Will McClellan Be John Dean to Bush's Richard Nixon?

- Scott McClellan's admission that he unintentionally made false statements denying the involvement of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the Bush-Cheney administration's plot to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson, along with his revelation that Vi ... Click to continue

A Letter From Gary Hart Published in The New York Times

Letter Climate Change in ’08

To the Editor:

As former Vice President Al Gore correctly stated in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech on Monday (news article, Dec. 11), the whole world will watch the next American president for action on climate change from his or her first hours in the White House.

Each candidate, Republican and Democratic, should explain now what actions he or she will take during the first 100 days in office.

The candidates’ proposals must be both bold and comprehensive. Time is not on our side. The b ... Click to continue

Senate Energy Bill Drops Utility Rules, Keeps Most of Tax Package

By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 12, 2007; D02

Senate leaders are planning to introduce a slimmed-down package of energy legislation, eliminating a minimum requirement for utilities' use of renewable resources but only slightly altering the tax provisions that have drawn fire from congressional Republicans and the White House.

The retooled version of the energy bill still includes higher motor fuel efficiency standards, tougher appliance efficiency standards and a mandate for vastly expanded use of et ... Click to continue

The Blog From Bali

Attached is Bali Hi #2, prepared by Art Williams (Louisville, KY),

representing NACAA at the climate change negotiations in Bali.

So, how are the climate change negotiations going in Bali? Well, don't hold your breath. Negotiators came close to pulling an all-nighter Tuesday night finally breaking at 2am. It now appears it will be up to the high-level ministers who rolled in today (Wednesday) to see what can be salvaged in the remaining couple of days. But, despite enormous a ... Click to continue

Paris Hilton helping protect the environment

Paris Hilton is making a personal contribution to protecting the environment.

"I changed all the light bulbs to energy-safe light bulbs and I'm buying a hybrid car right now," the 26-year-old celebrity heiress said Wednesday.

Hilton said she turns off the lights, doesn't leave the TV on or the water running when she leaves her house.

"Little things that people can do every day to make a huge difference," she said.

She was in Berlin to take part in an advertising campaign for Rich Prosecco, a sparkling wine sold in can ... Click to continue

Polar ice melting alarms experts

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Posted Wednesday, December 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.

Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NAS ... Click to continue

Earth’s rapid warming has scientists aghast. Warming is now 35% faster than projections. Half of the Amazon will be gone by 2030. The Arctic lost 14% of its perennial sea ice last year. Greenland ice melt grew by 250% in 2 years. Antarctica is losing 36 cubic miles of ice a year. And the Chesapeake Bay swallows 600 acres a year. The 17 November IPCC report states succinctly that “The warming of the Earth’s climate system is unequivocal.” And that “Climate changes may be abrupt and irreversible.”
Historically, climate swings can oc ... Click to continue

2007 Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists

This consensus document was prepared under the auspices of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

The 2007 IPCC report, compiled by several hundred climate scientists, has unequivocally concluded that our climate is warming rapidly, and that we are now at least 90% certain that this is mostly due to human activities. The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere now far exceeds the natural range of the past 650,000 years, and it is rising very quickly due to human activity. If this tren ... Click to continue

SPEECH BY AL GORE ON THE ACCEPTANCE

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen.

I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had ... Click to continue

Scooter Libby to drop appeal in CIA leak case

By MATT APUZZO

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence in July. Had Libby won a new trial, that commutation would be meaningless and Libby would again face potential prison time.

"We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libb ... Click to continue

Gore gets Nobel, warns of ominous threat

By DOUG MELLGREN

Al Gore received his Nobel Peace Prize on Monday and urged the United States and China to make the boldest moves on climate change or "stand accountable before history for their failure to act."

"We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here," Gore said in his acceptance speech.

Gore shared the Nobel with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for sounding the alarm ... Click to continue

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