By Doug Porter
A federally funded report on changing climate conditions released today warns of dire consequences throughout the United States in coming years unless significant actions are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The National Climate Assessment, a 1,300-page report compiled by 300 leading scientists and experts, says the climate is changing in the United States almost without a doubt, and the warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to emissions of heat-trapping gases released by humans. By the end of the century the scientists forecast temperatures that could be up to 5 degrees higher if the nation acts aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry, or up to 10 degrees if emissions are high.
It warns that climate change poses devastating consequences across regions of the United States when it comes to the economy, public health, transportation, energy, water and agriculture attributable to increased heat waves and coastal flooding in the Northeast, decreased water availability in the Southeast, extreme heat waves in the Midwest, damage to agriculture in the Great Plains and wildfires and water scarcity in the Southwest.
The account is the result of four years of research, with input from from 70 workshops around the nation, guided by a 60-member panel called the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee.
Isaac Cordal’s “Politicians Discussing Climate Change” sculpture – Berlin 2011
Via the Guardian:
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” a draft version of the report says. The evidence is visible everywhere from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean, it goes on….
…The assessments are the American equivalent of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. This year’s report for the first time looks at what America has done to fight climate change or protect people from its consequences in the future.
Under an act of Congress the reports were supposed to be produced every four years, but no report was produced during George W Bush’s presidency.
Meanwhile, over at Fox News
Via Media Matters:
“Tomorrow, President Obama is going to do interviews with meteorologists all across the country about a new climate change report…I hope they ask him about Benghazi!”
— Fox News host Dana Perino, continuing the network’s zealous coverage of the 2012 attacks on Monday’s “The Five.”
Financial Faulconerisms
Here in San Diego, where we’ve just gone through an unusual heat wave, a KPBS story on the Mayor’s proposed budget for next year notes one of the items not being funded was a program manager for the climate action plan being developed by Environmental and Economic Sustainability Task Force.
The good news is that libraries will be open for longer hours in case senior citizens need somewhere to go to beat the heat.
Also not up for consideration are proposals for staff to monitor the city’s living wage ordinance.
The Lincoln Club’s Chicken Shit Funding
Beverley Hills real estate entrepreneur Michael Schlesinger is probably best known locally for dumping truck loads of chicken droppings near the homes of Escondido residents protesting his plans for converting a golf course into a housing tract.
Now Matt Potter over at the Reader reports Schlesinger is funding Lincoln Club independent expenditure committees to the tune of $30,000 for city council candidates Chris Cate (D6) and Lorie Zapf (D2). Last fall the Club used $37,000 of his money in its campaign against mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher.
Via the Reader:
In a premier year for money-laundering allegations about a Mexican national charged with laying out big money for fallen mayor Bob Filner and incumbent district attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Schlesinger has managed to keep the source of his cash largely under the radar, though earlier this year he received a warning letter from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission about disguised reporting of previous political gifts.
As first reported here in December, the Lincoln Club and county Republicans falsely declared that $37,000 in cash had come from Touchstone Golf, a Texas golf-course management company — the money ultimately traced to Schlesinger.
After an investigation, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission sent Schlesinger’s lawyers a warning letter, advising them that he and his development corporation had “violated the Act because its contributions were made in the name of Touchstone Golf rather than the true source and also because three required Late Contribution Reports were not timely filed.” The commission staff levied no fine but warned Schlesinger not to launder campaign cash again.
Popcorn Time! Go California GOP!
When we last turned in on the GOP race for who-will-get-their-ass-handed-
At the head of the GOP pack, Twin Peaks Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has been doing his best to keep his base support from the sanity-challenged crowd motivated.
Via John Hrabe at CalNewsroom.com:
In a move that’s been quickly condemned by civil rights groups and Republican Party leaders, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has turned to conspiracy theories and a defense of the Confederate flag to appeal to voters in his campaign for governor.
On Monday morning, the Twin Peaks Assemblyman posted a wild conspiracy theory on his Facebook page connecting his Republican opponent to an Islamic plot to bring Shariah law to the United States.
“Neel Kashkari supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code in 2008 when he ran TARP,” Donnelly wrote on his campaign Facebook page.
Three More Strikes Against the SDPD
You might think, what with Mayor Faulconer’s new budget increasing funding for the San Diego Police Department, that things are going just swell over there these days. But you’d be wrong. Times three.
