The President announced a “major breakthrough” on Climate Change yesterday. As far as I can see, it doesn’t actually do anything. And that’s fine, I guess (if it’s not too late already, nobody’s gonna actually do anything to make a difference before it is too late). I think we’re missing out on creating a lot of jobs in the Green Sector, but what the heck. I’ll be dead before it all gets too awful bad, I guess. And Syracuse might even become a seaside tourist resort if ocean levels rise enough. At least for a while. For a long-term idea of what’s in store for the Earth, you only have to look at or sister planet, Venus. Venus is about the same size and mass as the Earth, and was once thought to be a lot like our planet, with oceans and everything.
For whatever reason, though, CO2 levels rose to a point of no return (about where we’re at right now), and a “runaway greenhouse effect” resulted in the planet growing warmer and warmer. Now, Venus’ atmosphere consists of about 97% carbon dioxide (and shiny clouds of sulfuric acid), with an average temperature of about 460 degrees Celsius (almost 865 degrees F, making it even hotter than the planet Mercury, even though Venus is twice as far from the Sun). The oceans have long since evaporated, and the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen (which was carried off into interplanetary space by the solar wind) and oxygen (which helped to make even more CO2). The planet’s surface is basically desert and rocks. With no vegetation to absorb the carbon, the atmosphere is so dense that the surface pressure is 90 times higher than it is on earth (which would make walking around a little difficult – even if you didn’t mind the 800 degree temperatures).
I don’t know how long it’ll take for the oceans boil away (hell, we haven’t even finished melting the polar ice caps yet), but it sounds like a pretty miserable future, so I guess I’m glad I won’t be around to see it (other than for curiosity’s sake; I hate to miss the end of the movie). I feel bad for the kids and grandkids and their kids and grandkids though.
That’s all assuming we don’t manage to kill ourselves off some other way first (or get hit by a meteor or something).
Happy Holidays!
Apparently the Senate has enough votes to pass whatever you want to call it now after selling out reproductive rights one last time. Now the repig dirtbag chinless wonder insists that the compromising amendment be read in its entirety while up to 25″ of snow falls in DC. Maybe something good will happen when they cobble the House and Senate bills together.
From Gail Collins (I’m so glad you like her too, Vern):
Let me tell you a story. …
Back in 1971, Congress passed a bill aimed at providing high-quality early childhood education and after-school programs for any American family that wanted them. It was bipartisan, which in those days meant more than a whole lot of Democrats and somebody from Maine. “Having been a working mother, I knew what day-care problems were like,†said Martha Phillips, who was at that time a staffer at the Republican Research Committee in the House.
Then Richard Nixon surprised almost everyone by vetoing it, with a scathing message written by Pat Buchanan, claiming the bill would “commit the vast moral authority of the National Government to the side of communal approaches to child rearing.â€
The social right, which was just beginning to come into its own, was delighted! Opponents reinforced the message with a massive letter-writing campaign. They accused members of Congress of plotting to deprive parents of the right to take their offspring to church, give children the power to sue their parents for forcing them to do chores, and, in general, turn the country into a Maoist concentration camp.
“We really saw the beginning of the right-wing religious agenda,†said Walter Mondale, who was the chief Senate sponsor of the bill. “They used this bill to raise fears about undermining parents, Sovietizing American youth. People were afraid to touch it for a while.â€
Meanwhile, there was hardly a peep from the other side. Children’s advocates had been enthusiastic at first, but as the legislation made its way through Congress, they squabbled over what kinds of community groups should be allowed to deliver the services. Advocates for poor children were worried that subsidies for middle-class families would reduce the amount available to help the neediest.
“It wasn’t perfect,†said Mondale. “We’ve never passed a perfect bill in American history. But it would have made a big difference.â€
In the end, the people who hated the whole idea were much more energized than the people who loved the idea, but disagreed on the details.
“People always think there will be another day,†said Jack Duncan, who was counsel for the subcommittee that handled the bill in the House. “Well, there might be another day, but not in my lifetime.â€
Remind you of anything?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/opinion/19collins.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
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I know it doesn’t usually snow all that much in DC, but WTF?
The snow came later than forecast on Shelter Island but in just 3 hours we have about 8″ on the ground. The forecast says 15-20″ when it’s finally over. Fortunately, they are often wrong about snow totals. I can hope can’t I?
Bicyclists who planned to go topless to protest the removal of a New York City bike lane have switched gears. Some pinned plastic breasts over their jackets as they rolled into a snowstorm.
Dozens of protesters biked through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Bike messenger Heather Loop organized the event. She says the lane was removed because the neighborhood’s Hasidic Jews “can’t handle scantily clad women.”
Some Hasids say the issue is not showing leg but rather a concern for safety for the children being dropped off by school buses.
The protesters planned to read through the streets without their tops, but wintry weather forced them to stay dressed.
The bikers’ plastic tactics did not amuse faithful Hasids leaving synagogue services with their families on the Sabbath.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/19/naked-bike-protesters-get_n_398287.html