lightblueline

Responses to climate change are increasing at state and local levels filling in the vacuum caused by the lack of leadership at the federal level.

California and Florida are coastal states with a huge amount of potential vulnerability to sea level rise. At a climate summit in Florida, the Governor of that state signed an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically, following California's lead in this issue.

MIAMI: Reuters: July 13, 2007

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) today announced the Assembly passed legislation that requires local coastal governments, and those surrounding the San Francisco Bay, to consider the impacts of sea level rise when amending general plans.

Prof. Steve Schneider at Stanford has a website that provides an excellent overview of climate change, science, policy, and other topics and links: Climate Change
Here is an excerpt:

A new resource has been created on the Internet. Climate Policy
Hosted by the American Meteorological Society, this site should prove to be a valuable source of information on translating science to policy.

Here is the "about us" description from Climatepolicy:

The San Francisco Chronicle (April 3, 2007) reports on the effects that this recent ruling might have on California's efforts to reduce the c02 emissions of automobiles:

"The campaign led by California to combat global warming at the state level took a giant step forward Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's hands-off approach to climate change and pushed the government toward regulation of greenhouse gases.

Tom Athanasiou (Silver City, NM and Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, February 21, 2007), writes that we are approaching a new climate threshold:

"What happens if the temperature—or, more precisely, the average global surface warming since pre-industrial times—rises past 2°C?

lightblueline has been trying to access US Government elevation data for months, only to be told that the data is being held back until a report is published by the US Climate Change Science Program office.

A recent (February 7, 2007) article in Wired Online notes that that office has several reports which never seem to get published:

"The [US Senate] committee hoped to hear from representatives from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House on science issues, but none showed up, leaving William Brennan, acting director of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, to defend the administration.

Kerry saved his most withering comments for Brennan, expressing outrage over the amount of progress on climate change achieved by Brennan's program, which seeks to integrate research on climate change from 13 federal agencies.

'I think this is the most serious dereliction of public responsibility that I've ever seen,' Kerry said. 'This is a disgrace. You're turning your backs on future generations in this country and potentially inviting a global catastrophe.'

The Washington Post maintains an archive on its reporting about climate change:

The Threat of Climate Change

This archive includes articles about policy, science, and impacts. It traces the Bush Administration's stance on climate change over the years.

The rumor mill is picking up on possible policy change re: carbon emissions. Few details now. Bush administration officials will be testifying at Congressional hearings this week although I didn't see any notable hearings scheduled.

here's one example of a discussion (at my alma mater), and an original news article in the UK's Independent.