Global Warming Politics, Environment, and Animal Stories of the Day

Some top global warming and environmental news from the last day or so:

Global Warming & Environmental Politics

Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters

Over on ecopolitology, Sierra Club’s Michael Brune had a good piece on why it’s time to put people ahead of polluters.

Senate 2012 Race & Tea Partiers

The conservative right is getting increasingly challenged by the extremely conservative right (Tea Partiers) and even long-time politicians are having their seats in Congress taken away or seriously challenged. Jeremy Bloom of our sister site Red, Green, and Blue looks out how the Senate 2012 race is shaping up in regards to this issue.

Harrison Schmitt is Out!

Yes, we are covering this guy again, but from a surprisingly different angle. The former astronaut gone climate science denier and disinformer who was selected by Gov. Susana Martinez to head up the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department has decided to step back and not take the position after all… because he didn’t want to allow the state-mandated background check as it was proposed. Hmm…

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson “Faces Down GOP Critics”

In her first appearance before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee since Republicans took the House, Lisa Jackson urged the committee to not try to overturn a scientific finding based on political ideology.Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) also mentioned a letter President Bush’s science advisor had written advocating for the same approach the EPA is taking now. “The science hasn’t changed in the last two years; in fact it has only gotten stronger,” he said in his opening statement. “Yet somehow belief in science has become another partisan battleground.”

New Clean Air Act Could Create 1.5 Million Jobs

While Republicans in Congress and elsewhere try to convince the world that EPA action to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions would harm the economy, another report has come out showing that such regulations would create jobs not hurt them. Seriously, let’s get the record straight, the only reason Republicans (and some democrats) oppose such regulation is because the polluting companies that hired them (ahem,.. i mean, got them elected to office) don’t want the regulations.

Changing Clean Air Act to Dirty Air Act Really Would Cost Us

With too many Congressman who only care about the money they get from oil and coal companies stuck with their head in the sand, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition got up and showed their commitment to public health and job creation on the House floor recently. At least some members of Congress have common sense and are willing to stand up for what helps the U.S. citizenry.

Newt Gingrich: Doesn’t Want to Tear Down/Destroy/Eliminate EPA, Just Replace It (Say What?)

Oh my, who knows how the world works in Newt Gingrich’s mind, he can’t even connect the closest of dots. Counter to the wishes of 77% of the population, Gingrich wants to replace the Environmental Protection Agency with the Environmental Solutions Agency… but that somehow doesn’t mean that we would need to “tear-down, destroy or eliminate” the EPA. So, how does he want to go about it?… How can you replace the EPA without tearing it down/eliminating it/destroying it? Here’s the video with Gingrich’s statement:

The Ridiculous Charles Krauthammer

Have you seen the video clip of this science denier circulating with him saying that global warming is a religion and not based in science? Unfortunately, this guy is actually a Washington Post columnist. He is so off his rocker I don’t know how people can take him seriously. Joe Romm recently picked apart and highlighted some of his more absurd claims as well as his global warming disinformation.

Global Weirding

Pro snowboarder Nate Holland is featured in a video on the Alliance for Climate Education’s website talking about the lack of snow at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2011 World Championships, as well as the disappearance of the world’s glaciers.

Warming Ocean Means Sea Creatures Can’t Develop Properly

As we’ve covered before, many sea creatures can’t develop their critical skeletons of the oceans continue warming and acidifying as they have been. New research out of Australia confirms this for us once again.

Animals

League of Cruel Sports Video Blog: Preparing for Hunting Act Birthday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba4CuLfrwiU

The description from the YouTube page: “Mary reports on a defeat to plans to reintroduce hare coursing in Northern Ireland, whilst Katy reports on the Quantock Staghounds case where an appeal against conviction has been dropped. Check out our new Hunting Act avatar campaign, too.”

Hunt Thugs

So horrible:

We’ve just received yet another shocking report of hunt brutality, and I want to share it with everyone on this blog as a reminder of the true nature of hunters and their ilk. Behind their carefully constructed public personas, most hunters really are little more than thugs.

Alerted by the sound of a hound screaming, one of our supporters looked across to the yard of the local hunt (I’m afraid I can’t mention the name of the hunt here) to find a hunter viciously beating a hound with rubber piping. He then picked the bleeding animal high up above his head and flung it back down to the ground. The distressed and injured dog was then finally able to drag itself to safety.

You have to wonder how these guys were treated as children. Or if they could have possibly developed such cruelty on their own.

Wildlife Protections to be Weakened Under Obama Administration

The Defenders of Wildlife reports on how National Forest Management Act regulations proposed by the Obama Administration seriously weaken wildlife protections in national forests and on grasslands. More on the draft rule and its flaws here as well.

Lawsuit to Protect Endangered Whales from Gulf of Mexico Oil Exploration, Sue Obama Administration

“The Center for Biological Diversity, Gulf Restoration Network, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club filed a formal notice of intent to sue Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday for ignoring marine mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico,” Earthjustice reports.

Environment

State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently released its 2010 report on the state of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture. Needless to say, things don’t look good.

Mercury

The Environmental Defense Fund delves into how we’re exposed to mercury, the health risks of mercury, and what is being done to reduce mercury exposure.

Arsenic

Movement to ban arsenic in chicken feed is gaining momentum by some new bills in the Maryland state legislature.

Photo Credit: Todd Mecklem

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