The State of our Climate- It's Time to Move on From Fossil Fuels

Last year was the hottest year on record. Yes, the hottest. I know, it snowed a lot here, but that is not evidence to the contrary for those of you who want to go that route. The climate of our planet is moving in the wrong direction. While some would like to say this is an issue of solar cycles or a natural phenomenon, last year's solar cycle was weak.

Some want to deny what is happening. The incorrectly state that the Antarctic is gaining ice, and that proves we're not in the midst of a catastrophe. We are though. In the Arctic, the situation is even worse.

We are slowly killing the Earth. Our actions are creating a warming climate that will destroy parts of our Earth. It's not just climate change though. Our behavior is causing alarming trends in our oceans as well. Everything from ocean-floor mining to acid rain is a part of the problem. We just continue to be bad stewards of the planet we live on, and wonder why bad stuff is happening.

We don't have to be like this though. We can move in another direction, and we have begun to. There are now as many jobs in solar as in coal in America. Obviously this is a good development, but one that has to continue to move in that direction. America, and the world, need to get off of fossil fuels. It will be better for our climate, obviously, but also better for the quality of the air we breathe. Moving into clean renewals will help turn back the tide of acid rains, and the impact they have both on us on the ground, and in the oceans. Aside from all the environmental impacts, it also is an economic issue- new industries create new jobs, and fossil fuels are a finite resource that eventually have to cost more. It's time for us as a human race to move on from these awful sources of energy. We must do better.

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The Worst New Chairman?

Senator Jim Inhofe will now lead the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. Quite clearly, that has impacts on U.S. environmental policy. For instance, his statement on last night's agreement with China:

"In the President's climate change deal, the United States will be required to more steeply reduce our carbon emissions while China won't have to reduce anything. It's hollow and not believable for China to claim it will shift 20 percent of its energy to non-fossil fuels by 2030, and a promise to peak its carbon emissions only allows the world's largest economy to buy time. China builds a coal-fired power plant every 10 days, is the largest importer of coal in the world, and has no known reserves of natural gas. This deal is a non-binding charade. The American people spoke against the President's climate policies in this last election. They want affordable energy and more economic opportunity, both which are being diminished by overbearing EPA mandates. As we enter a new Congress, I will do everything in my power to reign in and shed light on the EPA's unchecked regulations.”

Summarizing that: MOARRR COALLLLL! MOARRR OILLLLL! YUM, GASOLINE!

In all seriousness, Inhofe might be the worst chairman in the new U.S. Senate. While John McCain is a lunatic and Jeff Sessions wants to shut down the government, Inhofe will lead environmental policy, and he doesn't believe in climate change. The non-scientist (his words, not mine) says it's all a hoax, because somebody hates gas companies or something. He compares the EPA to the Gestapo, for what that's worth. Huffington Post chronicles some of his greatest stupid statements about the environment:

While other Republicans are mocked for dodging the the truth about climate change -- I'm not a scientist -- Inhofe thinks the topic is a moot point. "Nobody has uttered the term 'global warming' since 2009," he says. This assertion, while intensely dumb, is actually less embarrassing than others he's made in the past. Here's a collection of his wisdom on the topic:

Don't worry about climate change, Jesus is in charge.

• God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.

Environmental regulation reminds him of Hitler.

• What this country does not need is another Gestapo bureaucracy like the EPA

• It kind of reminds... I could use the Third Reich, the Big Lie. You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy... A hot summer has nothing to do with global warming. Let's keep in mind it was just three weeks ago that people were saying, 'Wait a minute; it is unusually cool.'

Climate change can't be true if it costs money to fix.

• Addressing Rachel Maddow about the validity of climate science:
I was actually on your side of this issue when I was chairing that committee and I first heard about this. I thought it must be true until I found out what it cost.

Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Weather Channel and Hollywood elites.

It's all about money. I mean, what would happen to the Weather Channel's ratings if all the sudden people weren't scared anymore?

Climate change is good for you!

The claim that global warming is caused by manmade emissions is simply untrue and not based on sound science. CO2 does not actually cause catastrophic disasters. Actually, it would be beneficial to our environment and the economy.

In fact, increased CO2 emissions will help you live longer!

First of all, the one degree Fahrenheit rise coincided with the greatest advancement of living standards, life expectancy, food production and human health in the history of our planet. So it is hard to argue that the global warming we experienced in the 20th century was somehow negative.

And never forget, science is for suckers.

With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.

All the scientists are wrong my friends- just listen to the Senator from Oklahoma, who's not a scientist... 

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The Importance of the U.S.-China Pact on Climate Change

Last night, Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping made a historic agreement to curb climate change.

President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would move much faster in cutting pollution, with a goal to reduce by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. Earlier in his presidency, Obama set a goal to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country's emissions are still growing as it builds new coal plants, didn't commit to cut emissions by a specific amount. Rather, he set a target for China's emission to peak by 2030, or earlier if possible. He also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels.

I know, you're sitting there saying, so? So here's the importance of this deal. First off, this is a more ambitious set of cuts to carbon emissions by America than we've really ever done. President Obama's previous goal was 17% cuts by 2020. This is a much larger cut, and means an even larger investment into green energy.

We are the big dog in polluting, sure, but China is where it's important. China is still developing and industrializing. They are the polluter that is growing, so to get them to the table at all was crucial. By setting a goal and a cap date, President Xi Jinping just changed the entire discussion of our environmental future. From the White House email:

Building on the progress we've already made, the U.S. will set a new target of cutting our net greenhouse gas emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. And President Xi announced new plans to increase the share of renewable energy and nuclear power that China uses to roughly 20% by 2030 -- up from only 8% in 2009 -- and, for the first time, set a target for when China will max out its carbon emissions.

The U.S. and China together account for more than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions -- so together, we have an especially important role to play in fighting climate change.

Or, to more succinctly put this, from Crooked Timber's post "Planet Saved... In Brisbane":

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the agreement announced today by Barack Obama and Xi Jinping to limit US and Chinese greenhouse gas emissions. The limits are significant in themselves: not enough to guarantee stabilization of greenhouse gas levels at the agreed target of 450 ppm, but enough that we can get there just by ratcheting up an existing agreement rather than by looking for something new. 

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