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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>April 5, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[global warming means unstable weather]<br>
<b>Arctic blast incoming ⚠️ A huge temperature shock is on the way
for Europe.</b><br>
Scott Duncan<br>
@ScottDuncanWX<br>
Apr 2<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1377986569613799424">https://twitter.com/i/status/1377986569613799424</a><br>
From record heat at the end of March, temperatures are going to
tumble well below normal early next week. Yes, there will also be
snow for some ❄️<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/status/1377987050520125441">https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/status/1377987050520125441</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Easter Sunday along the FAMOUS highway 61]<br>
<b>Crews monitor wildfires along Highway 61 Sunday</b><br>
Multiple fires burned an estimated 45 acres on Saturday.<br>
After closing down a portion of Minnesota Highway 61 north of Silver
Bay on Saturday due to multiple wildfires, wildland fire crews from
the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continued to patrol
for wildfires on Sunday.<br>
<br>
Residents and motorists traveling along Highway 61 can expect to
continue to see crews dousing lingering fire hotspots, according to
a news release from the DNR. It's not expected that planes will be
called back in to the fires, however helicopters may be brought in
to help crews calm down hot spots.<br>
<br>
On Saturday, multiple fires burned an estimated 45 acres. Several
aircraft were called in to cool and slow down the wildfires. Six
local fire departments worked on the ground to suppress the
wildfires. The cause of the fires remains under investigation.<br>
<br>
According to Leanne Langeberg, public information officer for the
Minnesota Interagency Fire Center, the fire activity is not
surprising.<br>
<br>
“Every spring, we see a rise in wildfire activity as the snowpack
melts and leaves behind dry vegetation like grasses, leaves and
needles,” Langeberg said. “We left last fall in abnormally dry
conditions in northeast Minnesota. Snow totals were less than
normal, and lack of measurable precipitation has left us in a
persistent dry pattern.”<br>
<br>
The DNR also urged caution as fire conditions remain high. Dragging
chains from vehicles, tossing cigarette butts out of windows and
parking along roadsides on dry vegetation can create a spark that
can become a wildfire...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/fires/6968104-Crews-monitor-wildfires-along-Highway-61-Sunday">https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/fires/6968104-Crews-monitor-wildfires-along-Highway-61-Sunday</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[Bob Dylan's Highway 61 lyrics]
<blockquote>Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored<br>
He was tryin' to create a next world war<br>
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor<br>
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before<br>
But yes I think it can be very easily done<br>
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun<br>
And have it on Highway 61<br>
</blockquote>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hr3Stnk8_k">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hr3Stnk8_k</a></p>
<p>- -</p>
[Wikipedia entry]<br>
<b>Highway 61 Revisited (song)</b><br>
<b>Background</b><br>
Highway 61 runs from Duluth, Minnesota, where Bob Dylan grew up in
the 1940s and 1950s down to New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a major
transit route out of the Deep South particularly for African
Americans traveling north to Chicago, St Louis and Memphis,
following the Mississippi River valley for most of its 1,400 miles
(2,300 km).<br>
<br>
The junction of highway 61 and highway 49 in Mississippi is said to
be the infamous "crossroads" where bluesman Robert Johnson allegedly
sold his soul to the devil in exchange for talent and fame.[citation
needed]<br>
<br>
<b>Lyrics</b><br>
The song has five stanzas. In each stanza, someone describes an
unusual problem that is ultimately resolved on Highway 61. In Verse
1, God tells Abraham to "kill me a son".[2] God wants the killing
done on Highway 61. This stanza refers to Genesis 22, in which God
commands Abraham to kill one of his two sons, Isaac. Abram, the
original name of the biblical Abraham, is the name of Dylan's own
father. Verse 2 describes a poor fellow, Georgia Sam, who is beyond
the helping of the welfare department. He is told to go down Highway
61. Georgia Sam may be a reference to Piedmont blues musician Blind
Willie McTell, who occasionally went by Georgia Sam when
recording.[4]<br>
<br>
In the third verse, "Mack the Finger" has the problem of getting rid
of particular absurd things: "I got forty red white and blue shoe
strings / And a thousand telephones that don't ring". "Louie the
