Daily Briefing - 2/2/07

It's Groundhog's Day! Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, foreshadowing an early spring.
"Dr. Doug Inkley, wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, has been pondering over Phil's forecasting track record. He found that in the first 75 years of the 20th century, Phil cast no shadow only four times, which according to folklore meant an early end to winter. But in just the last 25 years of the century, Phil cast no shadow fully eight [NOW NINE] times, alerting us that winter was coming to an early end, a six fold increase!"

Also, the IPCC released its awaited report to vast media coverage. The gist? Humans are causing global warming. It's bad and getting worse... rapidly. This is a consensus. Check out the briefing for full coverage of the report as well as other news from around the country, world, and the otherworldly blogosphere.

MW

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Daily Briefing – 2/2/07
640 days until the NEXT election… and global warming is an integral part of our nation’s agenda!

Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- UN Climate Panel Says Warming is Man-Made
o Also from CNN, NYT, Baltimore Sun, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, Miami Herald, Australia Herald-Sun, Daily India, Buenos-Aires Herald
o Here is the full report
- More analysis of the report:
o AP: Dire Report Will Not Change U.S. Policy
§ Democrats call it a smoking gun
o Guardian: Sea levels rising at an accelerating rate
o NYT: Even before its release, report is criticized as too optimistic
o Sun-Sentinel: Could swamp Florida within 50 years
o CBC Montreal: Major Consequences for the Arctic
o Salt-Lake Tribune: An historic day?
o UK Telegraph: IPCC to everybody else – “We told you so”
o Guardian: An unforgivable truth
o Sydney Morning Herald: Changing mood isolates Bush in his own country
o San Jose Mercury-News: Senators Hope Report Will Signal Action
- Europeans turn off the lights
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Let the Science Speak
o Miami Herald: Politicizing Science Harms Your Right to Know
- Australia a climate change criminal
- California Attorney General to pursue lawsuit against top automakers
- Bolivia’s only ski resort facing a snowless future
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- Senate adds tax breaks to minimum wage bill
- Democrats urge tighter FCC rules
- Sanchez quits Hispanic Caucus after Chairman allegedly calls her a whore
Potential ‘08ers…
- Biden (misquoted?), Biden again (Eugene Robinson is unimpressed), Hagel (the case against), McCain (lamenting), Obama (can’t take black vote for granted), Clinton (setting goals for donors), Gore (waiting until after the Oscars… at least Donna Brazile is), Giuliani (goes mining in Texas), Romney (gets some Talent… oh man, that’s a horrible pun), Vilsack (takes on another job… probably a wise move), Hunter (profiled), McCain (California primary may hinder him)
- Democrats in debt up to their ears, Republicans up to only their necks or so
Other News from the Media
- Friedman: Oil Addicted Ayatollahs
- Nuclear power is NOT a renewable source of energy
- Pollution leaves women at greater risk of heart disease, death
- Wal-Mart launches new environmental initiative
- Green rage?
…and the Blogosphere
- Terry: Explains just exactly what the IPCC is anyway
- The Hotline On-Call has a great rundown of speeches given at the DNC Winter Summit by ’08 candidates
- Glenn Reynolds will believe the debate is over when our leaders give up private jets and stretch limos
- Huffington Post: A few more inconvenient truths and For the Kids
- The Volkh Conspiracy sees the IPCC’s consensus as “fragile” and the National Review is unimpressed
- Grist:
o On the IPCC
o Business is already acting
o IPCC report watered down?
o 11 things YOU can do
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring
- The biggest publishing event we have ever seen? (Hint: It involves Harry Potter)
- San Francisco’s Mayor: Model of decency
- Eww – smelly, orange snow in Siberia
Quotes O’ the Day
Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation, called it already "past time to act and solve global warming with the urgency and determination with which Americans have successfully confronted other threats to our security and to wildlife." From this AP article