http://www.businessgreen.com/ business-green/ news/ 2231998/ emerging-giants-small-islands

“Nor is the sense of crisis really there. Those claiming we are near some kind of catastrophic tipping point simply have no science to back up their claims.”

It is true that the necessary sense of crisis is missing, at least in the general public. The science IS there but it is complex and viewed as perhaps no more reliable than a weather forecast by many.

Let’s get real on the environment
After the failure in Poznan, it’s time to be honest: the world is not going to be cutting greenhouse gases anytime soon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/ cifamerica/ 2008/ dec/ 12/ environment-climate-change-poznan

Not one of us – you, me, Obama or the greenest activist anywhere in the world – is willing to live without the comforts fossil fuels provide us – heat, light, instant hot food, convenient transportation, modern agriculture and airplane travel.
….
Obama will not change this. Americans will not accept large increases in what we pay for gasoline and electricity. President-elect Obama says he is going to solve the financial crisis, the healthcare crisis, the infrastructure crisis, the energy crisis, the climate crisis and perhaps even the intolerable shortage of magic pixie dust.

The man is quite the optimist. But let’s not be completely stupid.
….
Nor is the sense of crisis really there. Those claiming we are near some kind of catastrophic tipping point simply have no science to back up their claims.
…
Even the world’s climate organisers do not hesitate to fly thousands of miles to Poland and live high on the hog.

Given this, what can we do? Be realistic, first of all. Let’s fund geo-engineering research to the hilt, exploring how we can someday modify our planet’s natural systems to produce a slight atmospheric cooling. It is our destiny.
…

Manchester says no to congestion charging
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ politics/ 2008/ dec/ 12/ congestioncharging-transport

Voters in Manchester have overwhelmingly rejected plans for a congestion charge after a city-wide referendum in which more than a million people voted.

The Greater Manchester scheme was rejected by 79% of voters, amid a turnout in the 10 boroughs of 53.2%.

According to this article it would take a 67 Senators (a super majority) vote to change the 60 vote cloture rule (the manner in which filibusters are killed).

http://www.yuricareport.com/ Law%20&%20Legal/ Senate%20Rules%20on%20Filibuster.html

If that’s the case then I don’t ever see this rule going away. When/if one party had the 67 votes needed to do away with the 60 vote cloture rule they would have no need to do so. And would most likely be looking forward to a time when they might be in the minority and might find it useful.

I think we’re looking to the good people of Maine to lean hard on their senators.

At least for two more years when several northern senate seats come due for reelection.

I do not understand why you feel it is necessary to get the cap and trade bill through Congress before making a global committment. This makes no sense. Surely the global agreement comes first, followed by legislation at a national level to make it happen. That is what every other nation is doing.

The US seems to be turning delaying into an art form.

[JR: This is the way U.S. politics is. But in any case, trying to negotiate a global agreement with 189 countries is not a productive use of time, as I've explained.]

Don’t forget that this will only be true if Dems first vote to agree that the 60 vote rule will be in force for the upcoming session. With so much at stake, it seems to me to be unconscionable to let this absurdly undemocratic “tradition” stand.

Sometimes governments have to make decisions that might not match the present popular desires but that’s why we set up something other than a pure democracy.

Next month we get a new Congress. Democrats will be only a seat or two below the magic number of 60, at which a few crackpots can kill things that they don’t like because it doesn’t fit with their belief in a 6,000 year old universe.

Will those couple of Senators from the Northeast vote with the Southeast/Underpopulated Midlands to block progress and risk loosing their jobs?

I sort of doubt it.

BTW, the most recent Gallup poll says that 89% of Americans say that global climate change is real and 68% say that we need to do something about it right now….

At the same time, Gore’s optimism is misplaced. When credible scientists are beginning to say that even 450 ppm is not achievable, he still talks as if a 350 goal can be. At some point, that loses credibility and I think we have reached that point now.

For all the discussion we do here, and at every other climate related NGO, blog, email list, the fact is that we have not convinced the average voter that we need to do anything now, even if they do believe that climate change is real. Always, apparent short range economic benefit trumps not so apparent long range economic damage when a voter pulls the lever. When the issue is whether or not someone will have a job tomorrow, it is very difficult to get them to think about whether Miami will flood by 2050.