King" solves the problem with Highway 61. Verse 4 is about the
"fifth daughter" who on the "twelfth night" told the "first father"
that her complexion is too pale. Agreeing, the father seeks to tell
the "second mother," but she is with the "seventh son," on Highway
61. The inspiration for this verse may be drawn from the enumeration
pattern at the beginning of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.[5]<br>
<br>
The fifth and last verse is the story of a bored gambler, trying "to
create the next world war." His promoter tells him to "put some
bleachers out in the sun / And have it on Highway 61." There is an
evident political undertone in this absurd tale.[6]<br>
<br>
There is a pause in each verse while Dylan waits for some event in
the story to finish; in the third verse, for example, the pause
occurs while Louie the King attempts to resolve the
shoestring-and-telephones problem...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_61_Revisited_(song)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_61_Revisited_(song)</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Follow the money]<br>
<b>The Powerful New Financial Argument for Fossil-Fuel Divestment</b><br>
A report by BlackRock, the world’s largest investment house, shows
that those who have divested have profited not only morally but also
financially.<br>
<br>
By Bill McKibben<br>
-[snip]-<br>
In short, the financial debate about divestment is as settled as the
ethical one—you shouldn’t try to profit off the end of the world
and, in any event, you won’t.<br>
<br>
These findings will gradually filter out into the world’s markets,
doubtless pushing more investors to divest. But its impact will be
more immediate if its author—BlackRock—takes its own findings
seriously and acts on them. BlackRock handles more money than any
firm in the world, mostly in the form of passive investments—it
basically buys some of everything on the index. But, given the
climate emergency, it would be awfully useful if, over a few years,
BlackRock eliminated the big fossil-fuel companies from those
indexes, something they could certainly do. And, given its own
research findings, doing so would make more money for their
clients—the pensioners whose money they invest.<br>
<br>
BlackRock could accomplish even more than that. It is the biggest
asset manager on earth, with about eight trillion dollars in its
digital vaults. It also leases its Aladdin software system to other
big financial organizations; last year, the Financial Times called
Aladdin the “technology hub of modern finance.” BlackRock stopped
revealing how much money sat on its system in 2017, when the figure
topped twenty trillion dollars. Now, with stock prices soaring, the
Financial Times reported that public documents from just a third of
Aladdin’s clients show assets topping twenty-one trillion. Casey
Harrell, who works with Australia’s Sunrise Project, an N.G.O. that
urges asset managers to divest, believes that the BlackRock system
likely directs at least twenty-five trillion in assets. “BlackRock’s
own research explains the financial rationale for divestment,”
Harrell told me. “BlackRock should be bold and proactively offer
this as a core piece of its financial advice.”<br>
<br>
What would happen if the world’s largest investment firm issued that
advice and its clients followed it? Fifteen trillion dollars plus
twenty-five trillion is a lot of money. It’s roughly twice the size
of the current U.S. economy. It’s almost half the size of the total
world economy. It would show that a report issued by a small London
think tank a decade ago had turned the financial world’s view of
climate upside down.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-powerful-new-financial-argument-for-fossil-fuel-divestment">https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-powerful-new-financial-argument-for-fossil-fuel-divestment</a><br>
<p>- - <br>
</p>
[March 22 release]<br>
<b>IEEFA: Major investment advisors BlackRock and Meketa provide a
fiduciary path through the energy transition</b><br>
BlackRock and Meketa say divestment from fossil fuels improves, not
weakens, investment returns<br>
<br>
Two major financial management firms, BlackRock and Meketa, have
separately concluded that investment funds have experienced no
negative financial impacts from divesting from fossil fuels. In
fact, they found evidence of modest improvement in fund return,
according to draft reports undertaken at the request of New York
City’s comptroller on behalf of three of the city’s pension funds.<br>
<br>
Several of their core findings are noteworthy:<br>
<blockquote>- Divestment actions by hundreds of funds worldwide have
passed the prudence tests required of fiduciaries.<br>
- Fossil fuel stocks have underperformed for the last five years
and forward-looking analysis shows they are exposed to significant
regulatory, technological and market risks.<br>
- Transition readiness standards allow Funds to improve their
