WASHINGTON — All of a sudden, global warming is hot.
After years of languishing on Capitol Hill, efforts to curb global warming have picked up momentum, powered by a growing bipartisan belief that climate change can no longer be ignored.
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Climate is changing, politically
New attention shows that global warming is not just the Democrats' issue anymore.
The Nation
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 07, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 70 words Type of Material: Correction
Global warming: A chart on carbon dioxide emissions that ran with an article on global warming in Section A on Jan. 31 included incorrect information for China. The chart showed that China emitted 0.44 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 1980 and 1.25 billion tons in 2003; those figures were for emissions of carbon. China's carbon dioxide emissions were 1.63 billion tons in 1980 and 4.57 billion tons in 2003.
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has declared it a top priority for the House. Presidential candidates from both parties call it one of the biggest issues faced by the next occupant of the White House. Even President Bush, long a skeptic, is sounding the alarm.
That's an abrupt break from the past, when many politicians shrugged off the issue. Especially among Republicans, it was regarded as an untested theory or an alarmist fantasy.
Polls show that most Americans believe the studies that show pollution is a cause of climate change. And politicians now are scrambling to keep up with science and public opinion.
Legislation to curb global warming is still a long shot in Congress, because there is no consensus on a solution. But almost all of the candidates who want to succeed Bush -- including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- are far ahead of him in proposing ways to reduce carbon emissions.
"There has been a sea change in this issue over the last year," said Cathy Duvall, the Sierra Club's national political director. "It went from a back-burner issue to something people understand is a problem. Now they are looking for leaders to take action."
The U.S. is the leading emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for about one-quarter of the worldwide total. About 80% comes from fossil fuels, with power plants and vehicles as the leading culprits.
Presidential politics and legislative debate came together Tuesday when McCain and several other candidates discussed their climate-change legislation at a Senate hearing.
"The number of individuals in Washington who reject the clear evidence of global warming appears to be shrinking as its dramatic manifestations mount," McCain said. "We are no longer just talking about how climate change will affect our children's and grandchildren's lives, as we did just a few years ago, but we now are talking about how it is already impacting the world."
McCain, considered a front-runner for his party's presidential nomination, has introduced a bill to impose mandatory limits on the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. His cosponsors include two leading Democratic presidential contenders, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.
