The Report is in the Mail
GAO Chides Government on Warming
Thursday, September 6, 2007; Page A19
The federal government needs to do a better job addressing how climate change is transforming the hundreds of millions of acres under its watch, according to a Government Accountability Office report to be released today.
The 184-page report, which Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) requested in 2004, highlights the extent to which global warming is already affecting the nation's parks, forests, marine sanctuaries and monuments.
. . . For the most part, the men and women overseeing these 600 million acres of land and 150,000 square miles of protected waters have little direction on how to respond to these shifts, according to the report. . .
Interior Department spokesman Chris Paolino said he could not comment on the GAO report because he had not read it, but he noted that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne established "a department-wide task force" on climate change this spring and is awaiting a final report from the panel next month. Kempthorne instructed the task force, Paolino said, "to look at the potential impact of climate change on Interior Department lands and to develop procedures and policies to proactively and reactively respond to those impacts."
_____________________________________________________________________ One wonders how the GAO avoided the scourge of Bush 'appointees' regulating their access to the press and vetting their reports. Thus far, the Government Accountability Office is (everywhere) our best and only source of what the hell is actually going on in our country. The downside of that is it's for the most part, a disaster on all fronts.
* For more in-depth articles by Jim on Environmental Issues, check out Opinion-Columns.com