Shy Scientists Dropped Ball on Climate Change

'Pathetic' Waxman-Markey at least puts a price on carbon: Friedman

(NEWSER) - Waxman-Markey is a "pathetic" and "appalling" bill that totally fails to respond to the urgency of climate change—and it should be passed by the Senate and signed into law straight away, writes Thomas Friedman. For the New York Times columnist, the flawed legislation has one great virtue: it finally puts a price on carbon emissions, and "will usher in a new mind-set among consumers, investors, farmers, innovators and entrepreneurs that in time will make a big difference." More»

And it's in danger of happening again

(NEWSER) - Scientists have discovered that the Dead Sea pretty much vanished 120,000 years ago when the earth was as warm, or slightly warmer, than it is today, reports the BBC . It's in danger of doing the same today, this time helped along by populated areas taking the water that would normally flow into it. This could lead to momentous problems, as those Mideast populations rely on the salt lake for agriculture, fertilizer, and salt manufacturing. More»

More than half of activists don't foresee a warming problem—ever

(NEWSER) - The Tea Party movement is highly skeptical of the threat posed by—and, in some cases, the existence of—global warming, finds a New York Times /CBS poll. Just 14% of Tea Partiers believe warming is currently taking effect, as opposed to 49% of the rest of Americans. More than 50% of the movement doesn’t think global warming will ever pose serious danger. More»

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

For most, leadership is ineffective, or nonexistent

(NEWSER) - A lot of strong opinions are swirling around the Republican base, but none of them appear to point a way forward for the fractured party. GOP voters and GOP-leaning independents polled are united in their distrust of—even anger at—the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. But second in line for their ire are their own leaders—when they can agree on who they are. More mention Sarah Palin as the embodiment of their values than any other figure—but she doesn't top 20%. More»