Senators see global warming in action

WASHINGTON – Leading a bipartisan delegation of 10 colleagues to Greenland, Sen. Barbara Boxer said Saturday she saw firsthand the effects of global warming and received a plea from the country’s officials to do something to change it.

“I think everyone who has seen this is changed,” Boxer, D-Calif., said in a telephone interview from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. “Imagine flying in a helicopter and seeing this massive glacier that’s five miles wide and 500 miles long … following it as it’s crashing into the sea.” The glacier they flew over is the fastest moving one in the world, she said.

Boxer said she decided to organize the weekend trip to Greenland so she and other senators could better understand the information they have received from sources such as scientists, reports and former Vice President Al Gore’s movie.

Boxer said the glacier she saw Saturday morning could span the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. “It’s moving and it’s melting and every single day, 24 hours a day, 20 million tons of ice comes off that glacier and streams into the ocean.”

Boxer has made getting a global warming bill to the Senate floor her top priority as chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. So far, mostly Democrats have signed on to the half-dozen or so climate change bills that have been introduced.

But several Republicans, most notably Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are either working on bills or are co-sponsors of legislation.

At issue for the Senate is whether to cap greenhouse gas emissions and, if so, whether to set limits across the board on all industry sectors or target such limits. Opponents of Boxer’s view, that an economy-wide solution is needed, dispute how much human factors have influenced the change in the planet’s climate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said last week if Boxer’s committee sends a bill to the floor he will find time to debate it this fall. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has established a special committee to tackle the global warming issue.