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Local News & Opinion
01.26 Local Democrats Invited to Brainstorming Session on Sun., Jan. 31 Ref. : Local Newsbriefs Travel
Books, Films, Arts & Education
02.04 'The Power of Nightmares': Underwear vs. Reason Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters:
Health & Environment
Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries 02.03 Drugmaker Got Kickbacks for Nursing Home Patients 01.18 Drugmaker Got Kickbacks for Nursing Home Patients 01.09 Are Americans a Broken People? Why We've Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of Oppression 01.09 Probation Ends for "Baucus 8" Media Watching
02.04 Err-America 02.03 The Right Gets Itself 'Wired' 01.15 Cuba is Missing...From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti's Earthquake 01.13 WaPo Ombud Responds on Fiscal Times 01.12 Goodbye Moyers, Hello Bush Institute? Ref. : The Daily Howler Legal Matters
01.25 Thinking About Fictions 01.24 US Democracy's End of the Road 01.22 Editorial: U.S. Supreme Court Nails Down the Coffin of Democracy 01.22 Security Fools US Politics, Policy & Culture
02.09 Growing Hunger in America 02.08 The US Government has Lost its Reason for Being 02.08 Thinking About Oracles 02.06 No Direction Home: Pakistan and the Imperial Principle 02.04 Howard Zinn and the State of the Union 02.04 The US Supreme Court: Vanguard of Friendly American Fascism? 02.04 The New War Against Money 02.04 David Brooks Goes After Greedy Geezers 02.02 Obama's Budget Ducks Pentagon Cuts 02.02 Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite 02.01 Thinking About Definitives 02.01 Remembering Howard Zinn (1922 - 2010) 01.29 American History 101: We Are Devo 01.29 Obama's Outreach to Americans: Empty Rhetoric, Business As Usual 01.28 The Supreme Court's Partisanship 01.27 Freeze Frame: Flopsweat and Farce in the Hollow Halls of Power 01.25 Granny D on Campaign Finance Reform 01.25 S.C. Republican’s Plan: Starve the Poor So They’ll Stop “Breeding” 01.23 It's Time for Kucinich, Conyers, Feingold and Other `Progressives' in Congress to Take a Stand 01.21 Massachusetts' Message of Stupid 01.21 Terrorism Defined: Bill Clinton Lights Our Way to Truth 01.21 How Obama Lost His Way 01.21 Political Earthquake Rocks Massachusetts 01.20 Obama Cuts Deal that Will Reduce Social Security, Medicare and all Entitlements 01.20 Critical Mass: Dem Agenda Opens Right-Wing Doors 01.19 Outsourcing War: The Rise of Private Military Contractors 01.13 Haiti and America's Historic Debt 01.13 Seize Wall Street Bonuses and Send them to Haiti 01.12 Do Republicans Deserve a Reward? 01.10 Hard Lessons from Decades Past High Crimes?
01.25 The Silence and the Shield: Depraved Indifference to the Atrocities of Power 01.19 Dark as a Dungeon: A Brutal System Stripped Bare Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance
02.07 AIG-Gate: The World's Greatest Insurance Heist 02.06 The Free Market Fetish 02.04 The Crisis is Not Over 02.03 States Face Worsening Recession with Health Care Funds on the Chopping Block 02.02 Rule by the Rich 01.29 The Battle of the Titans: JPMorgan vs. Goldman Sachs 01.27 State of the Union: Obama’s “Automatic IRA” Plan Could Make Bush’s Wildest Dreams Come True 01.26 Obama, Read Your Reagan on Capital Gains Taxation 01.24 Funding Public Health Care with a Publicly-Owned Bank: How Canada Did It 01.18 Thinking About Accelerants 01.15 Lessons from America's Lost Decade 01.11 Thinking About Gadgets 01.11 The Recession Is Over, the Depression Just Beginning International
02.08 Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Injustic 02.07 Annals of Liberation: Obama Surge Driving Thousands From Their Homes 02.05 Human Rights Abuses in Israel and Occupied Palestine 02.03 Child Slavery in Haiti 01.30 Blood is His Argument: Tony Blair's Gentle Cuddling at Iraq "Inquiry" 01.28 Obama Ignores Key Afghan Warning 01.27 Haiti's Earthquake: Natural or Engineered 01.26 Helping Haiti’s Elders 01.26 Focus on Israel: Harvesting Haitian Organs 01.25 Focus on Haiti: Washington's Militarized Takeover 01.22 The Lessons of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions 01.18 Disaster Capitalism Headed to Haiti 01.15 U.S. Policy Helped Keep Haiti in Chaos 01.15 The Big One Devastates Haiti 01.14 Help Haiti: The Unforgiven Country Cries Out 01.14 Israeli Democracy or Hypocrisy 01.13 Red Dusk: Vision and Deceit at Empire's End 01.13 Israeli Prohibitions Against Free Expression and "Enemy Alien" Contacts 01.10 Mondo Hondo: Obama Goes Traditional in Latin America 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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