Time Running Out for Obama to Curb Global Warming (Fox News)

[underpants]

Source: Fox News

The urgency of problems related to global warming are increasing at a rapid pace and will no doubt prove to be a matter of urgency for President-elect Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON -- When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid.

Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it.

After years of inaction on global warming, 2009 might be different. Obama replaces a president who opposed mandatory cuts of greenhouse gas pollution and it appears he will have a willing Congress. Also, next year, diplomats will try to agree on a major new international treaty to curb the gases that promote global warming.

In the early 1990s, many scientists figured that the world was about a century away from a truly dangerous amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, said Mike MacCracken, who was a top climate scientist in the Clinton administration. But as they studied the greenhouse effect further, scientists realized that harmful changes kick in at far lower levels of carbon dioxide than they thought. Now some scientists, but not all, say the safe carbon dioxide level for Earth is about 10 percent below what it is now.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/14/time-running-obama-curb-global-warming/

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The average global temperature in 2008 is likely to wind up slightly under 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit, about a tenth of a degree cooler than last year. When Clinton was inaugurated, 57.9 easily would have been the warmest year on record. Now, that temperature would qualify as only the ninth warmest year.

[Bicoastal]

1. Great Headline, FAUX....

...implying that, if the climate doesn't improve immediately, it's all Obama's fault! :eyes:

[Turborama]

7. As much as I despise Faux "News"...

it's actually quite a good AP piece that they've commandeered...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_sc/global_warming_obama

[undeterred]

2. "After years of inaction on global warming"

After years of denial by the idiot President George W. Bush" What, is FOX unable to say his name?

[Idealism]

3. Sly like a Fox...

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Where's the "Time Ran Out For Bush To Address Country's Problems!" headline?

[MasonJar]

5. What can one say but FOX News.

[Beartracks]

6. LOL - Bush isn't mentioned at all!

I'm confused, who is the "president who opposed mandatory cuts of greenhouse gas pollution"?

[laconicsax]

11. Who?

[underpants]

12. I actually thought he was (I posted it) then I re-read it

After years of inaction on global warming, 2009 might be different.

Nope no mention of Bush.

[jetphixer]

8. Global Warming???

Did this Global Warming Just register with FIX news or Did Oriley just get a scoop the planet is warming?? Or is this Hanety's discovery ?? Wow these folks there at Fix news are sure on top of stuff huh!!

[geckosfeet]

9. Suddenly the faux boys are worried about global warming? Are they

going to have Al Gore on for an interview on the topic?

[bluestateguy]

10. Fox is a little more moderate on the global warming issue

They have actually taken some heat from the deniers for being too "liberal" on the issue.

[Jkid]

13. My advice to Obama regarding global warming...

1.Start a crash course program for renewable energy.
2. Keep the oil in the ground.

[underpants]

16. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[hatrack]

14. But during the Chimp's term, "Urgency, Schmurgency"

What a pantload of bullshit, bias and non-news. But then, it's Fox.

[mikehiggins]

15. Say, wasn't there somebody who was President after Clinton? I

mean besides the President Elect Barack Obama? Wasn't there somebody who sat on his hands from 2000 until this very moment, whose name WASN'T Clinton?

Who could it be?

Seriously, if Obama doesn't work hard at reestablishing the Fairness Doctrine, and limiting any one company's ability to own multiple media outlets in the same region, he'll be doing himself, his administration and his nation a vast disservice.

These clowns, bozos and liars have to be held to account, and the corporate interests who underwrite them exposed to public view, like turning on the ceiling light in a room filled with roaches.

The battle may seem to be going our way, but this is just one battle. There is still a war entire to fight out if we are going to end up with a progressive society.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. FAUX NOISE has a very convenient memory....

[quidam56]

18. HANNITY' AMERICA sure isn't MY AMERICA !

Doofus had a panel from the UK on his show tonight debunking global warming. Thanks to the likes of Hannity, Presidebt Bush and THE COAL INDUSTRY, my America is third world America. http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. AP: President George Macavity Bush

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

It's AP who's made Bush magically disappear - 5 mentions of Clinton, 1 of Bush, and 7 of Obama in the article - it's available outside Fox: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIzrPqdvJqy4JbHGIy2pXpZCvpggD952LKOO1

[Psephos]

20. The AP story on which this is based is deeply flawed

Incredibly, the writer, Seth Borenstein, based his assertions upon the discredited James Hansen report where datasets from warmer years were mistakenly copied into more recent years. Hansen himself admits the error, and attributed it to overwork.

The actual ten warmest years in US records were (in order): 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, 1939.

I am not disputing climate change. (Check my previous posts if that calms your nerves.)

I *am* saying the AP story is an execrable piece of science writing. If we don't weed this kind of hack reporting out of our arguments, the other guys will, and will use it as a broad brush to discredit good science.

[grantdevine]

21. "datasets from warmer years were mistakenly copied into more recent years"

I don't recall that. I do recall a small adjustment that they'd forgotten to apply, but that doesn't sound like what you're describing.

If you can find a link to what you're referring to I'd appreciate it.

[grantdevine]

22. I think you may be confused between the US and the world. The story is correct...

...if it's talking about the globe, which it seems to be.

This story in science daily is from December 2007 lists World Meteorological Organization findings about the hottest years globally:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071213101419.htm

The data tweaking that changed up the hottest years in the US only occurred some months before the World Meteorological Organization findings.

If anything, the AP story should have said 11 years, not 10.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Indeed; the corrections didn't alter the order of 'warmest year for the 48 states'

A minor data processing error found in the GISS temperature analysis in early 2007 does not affect the present analysis. The data processing flaw was failure to apply NOAA adjustments to United States Historical Climatology Network stations in 2000-2006, as the records for those years were taken from a different data base (Global Historical Climatology Network). This flaw affected only 1.6% of the Earth’s surface (contiguous 48 states) and only the several years in the 21st century.

The data processing flaw did not alter the ordering of the warmest years on record and the global ranks were unaffected. In the contiguous 48 states, the statistical tie among 1934, 1998 and 2005 as the warmest year(s) was unchanged. In the current analysis, in the flawed analysis, and in the published GISS analysis, 1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states (but not globally) by an amount (magnitude of the order of 0.01°C) that is an order of magnitude smaller than the certainty.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth_temp.html

[No Elephants]

23. Someone please remind me: How many stories on global warming did Fox do between 2000 and 11/4/2008?