The moment of truth

With around 1,000 pages to digest, only the most committed of climate policy wonks can give you an an honest assessment of the just-released draft of H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey bill that may or may not get the U.S. on the road to climate repair. Reaction so far is, predictably enough, mixed.

Greenpeace hates its, claiming that it would, at best, cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 4 and 7% below 1990 levels by 2020. Congress should, therefore, go back to the drawing boards.

Al Gore and company have chosen to back the bill -- and they want everyone associated with his Climate Project and the Alliance for Climate Protection to lobby for its safe passage through Congress -- not because it's a good bill, but because it's the only game in town and we can't afford the time to start over from square one. Better something that at least points us in the right direction even if it doesn't have enough gas in tank to get us where we need to go or sufficient power to move us fast enough.

Joe Romm has more details than most, at Climate Progress.

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The sad thing is the current bill is likely to get watered down more as it passes through the Senate since every bill is filibustered these days.

We hear of secret talks with the US & China on CC and that mass migration due to climate change has already begun...

>>>
Huang is one of millions of Chinese eco-refugees who have been resettled because their home environments degraded to the point where they were no longer fit for human habitation. The government says more than 150 million people will have to be moved. Water shortages exacerbated by over-irrigation and climate change are the main cause.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/china-ecorefugees-farming

We hear of secret talks with the US & China on CC and that mass migration due to climate change has already begun...

>>>
Huang is one of millions of Chinese eco-refugees who have been resettled because their home environments degraded to the point where they were no longer fit for human habitation. The government says more than 150 million people will have to be moved. Water shortages exacerbated by over-irrigation and climate change are the main cause.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/china-ecorefugees-farming