"Cold Shoulder for Climate Change"

"Climate scientists are in a tough spot.

They have never been more certain about what they know. Powerful new satellites can hone in on mountainous regions to measure ice melt. Stronger computers model changes in disruptive weather patterns. Scientists are even more comfortable attributing climate change to visible effects around the globe, from retreating Himalayan glaciers to southwestern U.S. droughts and acidifying oceans.

Yet scientists are still stuck in the mud trying to get that message out in Washington, where House Republicans made one of their first orders of business passing legislation to zero out research budgets for domestic and international climate efforts and unraveling a key EPA declaration that humans have played a critical role in changing the planet.

For instance, National Research Council members got a collective shrug earlier this month when they went to Capitol Hill to share their work — a congressionally mandated, 18-month review of the nuts and bolts of global warming science and ideas for what U.S. policymakers could do about it."

Darren Samuelsohn reports for Politico May 24, 2011.