A United Nations panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released what The New York Times lede characterized as “a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet” that concludes global warming is “unequivocal” and that humans “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950. The 2004 photo accompanying this article shows polar bears on chunks of ice in the Bering Sea, the caption artfully written to suggest they are stranded on melting glaciers; polar bears happen to be powerful swimmers, by the way. [Editorial Note: This is a “news” article, not an op-ed piece.] 

The Christian Science Monitor notes that Dems will seize upon the report to further their environmental agenda:

[I]n Washington, the report is likely to add considerable momentum to various bills in Congress aimed at reducing US CO2 emissions using a mandatory cap-and-trade approach – something that has been anathema to the Bush White House. Although the issue earned a brief mention in his State of the Union address as a serious problem, the president made no mention of the IPCC report or of global warming in general in a radio address Saturday.

On Thursday … the House Committee on Science and Technology is set to hold Capitol Hill’s first formal hearings on the report

Against this backdrop, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided that instead of following in the carbon-footprints of Prince Charles and taking commercial flights between Washington, D.C. and her San Francisco district, she wants a military jet at her beck-and-call.

Citing “knowledgeable” anonymous sources, The Washington Times reports that as second-in-line in presidential succession, Pelosi wants “carte blanche for an aircraft any time” - but that her request “goes beyond” what her predecessor, Dennis Hastert, received since she wants the flights “not only for herself and her staff, but also for relatives and for other members of the California delegation.”

Hastert began using military planes for nearly all his trips to and from his district after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

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