targeting of how divestment can take place in a way that aligns
with the philosophy and mission of a specific Fund.<br>
- There is no uniform model for divestment. Some funds divested
from coal but most adopted broader divestment strategies across
the coal, oil and gas sectors. All divestment options have proven
to be financially sound.<br>
- The global trend in the investment world is toward more public
pension fund divestment from fossil fuels. In the past, such
actions were mostly consigned to university, foundations and other
private institutions. The size of individual Funds that are
currently divesting is increasing.<br>
</blockquote>
-[snip]-<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://ieefa.org/major-investment-advisors-blackrock-and-meketa-provide-a-fiduciary-path-through-the-energy-transition/">https://ieefa.org/major-investment-advisors-blackrock-and-meketa-provide-a-fiduciary-path-through-the-energy-transition/</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[Classic study 2011]<br>
<b>Unburnable Carbon: Are the World’s Financial Markets Carrying a
Carbon Bubble?</b><br>
13 July 2011<br>
-- Already in 2011, the world has used over a third of its 50-year
carbon budget of 886GtCO2, leaving 565GtCO2<br>
-- All of the proven reserves owned by private and public companies
and governments are equivalent to 2,795 GtCO2<br>
-- Fossil fuel reserves owned by the top 100 listed coal and top 100
listed oil and gas companies represent total emissions of 745GtCO2<br>
-- Only 20% of the total reserves can be burned unabated, leaving up
to 80% of assets technically unburnable<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://carbontracker.org/reports/carbon-bubble/">https://carbontracker.org/reports/carbon-bubble/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Last month demonstration]<br>
<b>Scientist Rebellion Testimonies</b><br>
Mar 1, 2021<br>
Scientist Rebellion<br>
Global Scientist Rebellion 25th-28th March 2021! <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh2D9Oz4nH0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh2D9Oz4nH0</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[Scientist activism]<br>
"There is a very big risk that we will just end our civilisation.
The human species will survive somehow but we will destroy almost
everything we have built up over the last 2000 years" <br>
- Prof. Hans Schellnhuber, director emeritus of the Potsdam
Institute.<br>
<b>Show willingness to support non-violent civil disobedience</b><br>
The climate and ecological crises threaten every aspect of human
civilisation. Despite decades of warnings from scientists and
others, greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to soar.
A domino effect of climate tipping points threatens to push the
Earth into a state that is alien and inhospitable to human
civilisation.<br>
<br>
Still, mega-corporations ransack the natural world with support from
their servants in public office. Governments who stray from
protecting corporate interest in favour of human need are attacked
and delegitimised in the billionaire press, face the prospect of
international capital flight, and of political or military coups.
This corruption of democracy sits at the heart of climate inaction.
<br>
<br>
Billions are threatened with starvation, displacement, drought and
inundation within the next few decades. Scientists know business as
usual cannot continue: it’s time to put our bodies where our mouths
are and resist, for truth and life.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scientistrebellion.com/">https://scientistrebellion.com/</a><br>
<p>- - -<br>
</p>
[Climate scientists declare rebellion]<br>
<b>Our Demands Letter</b><br>
The letter below was written collectively by Scientist Rebellion,
and outlines our positions and demands.<br>
<p> We are scientists and academics who believe we should expose the
reality and severity of the climate and ecological emergency
by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. Unless
those best placed to understand behave as if this is an
emergency, we cannot expect the public to do so. Some believe
that appearing “alarmist” is detrimental - but we are terrified
by what we see, and believe it is both vital and right
to express our fears openly. The population sizes of
mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles have seen an
alarming average drop of 68% since 1970, along with an
apparent collapse in the pollinator populations. <br>
</p>
<p>At this rate, ecosystems around the world will collapse
well within the lifespan of current generations, with
catastrophic consequences for the human kind.Self-reinforcing
feedbacks within the climate system, in which hotter
climates cause additional heating (e.g. increased forest fires,
thawing permafrost, melting ice) threaten to drive the Earth
irreversibly to a hot and uninhabitable state. <br>
</p>
<p>These effects are being observed decades earlier than
predicted, in line with the worst-case scenarios predicted.
