Talk about a climate change.
The wind is blowing in a new direction in the nation’s capital on global warming, and it’s not just because Democrats have taken control of Congress. Republican Sen. John McCain, the early front-runner for the GOP’s 2008 presidential nomination, is co-sponsoring legislation that would cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by two-thirds by 2050. Two of his co-sponsors are Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
Other congressional Republicans, already distancing themselves from the Bush administration over its Iraq war policy, are racing to the microphones to voice their support for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Even corporate leaders are calling for mandatory caps, recognizing the problem’s gravity and fearing that state action will create a patchwork of confusing regulations.
President Bush himself, long the skeptic-in-chief when it comes to humanity’s role in global warming, has modified his view. He remains opposed to mandatory caps, though, insisting they would harm the economy and that new technologies can be developed to deal with the problem less expensively. It’s an increasingly lonely stand, further undermined by the administration’s apparent practice of toning down government scientists’ reports to downplay the threat of global warming.
Evidence that people and their machines are causing potentially disastrous climate change continues to mount. Global temperatures are higher than they’ve been in thousands of years, and the past 30 years have seen more rapid warming. Some 500 climate scientists meeting in Paris this week are expected to issue a sobering new report on global warming’s affect on sea levels, which will no doubt intensify the debate in Congress.
Global warming is not a hoax. Scientists might not agree on how damaging it could be, but the vast majority agree humanity must act. As the planet’s No. 1 polluter, the United States must lead the way.
State and local initiatives to reduce emissions already are under way, but they can do only so much. The federal government must take the lead in making a meaningful difference. Whether that can happen before Bush leaves office still seems a long shot. Opposition from polluting industries and their congressional allies remains formidable.
But there is no longer doubt that addressing global warming will be a leading issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, one that every candidate will have to address prominently and in detail. Polls show voters are way ahead of the president on this one, and the candidates know it.
The political wind has finally shifted – in the right direction.
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