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Obama Administration mounts a much stronger rhetorical attack on the status quo, in ClimateWire by Gayathri Vaidyanathanon, June 3, 2014
From an administration that, just three years ago, found climate change too politically toxic to talk about, the messaging on climate change recently has been “bold” and “courageous,” said Maxwell Boykoff, an assistant professor at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) who tracks media coverage of climate change.
U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy yesterday proposed new power plant regulations that would cut emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. And in her speech announcing the regulations, she stated that man-made climate change is real and happening.
“The science is clear. The risks are clear. And the high costs of climate inaction keep piling up,” McCarthy said. Read more…
She took on climate change skeptics who point to the unusually cold winter in North America as a reason for doubt.
“I’m tired of people pointing to the polar vortex as a reason not to act on climate,” she said. “It’s exactly the opposite. Climate change heightens risks from extreme cold that freezes power grids, superstorms that drown power plants and heat waves that stress power supplies. And it turns out, efficiency upgrades that slow climate change actually help cities insulate against blackouts.”
