arguments after the jump.

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Claim:

“This [economic] crisis puts the nail in the coffin for climate change.”

— Bill Kovacs, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s division for environmental and regulatory affairs, October 17, 2008.

Truth:

Economic studies suggest not only that capping America’s global warming pollution would result in negligible new economic costs, but also that not acting would result in a huge economic burden on our economy.

Solving global warming and reinventing America’s energy infrastructure isn’t going to be free. It is likely that under a cap, energy prices will go up for some Americans in the short term.

Depending on how the policy is designed, though, these increases are relatively modest and can be offset by changes in energy consumption and through subsidies generated through the cap program to reduce the impact of additional energy costs.