G-8

Today's Washington Post headlines that: "US Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan." It would seem that the Bush administration is watering real science down for their own "greedy" benefit. But what is actually being negotiated here? It's the interpretation of climate facts that are often unrelated. A spike in temperature here or there! A melting glacier here or there. Yet other spots are colder today than in recorded history and glaciers, especially in the Antarctic are growing thicker and broader than ever before observed.

It is appropriate for our elected leaders to ask: "Where's the beef?" Not the political science beef and not the world view of egalitarianism and redistribution of wealth view. There is no dispute that the earth is moving away from it's last major ice age. That means the planet is warming. Yet, the one area climate scientists agreed would warm fast, the outer atmosphere, is cooling. Say what? Cooling!

There are many productive ideas emerging from these often extreme positions taken by one political world thinking groups. Carbon basins are a healthy concept that guarantees to inject more oxygen into the atmosphere. Fewer particulates in the atmosphere will reduce asthmatic issues for some. And overall sustainable management of forests will strengthen our biosphere's overall health.

One gargantuan problem with climate change politics is that extremist groups take no prisoners. They want it their way or the highway. Take the World Wildlife Fund's Hans Verolme. He says that "they would rather not have a deal (at the G-8) that lets George Bush off the hook." What hook is that? The get on board with his group's extreme views hook.