Greens Sue White House Over Missing Global Warming Assessment
The environmental community is stepping up pressure on the White House to acknowledge and take action to counter global warming. A trio of environmental groups filed suit against the Bush administration in federal court last week for failing to produce a required report on the impact of warming on the nation’s environment, economy and public health. The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace teamed up to file the suit, claiming the federal government is obliged to complete such a report every four years under the terms of Global Chance Research Act of 1990.
Environmentalists maintain that the Bush administration purposefully ignored its mandate to produce the report, which should have been completed in November 2004, because of its reticence to show the latest scientific evidence justifying federal action on preventing global warming. According to the plaintiffs” complaint, no updated report means that policymakers and the public “are without one of the most important tools to grapple with this complex, potentially overwhelming and yet all-important issue.”
Specifically, the groups are calling on the federal Climate Change Science Program to issue the now overdue assessment of the most recent scientific data on global warming and projections for its future impacts. Perhaps not coincidentally, the suit was filed as pro-environment Democrats took back the Congress and delegates from around the world convened in Kenya to discuss political solutions to global warming at a United Nations climate conference.
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15730833/