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USA’s federal government has duty to address climate change

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 leaves no doubt that it is the federal government’s responsibility to help the nation mitigate climate change. In that act, Congress declared the federal government should “use all practicable means to the end that the Nation may fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations.”……..Some argue that as we struggle to get the economy back to full strength, we cannot afford to address these problems. The reality is, we can’t afford not to……

At the Crossroads: Floods, Fires and Another Teachable Moment, THE HUFFINGTON POST, William S. Becker, 3 Feb 2011, Like the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the extreme weather events occurring worldwide offer a teachable moment on the need to address climate change. …….This issue is not new to science or to our national leaders. In 1964, the National Academy of Sciences issued a study that recognized the possibility of “inadvertent weather modification” caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee warned him that by the year 2000, there would be 25 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In the words of the Committee, the continued use of fossil fuels “will modify the heat balance of the atmosphere to such an extent that marked changes in climate, not controllable through local or even national efforts, could occur.”

Later that year, President Johnson issued a special message to Congress. “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale,” he said, “through a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”………

By 1979, our most respected scientists had become even more certain about this threat. The National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences issued this conclusion: “The close linkage between man’s welfare and the climate regime within which his society has evolved suggests that such climatic changes would have a profound impact on human society.”

Findings like these led to the creation in 1988 of the largest scientific study ever undertaken by the international community: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC. As its work progressed, the IPCC concluded with an uncommon degree of scientific certainty that global climate change is real. Recent challenges about the Panel’s work have led to several independent investigations that have not altered the IPCC’s core conclusions……..

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 leaves no doubt that it is the federal government’s responsibility to help the nation mitigate climate change. In that act, Congress declared the federal government should “use all practicable means to the end that the Nation may fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations.”…

Some argue that as we struggle to get the economy back to full strength, we cannot afford to address these problems. The reality is, we can’t afford not to……

…. extreme events consistent with climate change are evident. Last year was the second-worst on record for natural disasters around the world. We saw devastating floods that put a fifth of Pakistan under water, killing nearly 2,000 people and affecting 20 million more. The floods jeopardized the stability of a nuclear-armed nation. We saw unprecedented flooding in Australia where waters climbed 30 feet above flood level and forced 200,000 people to evacuate their homes………

William S. Becker: At the Crossroads: Floods, Fires and Another Teachable Moment

February 3, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, history, USA