David Doniger's Blog
Heavens Open on U.S. Capitol While Senate Stalls on Global Warming Bill
June 4, 2008
Posted by David Doniger in Solving Global Warming
It’s Wednesday afternoon at 3:15, and looking out my window in downtown Washington, I am watching a huge thunderstorm buffet the city. The sky grew dark. Lightning, thunder, wind, and rain. Tornado warnings -- very rare here in the nation's capital.
The Senate is considering global warming legislation this week. The Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would start reducing U.S. global warming pollution and help put the world on a path to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
But since noon, the Senate has been tied up in procedural knots, with opponents of the 492-page bill insisting that the Senate’s clerks read it out loud!
At 2:55 PM, the National Weather Service issued a “severe thunderstorm warming” for the District of Columbia and surrounding area:
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS...AND MOVING EAST AT 58 MPH. * LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE... THE ENTIRE WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE METRO AREAS... THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM WITH EXTREME WINDS OVER A LARGE AREA. TAKE COVER NOW! DAMAGING WINDS ARE LIKELY WITH THESE STORMS...MOVE TO A SAFE PLACE NOW. MOBILE HOMES AND VEHICLES ARE ESPECIALLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO HIGH WINDS AND MAY BE OVERTURNED. A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA. TORNADOES CAN DEVELOP SUDDENLY FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. BE ALERT FOR RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS AS STORMS APPROACH.
The reading of the bill drones on. Draw your own conclusions.
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- David Doniger
- Policy Director, NRDC Climate Center
- Washington, D.C.
- I'm the policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) Climate Center, and our...
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Comments
Don Kurtz — Jun 4 2008 05:47 PM
I posted my own conclusions back on April 23rd:
Sadly, we globalwarming sufferers must be advised not to sit on a hot stove waiting for the United States to pass strong legislation, including a mandatory cap on emissions of carbon dioxide or other heat-trapping
pollutants- quickly, or otherwise. :'-(