Former Obama Chief Of Staff On Pushing Climate Change Policy: 'You Might As Well Have Taken A Gun To

[FarCenter]

Former Obama Chief Of Staff On Pushing Climate Change Policy: 'You Might As Well Have Taken A Gun To Your Head And Shot Yourself'

On Tuesday, the third National Climate Assessment — a more than 1,000-page status report on climate change and its impacts in the United States — will be released at the White House.

The White House is planning a number of media events in the coming week to drum up support for the new report, including an interview with NBC Today's Al Roker and an event at the White House highlighting the report's results.

The media engagement is part of President Barack Obama's mission to make climate change a priority in his second term. It's a reversal from the administration's approach to climate policy during the president's first term — mainly because climate change has become a "third rail" in politics.

Before Obama's re-election in 2012, "the president's top aides were sharply divided on how aggressively to push climate policy," according to The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin.

"There was a sense then it just wasn't the sort of thing you could tee up in [2011], with an election coming up," William Daley, who served as Obama's chief of staff from 2011 to 2012, told Eilperin in an interview. "With respect to my friends in the environment community, to put this at the front of the list, you might as well have taken a gun to your head and shot yourself."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-daley-climate-change-might-as-well-have-taken-a-gun-to-your-head-2014-5

[Hekate]

1. I'm glad it's on again -- hopefully Obama can use his Exec powers on some components...

At this point with the obstructionist Congress et al., I don't really care about publicity, I just want as much of the job done as possible. Announcing things in the Friday Night News Dump suits me just fine.

Last night's episode of Cosmos featured climate changes and extinctions. In summary, humans have had 10,000 years of temperate climate to develop our civilizations in, and are scheduled for another 50,000 years. But -- and we all know what that "but" is -- we are screwing it up with carbon emissions. Dr Tyson looks at the camera and says, "The dinosaurs never saw it coming. What's our excuse?"

So watch for this president to start quietly signing Executive actions -- keep an eye on the Friday night news dumps.

[FarCenter]

2. Actually, the 10,000 years uses up most of this interglacial- we'd probably have a few thousand left

The interglacial warm temperature periods are 10 to 15 thousand years long.

[AverageJoe90]

10. Not *quite* so sure of that, TBH.

The data only goes back 450k years......and Earth's been around for 10,000 times that long.

I don't doubt it's impossible that this current one could also be 15k years long without AGW, but there no conclusive evidence to support that theory; and remember, AGW didn't actually start until the late 1970's.....and there was no real cooling trend after the middle of the 19th Century.

[FarCenter]

11. About 2.8 million years ago, the current ice ages began

Initially the temperature cycles were shallower and the duration of ice ages were shorter. The earth has been cooling for the last couple million years and the ice ages have become colder and longer with short interglacial warm periods as indicated on the graph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene

[okaawhatever]

6. Did you read the story about TV stations in Louisiana editing out parts of the Cosmo show? Well,

they didn't edit, as in remove, so much as ran commercials and other spots over it. There's a story about it here on DU.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. "my friends in the environment community"?

You mean people who have children and grandchildren who will have to survive in the nightmarish weather changes, droughts, massive hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and floods we're bequeathing them?

[Doctor_J]

4. Turd Way truism - "Populism Is Bad Politics"

The president was willing to float the Chained CPI, but not environmental protections.

[hatrack]

5. Hoping for some sort of, Idunno, action on the topic . . .

Or is that too "audacious"?

[okaawhatever]

7. There has been plenty of action on the topic. Clearly you aren't paying attention. nt

[hatrack]

9. Google "atmospheric CO2 content" and then get back to me

There has indeed been plenty of action, but not in the sense you intend it.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Awesome ...

leadership Mr. Daley.