Climate Change likely to be ignored by Congress
There was another result to having a Republican landslide in Tuesday's election and that relates to global warming and climate change. Over 100 freshmen Republicans were elected to the 112th Congress. According to an investigation by ThinkProgress 50% of the GOP class of 2010 deny the existnce of human induced global warming and 86% are opposed to any climate change legislation that increases government spending.
"With the possible exception of Tiger Woods, nothing has had a worse year than global warming," Todd Young, a new congressperson from Indiana, was widely quoted as saying earlier this year. "We have discovered that a good portion of the science used to justify 'climate change' was a hoax perpetrated by leftist ideologues with an agenda."
"I don't see much happening," said John Christy, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. "The previous Congress was heavily favored to pass something regarding climate change, but nothing happened."
Economics will most likely dominate Congress' next two years, and because energy is a huge economic issue, renewable energy won't generate much excitement due to high cost, Christy said. "If it's not economically sustainable, it's not sustainable - so renewables will be a marginal topic," he said.
The United States on Thursday announced the formation of a coalition to cut pollutants that speed up warming and harm health.
A new study has determined that the release of greenhouse gases jumped by the biggest amount on record. These gases are root cause of global warming.
Arctic Sea ice melted this summer to the second lowest level since record-keeping began more than 50 years ago
The protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun's most damaging rays, ultraviolet radiation, has thinned about 40% percent this winter, a record drop.
A rapidly warming climate is reshaping Denali, Kenai Fjords and other national parks comprising the crown jewels of Alaska's heritage as America's last frontier.