Global Warming and the Lying Politicians Who Lie About It

Collective yawns greeted this news last week:

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that global carbon emissions set a record in 2010, rebounding from the recession to exceed 2008 levels. The EPA found in April that US carbon emissions dipped in 2009, mirroring the rest of the world. But though the recession has recovered in 2010 slowly in the industrialized world, and economic output (which has followed carbon emissions, for obvious reasons) has not reached pre-recession levels, growth in emerging markets pushed emissions up. China and India accounted for most of the increase.

Zandar explains why ignoring climate change is really, really stupid:

Recall how food prices have played a role in the Arab Spring uprisings and those increases were much much smaller. This is why the Pentagon keeps warning that climate change (and its effects on food and water availability) is the number one threat to US security in the future.

And it will only get worse from here.

But wait! There's hope! The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Mitt is defying his party to acknowledge reality:

Forget the individual mandate. Mitt Romney is now breaking with the Republican base on yet another issue. On Friday at a town hall in New Hampshire, Romney told the crowd he accepted the scientific conclusion that global warming is happening, and that man-made emissions are a factor.

Reuters reports:

"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

"It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors."

At the same time, Romney added that alternative energies alone cannot solve the situation, and that the United States should not simply limit its own industrial activities to the economic benefit of other countries:

"I love solar and wind (power) but they don't drive cars. And we're not all going to drive Chevy Volts," he said referring to electric cars.

The United States can not go it alone in attempting to trim emissions levels and give a free pass to countries such as China and Brazil, Romney said. "It's not called American warming, it's called global warming," he said.

Openly discussing the phrase "global warming" in any positive sense probably won't do much to please the GOP base. By contrast, other candidates have strongly criticized climate change science and activism, or have distanced themselves from their own previous activism on the issue.

For example, Tim Pawlenty has openly declared that his previous position in favor of cap-and-trade was "stupid,". And Newt Gingrich, who once starred in an ad calling for action on climate change alongside then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), now pronounces: "Now, if you were a left-wing intellectual, climate change is the newest excuse to take control of lives, and you want a new bureaucracy to run our lives on behalf of the newest thing."

Wow. Maybe Romney is The One. The Only Rational Republican who will lead his party out of the snowbilly wilderness into .... never mind.

Here's Steve Benen on how Romney is a documented liar bordering on pathological, AND an empty suit willing to say anything for a vote.

Meanwhile, the person who actually decides the fate of any attempt to avoid or mitigate catastrophic climate change made his position clear:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday of declaring war on the coal industry and blamed Democrats for regulations that he said kill jobs and increase energy costs.

In a speech to the Kentucky Coal Association, McConnell criticized the EPA for changing or reinterpreting long-standing regulations, which he said has threatened the future of some mines and left new projects in limbo.

Attempts by the agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants amount to a “backdoor” energy tax, he said.

We understand that Mitchie-poo is an expert on back doors.