One:
Headed into the weekend 10News reported that 20 year veteran Detective Dana Hoover has filed suit against the City of San Diego, the San Diego Police Department, and several people within the homicide unit claiming she was harassed and discriminated against during her time with the unit.
In the lawsuit, Hoover said the other detectives refused to assist with investigations, excluded her from information at or about crime scenes, unplugged her phone line, and demeaned, yelled and treated her in a belittling manner.
Hoover claimed when she spoke, Flood, Jones, and McDonald “made inappropriate and demeaning grunting, animal sounds.”
She also said the detectives “referred to females they have worked with in the past as ‘pieces of s—t’.”
Two:
KPBS and other outlets are reporting this morning about a SDPD officer suspended last month following reports of violence directed at his wife.
A San Diego police officer suspended last month for allegedly battering his wife in La Mesa was re-arrested Monday night on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on his spouse, authorities said.
Gilbert Lorenzo, 31, was booked into San Diego Central Jail by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department at 11:18 p.m. Monday, according to the sheriff’s online jail records. He was seen exiting the jail and getting into a taxi around 6 a.m. today, after posting $50,000 bail.
Sometime Monday evening, Lorenzo allegedly choked his wife in Spring Valley while exchanging custody of their young children, KFMB-TV Channel 8 reported.
Three:
In the wake of controversy last winter following reporting by Voice of San Diego on the subject of racial profiling, another story emerged yesterday speaking to (allegations of) racism in the SDPD.
10News reports on three active duty officers approaching the TV station with allegations prompted by the painting of a mural in the Southeastern Division police station.
They told 10News fellow officers were complaining about the mural, which features African-American leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, saying it has “too many black faces.”
“If they feel this way about a mural, how are they going to treat the public?” one officer said.
According to the 2010 census, Southeast San Diego has the highest density of African-American population — more than 20 percent of residents are African-American…
…”One of the comments that was made was, ‘What does Martin Luther King have to do with this; what has he done for this community?'” a source said.
A police spokesman claimed issues about the mural were related to whether or not it was painted on panels, rather than directly on the walls.
Obama Keystone Protest Slated for La Jolla
Local activists with 350.org are planning to protest along Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla on Thursday (May 8) to call on President Obama to stop delaying and firmly reject a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada to Texas for refining and export. They will be displaying a 50 foot Keystone Cardboard Pipeline saying “Stop the Keystone Pipeline. Fight Climate Change” near near intersection with Dunaway Dr/Glenbook Way starting at 10am.
The president is in town for a big bucks fundraiser at the home of Qualcomm Founder Irwin Jacobs. This is one of three California fundraising events in two days where climate activists will gather in large numbers with compelling visuals to draw the President’s attention to their opposition to the pipeline.
On This Day: 1937 – The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed 1957 – U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book “Profiles in Courage”. 1965 – Keith Richards began writing the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” in a Florida hotel room
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Doug Porter
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Great column. Great piece of art.
Great lead story on climate change.
Why is President Obama doing a fundraiser? He’s not running for anything is he?
Presidents are usually effective as fundraisers for Senate and House Democratic Campaign Committees.For $32,000 or so you can get your picture taken with the prez, 10 grand gets you a seat at the lunch table.
Great topics. Great coverage. This is one of my favorites you’ve done. Thank you for continuing to stick it to SDPD.
About the keystone pipeline, all I know from over 20 years in the property management business is that pipes break…they get clogged,,,they leak…it’s pretty much about pipes in the construction of anything…and to see an above ground project like the keystone pipeline, crossing tornado territory….I give it 2 years…
An aggressive stance against higher emissions involves stopping the Keystone XL pipeline. Infrastructure offers the chokepoints and bottlenecks where emissions can be stopped before they begin. We must fight these pipelines tooth and nail. Bleed the corporations who want to build them.
One good organization opposing the Keystone XL pipeline is Moccasins on the Ground http://www.oweakuinternational.org/moccasins-on-the-ground.html
Moccasins on the Ground is a coalition of the original peoples of Great Turtle Island (so called North America) that oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, demand that treaties be honored, and engage in direct action.
Another horrible thing to consider is the rise in sexual violence against indigenous women that has been shown to accompany the presence of corporate construction crews working on these pipelines.