While the war continues in Iraq, the dollar continues to fall, oil climbs to nearly $77 a barrel, and the Congressional approval rating hovers around 14%, Senator Boxer feels its necessary to adventure to Greenland this weekend to see the first hand effects of global warming. RI Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, is among the delegation.
The OC Register reports:
Sen. Barbara Boxer is heading north this weekend – way north – to Greenland with a bipartisan delegation of senators to see firsthand the effects of global warming.
Boxer, D-Calif., chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee and hopes to bring a bill to combat climate change to the Senate floor possibly after the August recess. About half a dozen different global warming bills – ranging from those with firm economy-wide emission reduction targets to more narrow measures – have been introduced this year.
The lawmakers actually picked a pretty good time of the year to go: the forecast up there calls for highs in the low 50s.
Boxer and her group will tour the Kangia Ice Fjord, have dinner with the Danish environmental minister, Connie Hedegaard, and take a boat tour of Disko Bay where they will see the world’s largest glaciers.
Accompanying Boxer on the trip will be Democratic senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin of Maryland, Bill Nelson of Florida, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Republican senators are Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also will attend. Richard Alley of Penn State University, the lead author on the United States Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be the scientific advisor on the trip.
Boxer invited Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking Republican on her committee, but he declined. Inhofe opposes a regulatory approach to climate change and has challenged the findings of much of the scientific community on this issue.
Of course, American tax dollars, and the emissions from their plane ride and boating excursions are trivial in this matter.
With far more important matters in the U.S. today, I argue this trip serves more as a publicity stunt than as an educational tour of the effects of CO2 emissions reportedly melting portions of the glacial structure of Greenland. This trip is merely one example of taxpayer money being spent irresponsibly; many of these same politicians going this weekend would not vote for funding for our American troops overseas, but clearly a trip to Greenland must be a necessary way to spend money. A weekend vacation to Greenland does not solve any real problems and only seems to benefit the politically charged dialogue of those attending.
