The US Global Change Research Program has produced its report, "Global Climate Change Impacts in the US" for the Obama White House. The report, referred by many as the "White House Report", brings nothing new to the debate about climate change but re-inforces the need to act and act quickly. It repeats much of what has been said, is light on the history and causes of climate change and paints a dismissal future if nothing is done. It can be downloaded from http://downloads.globalchange.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf.
The report has been produced at a time when the debate about emissions reduction and a cap and trade system rage on Capitol Hill.
To that extent it is timely as the direction the US takes on these topics is critical to any new international treaties on emissions reduction and the processes adopted. Interestingly the report does not really reflect on the climate debate. That may not have been its remit. It should have been given the report's importance and the context in which it is published.
In the debate about climate change we are in danger of thinking that it is new and that we can forever direct it. Calls to "Stop Climate Change", politely are meaningless. We are also in danger of mixing climate and the environment. The climate has always changed and it always will. Changes in climate produced the conditions that have allowed us to evolve and live the way we do. In doing so, we have changed the environment we live in. We have cleared land, created cities and the combustion engine and yes, emitted more greenhouses gases. We have certainly altered our environment but have we changed the climate a a result, and, if we have, can we really prevent changes which are always influenced by factors beyond on control? How can we say after 4 billion years that we are 80% responsible for climate change as the White House Report asserts!
The White House report assumes a linkage between climate and environment. It shouldn't. As a matter of course, if we can live with less emissions, we should, whether the climate changes or not. That is because we should protect the environment we live in. We shouldn't have to cloak any debate in terms of climate change to follow that course. Critical linkages should be examined not assumed.
This web site wants to see a better environment. If business is going to swallow the costs of a better environment, wrapping the argument in climate change where the science is sometimes a linkage of faith, might not be the way to go. The climate wiill change, volcanoes will blow, the sun's rays will be hotter and cooler and islands will rise and disappear. The evidence in the last 10,000 years is everywhere, billion years even more so. Going forward let's concentrate on a better environment, climate change science could easily be the wrong foundation. Could White House report be now prepared on a different basis? It might just be a better sell.
