There are so many opinions about the state of climate change that it’s hard to have any idea what is real and what is hyperbole. How many times can a scientist be quoted as saying that we are a few decades from watching New York City go underwater or seeing another great drought hit the center of the United States, you know? If that is what’s happening, how similar are the scientists and liberals pushing the climate change agenda to the Evangelical Christians pushing the apocalyptic one. 

The EPA has published a report called, "Climate Change Indicators in the United States." There is immediate bias in the title, as it implies that the government, the United States federal government, believes that climate change is a very real threat and that legislation is necessary to help do something about it. That alone is enough to infuriate the skeptics and the deniers.

The report claims, according to Reuters, that Americans can expect “deaths from heat waves, property damage from floods and rising seas from melting glaciers.” So, there you have it.

The report also found what it considers evidence that climate change is making 22 of 24 global indicators worse. For many, this is not news at all. What is news is that the EPA is not only acknowledging this fact, but publishing a report that conveys it.

One example cited in the report is that 8 of the top 10 years for extreme one-day floods/ heavy snowfalls have occurred since 1990. So, things are getting more extreme- not necessarily warmer.

The report follows the EPA’s claim at the end of 2009 that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and welfare- from there they decided to regulate greenhouse gases coming out of cars.

I’m one of those who thinks that climate change is happening, and who also thinks that spending much energy on cleaning up the cars and their exhaust just isn’t going to do much good. It’s a small, small amount of what’s getting pumped out there and we would better focus on what we can do on a much more macro-level. Like, how do we get people to ride bikes instead of drive a car? I mean, that is a solution. More smog tests is not a solution, it’s like a slippery band-aid that looks like a good idea until you put it on and it just slides around…you know? And this set the ball rolling for its regulation of the emissions.

This is a big deal. The bill that several senators have been working on, led by John Kerry, is going to the EPA for review. Of course they are going to approve it, and probably recommend a few areas where it can be improved- meaning toughened up. If that happens, you know Obama is going to be part of it (as long as it doesn’t threaten his unanticipated darling, offshore oil drilling).

In the end, it will get a thumbs up from the EPA and will have only one real enemy- the 2010 midterm elections.

Photo Credit: Christopher Chan