Your government spends its four day workweek on things like this:

Select Committee to Examine Link Between Changing Climate, Frequency and Intensity of Wildfires…

Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who will chair the committee
Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)
Jay Inslee (D-Wash.)
John B. Larson (D-Conn.)
Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.)
Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.)
Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.)
John Hall (D-N.Y.)
Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.)
F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the ranking minority member
John Shadegg (R-Ariz.)
Greg Walden (R-Ore.)
John Sullivan (R-Okla.)
Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)
Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.)…

“A spark neglected makes a mighty fire.”
–Robert Herrick

Following the devastating fires in Southern California, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hold a hearing examining the scientific link between a changing climate and the frequency and intensity of wildfires.

Witnesses will discuss the present effects of climate change on wildfires and contributing factors such as increased drought, changes in snowmelt patterns, changes in precipitation, and higher temperatures. In addition, mitigation and adaptation strategies will be discussed.

The frequency and intensity of wildfires have increased in recent decades throughout the Western United States…Mounting scientific evidence indicates that the growth in wildfires is linked to global warming and that this trend is likely to intensify in the coming decades.

More geniuses at work. A pathetic use of resources better spent on the practical and time-tested solutions such as clearing brush, staging controlled burns, felling trees for firebreaks, etc. — and they have a pretentious website to boot. The only redeeming element in all this is the (unintentionally?) humorous misuse of the Robert Herrick quote from the 1640′s. Herrick may have thought of sparks and fire, but most of his carpe diem poems are devoted to sparks of quite a different nature.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 9:27 am and is filed under art, culture, Democrats, General, idiots!, Republicans, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.