Obama left with little time to curb global warming

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sacbee.com/832/story/1473061.html

Obama left with little time to curb global warming

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
Published: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008

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.

"The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over," he said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. "We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way."

But there are powerful political and economic realities that must be quickly overcome for Obama to succeed. Despite the urgency he expresses, it's not at all clear that he and Congress will agree on an approach during a worldwide financial crisis in time to meet some of the more crucial deadlines.

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[laconicsax]

1. Why is everyone up in arms about this? He said he'd take care of this by 2020

He pledged setting a cap on CO₂ emissions to 1990 levels to take effect by 2020 and reducing that amount by 2050. He's on it.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Is your post intended to be ironic?

(It's so hard to tell sometimes.)

What I mean to ask is, do you believe:

1. Obama will be able to keep his pledge? (especially considering the financial situation.)
2. That cuts of that level are achievable?
3. That cuts of the magnitude he has proposed, on the timetable he has proposed are sufficient?

[laconicsax]

3. Yes, No, Conditionally Yes, No.

-It was meant to be ironic.
-He won't be able to keep his pledge because even if he's a two-termer, it will rely on as many as 10 successive Presidents sticking to it to make it a reality. Proposing something to take effect 34 years after you'll be out of office is political posturing, not real change.
-Cuts of that level should be achievable if his energy plan is implemented in earnest by every single president who takes office after him.
-The magnitude is woefully inadequate. We've been seeing headlines for the past year stating that we've passed the point of no return and all he's proposing is setting one goal to take effect in 12 years and another 30 years after that.

His plan to leave it for whoever succeeds him to finish the job. Every single goal he sets is on at least a 10-year timetable.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/EnvironmentFactSheet.pdf