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Local News & Opinion
Ref. : Local Newsbriefs Travel
Films, Arts & Education
Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters:
06.24 Mr. Holder, You Must Hold Torturers Accountable Health & Environment
06.29 Thinking about Climate 06.26 False Health-Scare Ad on CNN 06.25 Louella Learns the Limits of Medicare 06.23 The Simple Answer to America’s Health Care Crisis: Medicare for All 06.23 Tell ABC: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate 06.23 Serving the Medical-Industrial Complex 06.22 Thinking about Recoveries 06.20 Obama's Health Care Waterloo 06.15 Obama, Like Clinton Before Him, is Blowing the Chance for Real Health Care Reform 06.11 Two Key Health-Care Numbers 06.10 Big Breakthroughs for Single Payer Health Care 06.10 Readying Americans for Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations Media Watching
06.29 WP's Connolly Back, on Health Reform 06.17 Hypocrisy and Hope: Western Coverage, Iranian Courage 06.15 Excusing Outrages of the Right 06.11 Tying Obama to Bush's Budget Mess US Politics, Policy & Culture
06.30 Obama's Torture Hypocrisy 06.30 Court Circular: Annals of Imperial Continuity 06.29 Obama, They Want You to Fail 06.26 Who to Trust on a Truth Commission? 06.26 Tarnished Shields: The Morally Bankrupt 'Family Values' Republican Leadership 06.25 America's "Bases of Empire" 06.24 Twelve Angry White People: Jury Nullification in a Pennsylvania Coal Town 06.24 Touring Empire's Ruins 06.23 Employers are Undermining the Economic Stimulus Program 06.19 Criminalizing Dissent: Obama Pot Calls Iranian Kettle Black 06.17 Afghanistan's Operation Phoenix 06.16 Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran? 06.13 Where's the Anger as the Wheels Come Off Obama's and the Democrats' Recovery Program? 06.10 Waiving the Rules for Old Glory 06.10 Obama's Era of Openness Is Closed High Crimes?
07.03 Reviewing Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd's "Rules of Disengagement" 07.01 Iraq: A Bitter Strategic Failure 06.25 It's All Good, Again: 'Uptick' in the American-Made Tides of Violence in Iraq 06.22 Obama Opposes Plame-gate Release 06.21 Dexter's Legions: The "Good" Killers of the "Good" War 06.18 Extending the Tradition: Proudly Taking American Torture Into the Future 06.15 New UN Report Denounces America's Human Rights Record 06.14 Fear Rules Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance
07.01 Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism:" The Economic Strategy of Imperial America 06.23 Obama's Financial Reform Proposal - A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control 06.10 Cyberscares About Cyberwars Equal Cybermoney International
07.01 Pirates of the Mediterranean 06.29 Color Revolutions, Old and New 06.25 Iran Divided & the 'October Suprise' 06.23 Astringent Corrective: AbuKhalil on Iran's Turmoil 06.20 Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?” 06.20 Through a Glass Darkly: Sifting Myth and Fact on Iran 06.19 Iran's Election and US - Iranian Elections 06.16 The Ir-Af-Pak War: Obama Looses the Manhunters 06.12 Israeli War Crimes Against Children During Operation Cast Lead We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
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ENVIRONMENT:States Move Forward to Address Global Warming--with Maryland Left WatchingFinal Plan for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Released
“We can start working on solutions to this immense problem now, or we can sit on our hands and watch it get worse--and pay for it later,” said Brad Heavner, director of MaryPIRG, an environmental advocacy group, in a prepared statement to the press. “This accord would actually save customers money through investments in energy efficiency. I think most Marylanders would vote for solutions.” In the absence of federal leadership to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, the main pollutant that causes global warming, states are developing their own policies. New England and Mid-Atlantic states are committing to firm reductions. Governors in New Mexico and California have announced targets for deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. Oregon and Washington are developing a plan similar to RGGI.
“Maryland must be a leader on this issue, instead of sitting on the sidelines,” said Theresa Pierno, Vice President of the National Parks Conservation Association, in the consortium's press release. “In order to protect our parks, the Chesapeake Bay, and our communities, the regional effort to curb carbon dioxide pollution must include Maryland.” The environmental groups announcing the plan claim that Maryland has done little to address the issue of global warming. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) started an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in the state several years ago, but it is incomplete and now out of date. MDE has no plans to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide. Maryland’s seven oldest power plants emit 34 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. The Maryland General Assembly will consider the Healthy Air Act in the coming session, which would require modest reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide, along with greater reductions in three other pollutants from power plants. Under the bill, carbon dioxide reductions could be achieved entirely within Maryland or through participation in the regional “cap-and-trade” system being established by RGGI.
Global warming is causing sea levels to rise, potentially harming communities along Maryland’s 3,100 miles of coastline. Given its low slope and indented coastline, Chesapeake Bay is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. The problem in Maryland is exacerbated by gradually sinking land due to geological forces. Sea level rise already consumes at least 260 acres of coastal land in Maryland each year. Large portions of the 26,000-acre Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge are already flooded. “Global warming is a clear threat to Maryland’s bays and wetlands,” said Erin Fitzsimmons, Chesapeake Regional Coordinator for the Waterkeeper Alliance. “Our efforts to restore and protect these resources for future generations are being undermined by our lack of action to address global warming and rising sea levels. The question that must be asked is, ‘Why shouldn’t we control emissions from coal-fired power plants?’ ”
Increased storm activity will also result from global warming. Extreme precipitation events (more than 2 inches in 24 hours) in the United States have increased by about 20 percent over the past 100 years. While scientists cannot link any individual storm to global warming, they have detected a trend of increased storm intensity. Many people are concerned that more storms similar to Hurricane Isabel would do immense damage to Maryland’s economy. Other impacts of global warming include increased spread of infectious disease, reduced crop yields, worsened health impacts of air pollution, deadly heat waves, and ecosystem shifts. “Climate change is the greatest public health concern of this century,” said Dr. Cindy Parker of the Baltimore Chapter--Physicians for Social Responsibility and a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “In the wake of devastating hurricanes and overwhelming evidence of the onset of climate change, it is more important than ever for Maryland to adopt solutions to global warming,” said Mike Tidwell, executive director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network.Organizations adhering to this statement made to the press include:
Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle.
All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on December 20, 2005. |
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