Thursday, April 4, 2013

April 4 News: Hansen On 'The Pipeline To Disaster', Keystone XL Approval Would Mean 'Obama's Achievements Will Fade'

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB0JVMUGKh-OFX7SlSQnIByimrdfP_aZIg1aiM11elrj-rQFViFwM8kMdAUmaB_yS3RhhQxD9kr8BZX-t-q4QHZ8geOCNJ7PEDKCIm5orubYzrElshQCkTllooA47GBA0xWICSEli8EBY/s1600/ffo_stoptarsands_175x175.jpgJim Hansen op-ed: "The president stands at a fork in the road: Rejecting the pipeline will show the world we are serious and determined to be on the right side of history. Approving it will signal we are too entrenched with business-as-usual to do what's right by the people, planet and future generations." [LA Times]

Once we get a price on carbon that makes fossil fuels pay their true cost, the tar sands will start to shut down. But if the pipeline opens the big spigot in the meantime, it will be difficult to avoid great harm.

The science on climate change has been in for a quarter of a century. There are no more mixed messages, just catastrophe after catastrophe....

All of President Obama's achievements will fade if he doesn't act swiftly and decisively on climate change. Rejecting Keystone is the first step.

The lobbying team hired by the government of Alberta to push through approval of the Keystone pipeline comes from both sides of the aisle. [DeSmogBlog]

Former Obama deputy press secretary Bill Burton said yesterday that the president's decision on Keystone would not be based on polling: "If the president was just driven by the polls, then he would never had approved the auto bailout." [Washington Post]

Juliet Eilperin's Q&A on Keystone for those still getting up to speed on what the pipeline is and means. [Washington Post]

ExxonMobil got a "no fly zone" imposed over Mayflower, Arkansas, where its Pegasus pipeline spilled thousands of barrels of tar sands oil. [DeSmogBlog]

Scientists warn that climate change will double the risk of wildfires in American forests - to 20 million acres burned a year by 2050. [Denver Post]

In North Carolina, a house bill to repeal the state's renewable energy standard passed out of committee despite bipartisan opposition. [News & Observer]

Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn on why we should be increasing and strengthening RPS policies, not repealing them. [Politico]

Crippling drought in the corn belt has also dried up some ethanol suppliers. [Grist]

An extreme rainstorm has left 54 dead in Argentina, because as the regional governor put it, "it was a deluge without historical precedent," so people were unprepared. [EFE]

How to talk about polar bears: anecdotes don't trump science, they're threatened by climate change, they won't adapt, and they do matter. [Media Matters]



http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/04/1819881/april-4-news-jim-h


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