On Capitol Hill, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has voted to cut US greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation by 70 percent by 2050. The Associated Press reports it is the first bill calling for mandatory US limits on greenhouse gases to be taken up in Congress since global warming emerged as an environmental issue more than two decades ago. Meanwhile, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, US negotiators are refusing to support calls for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions even though the United States is the world’s top carbon emitter. Earlier today, more than 200 scientists in Bali issued a petition saying climate-warming emissions must be cut by at least 50 percent by 2050. US climatologist Richard Somerville was one of the signatories of the declaration.

Richard Somerville: “In the opinion of these scientists, the prime goal of this new regime must be to limit global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius, that is, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above the pre-industrial temperature. That, by the way, is the limit that has already been formally adopted by the European Union and some other countries.”