TheGreenFront presents: This Day in Climate History (hat tip to Carl Pope and Betsy Rosenberg) April 4, 2002: The New York Times reports: President Bush signed an executive order last year that closely resembles a written recommendation given to the administration two months earlier by the American Gas Association, according to documents released by the Bush administration. The executive order called for the creation of an interagency energy task force to accelerate the time it takes for government agencies to review corporations applications for permits for energy-related projects, like power plants and the exploration of oil and natural gas on public lands. Mr. Bush signed the order last May. The language in Mr. Bushs executive order is similar to a passage in a proposed energy bill sent in March 2001 to the Energy Department by officials at the American Gas Association, the trade group that represents large natural gas companies and has given more than $500,000 to the Republican Party since 1999. nytimes/2002/04/04/politics/04ENER.html April 4, 2004: Ecotalk with Betsy Rosenberg debuts on Air America. April 4, 2006: Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins observes: What is happening is not just what climatologists told us would happen, but global warming turns out to reinforce itself by a number of feedback mechanisms. For example, when the polar icecaps start melting, theres less blinding bright ice to reflect heat back into the atmosphere — over 90 percent of sunlight simply bounces off ice and back into space. Whereas the dark water left behind by melted ice does the opposite, pulling in more warmth and accelerating the process. The political fight over global warming is over, except for the Bush administration, which has some weird problem with science in general. Im still not sure whats behind that: I recall Rush Limbaugh and the radio right taking great glee in pooh-poohing the Kyoto treaty and the whole idea of global warming... The shame for journalism is that it has always been so easy to expose those few scientific voices claiming there is nothing to global warming. When the money for scientific research on such a subject comes from oil companies, skepticism is required. Instead, many journalists let the bullies on the right cow us with the liberal media nonsense and reported there was a debate over global warming. There was no debate. The only question is how fast its happening. And the answer that keeps coming up is faster than we thought. And still faster. creators/opinion/molly-ivins/molly-ivins-april-4.html April 4, 2012: Discovery Communications announces that it will eliminate the Planet Green cable channel. m.deadline/2012/04/discovery-rebrands-planet-green-will-become-destination-america/ mobile.nytimes/blogs/mediadecoder/2012/04/04/discovery-to-remake-planet-green-channel/ April 4, 2014: The Los Angeles Times reports: Democrats struggling to combat a flood of outside money pouring in to defeat their candidates have found at least a temporary solution: If you cant beat them, brand them. The latest strategy of Democratic messaging is tying Republican candidates and policies to the partys most prominent — and at times vilified — financial patrons, billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) initiated the strategy last month when he decried the brothers — whose last name is pronounced coke — from the Senate floor as shadowy billionaires and un-American. This week, after Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) released his new austere budget, Reid described it as a blueprint for a modern Kochtopia. And when the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down overall limits on how much wealthy donors can spend per congressional election, Reid said it was no surprise, because as you know the Koch brothers are trying to buy America. Its a campaign strategy that serves several purposes for Democrats, and strategists say the effort is already paying off in grass-roots fundraising and by helping the party crystallize a message against the GOP. latimes/nation/la-na-democrats-koch-20140404,0,6877752.story#ixzz2xu5rxgVo
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 08:39:05 +0000
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