Increasingly severe heatwaves, droughts and natural
disasters are occurring year after year, while sea levels
may rise by several meters this century, displacing
hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas.
There is a growing fear amongst scientists that
simultaneous extreme weather events in major agricultural areas
could cause global food shortages, thus triggering societal
collapse. For example, the drought in Syria (2011-2015) destroyed
much of the country’s agriculture and livestock, driving
millions into cities and sparking a civil war from which the
world is still reeling. <br>
</p>
<p>We face a crisis possibly hundreds of times more severe. To be
informed is to be alarmed. Current actions and plans are
grossly inadequate, and even these obligations are not
being met. The rate of environmental destruction closely
tracks economic growth, which leads to us extracting more
resources from Earth than are regenerated. Governments and
corporations aim to increase growth and profits,
inevitably accelerating the destruction of life on Earth. </p>
<blockquote>•To achieve decarbonisation on the required scale
demands economic degrowth, at least in the short term. This
does not necessarily require a reduction in living
standards.<br>
•For a just transition, the cost of degrowth must be
paid for by the wealthiest, who have benefited enormously
from the current destructive world order, while others have
faced the consequences. <br>
•A just transition to a sustainable system requires the wealth
from the 1% to be used for the common benefit.The most effective
means of achieving systemic change in modern history is through
non-violent civil resistance. We call on academics,
scientists and the public to join us in civil
disobedience to demand emergency decarbonisation and
degrowth, facilitated by wealth redistribution.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scientistrebellion.com/our-positions-and-demands/">https://scientistrebellion.com/our-positions-and-demands/</a><br>
- -<br>
"We are on course for 4°C of heating. “A 4°C future is incompatible
with an organised global community, is likely to go beyond
‘adaptation’, is devastating to the majority of ecosystems and has a
high probability of not being stable” – Prof Kevin Anderson; “[at
4°C] it’s difficult to see how we could accommodate eight billion
people or maybe even half of that" - Prof. Johan Rockstrom.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scientistrebellion.com/science/">https://scientistrebellion.com/science/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>APRIL 2, 2021<br>
<b>Social cost of carbon: What is it, and why do we need to
calculate it?</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://phys.org/news/2021-04-social-carbon.html">https://phys.org/news/2021-04-social-carbon.html</a>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[sneeze and tears]<br>
<b>Allergy Season Will Grow Longer as Climate Warms Up</b><br>
By Chief Meteorologist Burton Fitzsimmons Texas<br>
Apr. 03, 2021<br>
What You Need To Know<br>
</p>
<blockquote>-- Climate change means a longer growing season and more
CO2, which is food for plants<br>
<br>
-- Pollen counts are expected to rise, and plants could get larger
and numerous if current warming trends continue<br>
<br>
-- Texas has seen an increase in above-normal spring days in the
past four decades<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/weather/2021/04/02/allergy-season-will-grow-longer-as-climate-warms-up">https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/weather/2021/04/02/allergy-season-will-grow-longer-as-climate-warms-up</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Northumbria University]<br>
<b>Evidence of Antarctic glacier’s tipping point confirmed for first
time</b><br>
31st March 2021<br>
Researchers have confirmed for the first time that Pine Island
Glacier in West Antarctica could cross tipping points, leading to a
rapid and irreversible retreat which would have significant
consequences for global sea level.<br>
<br>
Pine Island Glacier is a region of fast-flowing ice draining an area
of West Antarctica approximately two thirds the size of the UK. The
glacier is a particular cause for concern as it is losing more ice
than any other glacier in Antarctica.<br>
Currently, Pine Island Glacier together with its neighbouring
Thwaites glacier are responsible for about 10% of the ongoing
increase in global sea level.<br>
<br>
Scientists have argued for some time that this region of Antarctica
could reach a tipping point and undergo an irreversible retreat from
which it could not recover. Such a retreat, once started, could lead
to the collapse of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which
contains enough ice to raise global sea level by over three metres.
