
CDC’s canceled climate change conference is back on thanks to Al Gore - artsandsci
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/26/cdcs-canceled-climate-change-conference-is-back-on-thanks-to-al-gore/
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skolos
>Emails sent to participants and scheduled speakers did not explain the reason
behind CDC’s decision. Nor did the agency offer an explanation in response to
a request for comment from The Washington Post, saying only that it was
exploring the possibility of holding the event later in the year.

>The meeting now planned for Feb. 16 will take place outside of any government
circles. Rather than at CDC, it will be held at the nonprofit Carter Center in
Atlanta. It will be a one-day event rather than the three days originally
planned.

It saddens me when government suppresses science.

~~~
mseebach
I sorely hope that Trump will teach Americans to get over their misguided
king-complex and realise that the president should be a figurehead with
limited power, and an executive leader only during time sensitive (military)
crises. The rest of the government should be governed by properly legislated
remits, and answering to Congress, not the president. It's ridiculous and a
recipe for disaster to leave so many policy areas to the whim of a single
person.

~~~
mikeyouse
Leaving it up to "the people" (read: Congress) over the past decade would've
surely put us in a much worse position.

~~~
xapata
I voted for Obama, but I'm not so sure Congress would have been (much) worse.

~~~
mikeyouse
I honestly don't understand this viewpoint.. the false equivalence lately is
just insane.

We're talking about Climate Change, can anyone possibly believe that the
Republicans in Congress for the past 6 years would have been better on Climate
than what Obama achieved through executive orders? Do people just not pay
attention?

Here's a quote from the official GOP platform[1]:

> _Climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security
> issue. This is the triumph of extremism over common sense, and Congress must
> stop it._

Fuck it, I'll quote the rest of the references to climate in the official
platform!

> _Information concerning a changing climate, especially projections into the
> long-range future, must be based on dispassionate analysis of hard data. We
> will enforce that standard throughout the executive branch, among civil
> servants and presidential appointees alike. The United Nations’
> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a political mechanism, not an
> unbiased scientific institution. Its unreliability is reflected in its
> intolerance toward scientists and others who dissent from its orthodoxy. We
> will evaluate its recommendations accordingly. We reject the agendas of both
> the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which represent only the
> personal commitments of their signatories; no such agreement can be binding
> upon the United States until it is submitted to and ratified by the Senate._

> _We demand an immediate halt to U.S. funding for the U.N.’s Framework
> Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in accordance with the 1994 Foreign
> Relations Authorization Act. That law prohibits Washington from giving any
> money to “any affiliated organization of the United Nations” which grants
> Palestinians membership as a state. There is no ambiguity in that language.
> It would be illegal for the President to follow through on his intention to
> provide millions in funding for the UNFCCC and hundreds of millions for its
> Green Climate Fund._

> _We firmly believe environmental problems are best solved by giving
> incentives for human ingenuity and the development of new technologies, not
> through top-down, command-and-control regulations that stifle economic
> growth and cost thousands of jobs._

These people are pathological.

[1] - [https://www.gop.com/platform/americas-natural-
resources/](https://www.gop.com/platform/americas-natural-resources/)

~~~
mseebach
On net, long term, Obama will turn out not to have been very effective at all,
because everything he's done through executive order has/will be undone
through executive orders in the few weeks. That's the curse of executive
order, and why good, long term legislation won't arise from executive order.

~~~
mikeyouse
That's all well and good, but there is absolutely no indicaition that congress
would have produced anything resembling "good, long-term" legislation.

In my completely made up system, if we started at 0 and add up the number of
points in favor of averting Climate Change, Obama probably added 3 for a few
years with the Paris Agreement, CAFE and some of the EPA rules were also
pretty beneficial, maybe net 4 over his term. Call it +10 for Obama. Trump's
going to reverse many of those decisions, probably make some of them much
worse within the next few years. Let's say he wipes out all of Obama's work
and does 50% more 'damage' in this system. So by 2020, we're at -5.

If we had left it to the Republicans in Congress, we would have been at least
at -5 every year since 2010..

So -5 net with Obama/Trump's dueling executive orders or -50 with Republicans
in Congress.

Yes the system is made up and the points don't matter, but there is absolutely
no way we would be in a better position. It's the height of naivety to dismiss
what they promised to do and to assume they would have suddenly changed their
views 180º to support action on climate change for 'the limelight'.

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thatmiddleway
It's good to see that this issue has expanded beyond the realm of politics.
There is hope when non government organizations are able to put something
together in the absence of federal participation.

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zymhan
Thanks to the Carter Center here in Atlanta for hosting it as well! And all
the foundations that pitched in.

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stigi
Al Gore 2020?

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jessaustin
Haha good idea since the last 1990s Democrat retread did so well.

~~~
mikeash
All I want for Christmas is a Democratic candidate whose name I didn't learn
in grade school.

