Obama on Climate Change
See the interview
“Science is science... And there is no doubt that if we burned all the fossil fuel that’s in the ground right now that the planet’s going to get too hot and the consequences could be dire.”
“We’re not going to be able to burn it all. Over the course of the next several decades, we’re going to have to build a ramp from how we currently use energy to where we need to use energy. And we’re not going to suddenly turn off a switch and suddenly we’re no longer using fossil fuels, but we have to use this time wisely, so that you have a tapering off of fossil fuels replaced by clean energy sources that are not releasing carbon. ... But I very much believe in keeping that 2 [degree] Celsius target as a goal.”
Climate change “is going to be one of the most significant long-term challenges” the nation faces, said Mr. Obama.
“. ... I don’t always lead with the climate change issue because if you right now are worried about whether you’ve got a job or if you can pay the bills, the first thing you want to hear is how do I meet the immediate problem? One of the hardest things in politics is getting a democracy to deal with something now where the payoff is long term or the price of inaction is decades away. ….”
“is how climate change could end up having profound national security implications in poorer countries. ….. But when you start seeing how these shifts can displace people — entire countries can be finding themselves unable to feed themselves and the potential incidence of conflict that arises out of that — that gets your attention. There’s a reason why the quadrennial defense review — [which] the secretary of defense and the Joints Chiefs of Staff work on — identified climate change as one of our most significant national security problems. It’s not just the actual disasters that might arise, it is the accumulating stresses that are placed on a lot of different countries and the possibility of war, conflict, refugees, displacement that arise from a changing climate.”
What is the one thing you would still like to see us do to address climate change? Said Obama: put a price on carbon.
The way we’ve solved previous problems, like acid rain, he noted, “was that we said: ‘We’re going to charge you if you’re releasing this stuff into the atmosphere, but we’re going to let you figure out — with the marketplace and with the technology’ ” how best to mitigate it. But “you can’t keep dumping it out in the atmosphere and making everybody else pay for it. So if there’s one thing I would like to see, it’d be for us to be able to price the cost of carbon emissions. ... We’ve obviously seen resistance from the Republican side of the aisle on that. And out of fairness, there’s some Democrats who’ve been concerned about it as well, because regionally they’re very reliant on heavy industry and old-power plants. ... I still believe, though, that the more we can show the price of inaction — that billions and potentially trillions of dollars are going to be lost because we do not do something about it — ultimately leads us to be able to say, ‘Let’s go ahead and help the marketplace discourage this kind of activity.’ ”
Obama tells graduates that denying climate change is like arguing the moon is made of cheese
President Barack Obama said denying climate change is like arguing the moon is made of cheese, as he issued a call to action on global warming to Saturday's graduates of the University of California, Irvine.
Obama issued the call to the tens of thousands gathered at Angel Stadium even though he said Congress "is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence" and say climate change is a hoax or fad.
Prime Minister Harper and Prime Minister Abbott from Australia spoke about climate change
The two leaders didn’t talk about the need to urgently address a crisis, which is already causing the unstoppable melting of the Antarctic ice shelf that will raise global sea levels over ten feet, forcing the evacuation of many island nations.
They didn’t talk about the more frequent and intense extreme weather events ravaging the planet.
And they didn’t talk about increased warnings from the global scientific community that we need to take robust and immediate action to mitigate climate change or the UN Climate Chief statement that - we need to keep 3/4rds of the worlds remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground in order to have a chance at stabilizing the planet.
Instead, Prime Minister Harper and Prime Minister Abbott talked about the need to find ‘allies’ to help thwart U.S. President Obama in his attempts to get the world to take action on a growing climate crisis.
They also talked about how we shouldn’t take any action on climate change if it has the potential to hurt the economy.
Despite Protests, Canada Approves Northern Gateway Oil Pipeline
The Canadian government’s approval of a major pipeline running from the Alberta oil sands to a new port on the coast of British Columbia has intensified opposition from aboriginal groups, environmentalists and community advocates.
The Northern Gateway project, which the government approved on Tuesday as expected, would send heavy, oil-bearing bitumen to Asia, giving Canadian producers better access to the world markets. The pipeline, being built by Enbridge, has been championed by the federal government as a way to diversify Canada’s energy industry from its current dependence on exports to the United States.
But opponents in British Columbia, who span the political spectrum, threatened to block the pipeline altogether. The fear is that the pipeline would make the province vulnerable to an oil spill, damaging the rugged and scenic coastline.
8 of 12 LIBERAL candidates that signed the pledge have been elected
Pledge for Action on Climate Change - for Ontario Election. We can now follow and check if they act on their pledge. See the list of who signed
Brampton – Springdale - Harinder Malhi
Etobicoke – Lakeshore - Peter Milczyn
Halton - Indira Naidoo-Harris
Thornhill - Sandra Yeung Racco
Thunder Bay - Superior North - Michael Gravelle
Willowdale - David Zimmer
York West - Mario Sergio
York Centre - Monte Kwinter