<br>
<br>
While the general possibility of such a tipping point within ice
sheets has been raised before, showing that Pine Island Glacier has
the potential to enter unstable retreat is a very different
question.<br>
<br>
Now, researchers from Northumbria University have shown, for the
first time, that this is indeed the case.<br>
<br>
Their findings are published in leading journal, The Cryosphere.<br>
<br>
Using a state-of-the-art ice flow model developed by Northumbria’s
glaciology research group, the team have developed methods that
allow tipping points within ice sheets to be identified.<br>
<br>
For Pine Island Glacier, their study shows that the glacier has at
least three distinct tipping points. The third and final event,
triggered by ocean temperatures increasing by 1.2C, leads to an
irreversible retreat of the entire glacier.<br>
<br>
The researchers say that long-term warming and shoaling trends in
Circumpolar Deep Water, in combination with changing wind patterns
in the Amundsen Sea, could expose Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf to
warmer waters for longer periods of time, making temperature changes
of this magnitude increasingly likely.<br>
<br>
The lead author of the study, Dr Sebastian Rosier, is a
Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow in Northumbria’s Department of
Geography and Environmental Sciences. He specialises in the
modelling processes controlling ice flow in Antarctica with the goal
of understanding how the continent will contribute to future sea
level rise.<br>
Dr Rosier is a member of the University’s glaciology research
group, led by Professor Hilmar Gudmundsson, which is currently
working on a major £4million study to investigate if climate change
will drive the Antarctic Ice Sheet towards a tipping point.<br>
<br>
Dr Rosier explained: “The potential for this region to cross a
tipping point has been raised in the past, but our study is the
first to confirm that Pine Island Glacier does indeed cross these
critical thresholds.<br>
<br>
“Many different computer simulations around the world are attempting
to quantify how a changing climate could affect the West Antarctic
Ice Sheet but identifying whether a period of retreat in these
models is a tipping point is challenging.<br>
<br>
“However, it is a crucial question and the methodology we use in
this new study makes it much easier to identify potential future
tipping points.”<br>
<br>
Hilmar Gudmundsson, Professor of Glaciology and Extreme Environments
worked with Dr Rosier on the study. He added: “The possibility of
Pine Island Glacier entering an unstable retreat has been raised
before but this is the first time that this possibility is
rigorously established and quantified.<br>
<br>
“This is a major forward step in our understanding of the dynamics
of this area and I’m thrilled that we have now been able to finally
provide firm answers to this important question. <br>
<br>
“But the findings of this study also concern me. Should the glacier
enter unstable irreversible retreat, the impact on sea level could
be measured in metres, and as this study shows, once the retreat
starts it might be impossible to halt it.”<br>
<br>
The paper, The tipping points and early warning indicators for Pine
island Glacier, West Antarctica, is now available to view in The
Cryosphere. <br>
<br>
Northumbria is fast becoming the UK’s leading university for
research into Antarctic and extreme environments. As well as the £4m
tipping points study, known as TiPPACCs, Northumbria is also the
only UK university to play a part in two projects in the £20m
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration – the largest joint
project undertaken by the UK and USA in Antarctica for more than 70
years. Northumbria is leading the PROPHET and GHC projects within
the Thwaites study. This particular study was funded through both
TiPPACCs and PROPHET.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/antarctic-tipping-point/">https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/antarctic-tipping-point/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[keep in mind that seas rise about 3.4mm per year anyway - just from
ice melting]<br>
There are a lot of people, but the oceans are very big. <br>
<b>If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea
level rise?</b><br>
- -<br>
But remember, this volume would be spread over the vast area of the
oceans. Using the same bathtub math as before, we divide the 40
billion cubic feet of volume over the 140 million square miles of
ocean.<br>
<br>
The answer? The total rise in sea level would be about 0.00012 of an
inch, or less than 1/1000th of an inch. If everyone completely
submerged themselves, this would double the answer to 0.00024
inches, which is still only about the width of a human hair.<br>
<br>
It turns out the oceans are enormous – and humans are just a drop in
the bucket.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://theconversation.com/if-everyone-on-earth-sat-in-the-ocean-at-once-how-much-would-sea-level-rise-156626">https://theconversation.com/if-everyone-on-earth-sat-in-the-ocean-at-once-how-much-would-sea-level-rise-156626</a><br>
- -
<p>[yet the sea levels rise of 1/8th of an inch per year from ice
melting]<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive - "Have you no decency,
sir?"]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
April 5, 2002 </b></font><br>
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman denounces White House press
secretary Ari Fleischer<br>
<blockquote> <b>At Long Last?</b><br>
By Paul Krugman - April 5, 2002<br>
I almost had a Joseph Welch moment on Wednesday. I've calmed down
a bit since, but I'm still on the edge.<br>
<br>
Joseph Welch represented the Army in the 1954 Army-McCarthy
hearings. It was a time, like the present, when the nation faced a
real external threat; alas, some people tried to use that threat
to gain political advantage and suppress dissent. When Senator
Joseph McCarthy tried to smear one more innocent victim, Welch
burst out with a heartfelt soliloquy that earned him a place in
the pantheon of liberty. It ended: ''Have you no sense of decency,
sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?''<br>
<br>
But it wasn't a smear attack that set me off this time. It was Ari
Fleischer's use of a press conference on the crisis in the Middle
East to shill, once again, for the Bush energy plan.<br>
<br>
Let me say for starters that energy policy isn't central to this
crisis -- and to be fair to Mr. Fleischer, he didn't say that it
was (he was responding to a question about oil prices). Even if
the United States weren't dependent on imported oil, the Middle
East would still be a strategically crucial region, and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict would still be a world nightmare.<br>
<br>
But to the extent that oil independence would help -- and it
would, a bit, by reducing the leverage of Persian Gulf producers
-- the Bush administration has long since forfeited the moral high
ground. It has done so by vigorously opposing any serious efforts
at conservation, which would have to be the centerpiece of any
real plan to reduce oil imports.<br>
<br>
There are many ways to make this case; here are two more. Even at
its peak, a decade or so after drilling began, oil production from
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would reduce imports by no
more than would a 3-mile-per-gallon increase in fuel efficiency --
something easily achievable, were it not for opposition from
special interest groups. Indeed, the Kerry-McCain fuel efficiency
standards, which the administration opposed, would have saved
three times as much oil as ANWR might produce. Or put it this way:
Total world oil production is about 75 million barrels per day, of
which the United States consumes almost 20; ANWR would produce, at
maximum, a bit more than 1 million.<br>
<br>
Yet a few months ago, Republican activists ran ads with
side-by-side photos of Tom Daschle and Saddam Hussein, declaring
that both men oppose drilling in ANWR -- and Dick Cheney, when
asked, stood behind those ads. Administration critics could, with
rather more justification, run ads with side-by-side photos of
George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, declaring that both men oppose
increased fuel efficiency standards. (Actually, I'm not aware that
Iraq's ruler has expressed an opinion on either issue.) Of course,
if such ads did run, there would be enormous outrage. After all,
turnabout wouldn't be fair play because, well, just because.<br>
<br>
This isn't the first time the Bush administration has engaged in
''hitchhiking,'' using a crisis to promote a pre-existing agenda
that has nothing to do with that crisis. A year ago it was trying
to promote drilling in the wildlife refuge as the answer to
electricity shortages in California -- a connection as
far-fetched, if you think about it, as the alleged connection
between arctic drilling and the war on terror. And the
administration has shamelessly exploited Sept. 11 to cover its
fiscal tracks, pretending -- in flat contradiction of the facts --
that the war on terror is the reason those huge projected
surpluses have vanished, and that tax cuts have nothing to do with
it.<br>
<br>
But this crisis is different, if only because it is so awful. The
unfolding tragedy in the Middle East reduces me and many others to
despair in a way that Sept. 11 never did.<br>
<br>
Needless to say, I don't have the answer to that tragedy. Mr.
Bush's speech yesterday gave some reason for hope: at least, for
now, he has rejected the advice of sycophants who assure him that
tough guys never get caught in quagmires. (Tom DeLay recently
declared that if we'd had a leader like Mr. Bush, we would have
won the Vietnam War.) But one thing I'm sure of is that this is no
time for hitchhiking.<br>
<br>
The question is whether Mr. Fleischer and his colleagues
understand this. At long last, have they left any sense of
decency?<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/opinion/at-long-last.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/opinion/at-long-last.html</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
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