Governors gather to address climate change

Wired, via AP: Organizers hope a gathering of governors this week will be as effective in addressing climate change as a similar event that launched the conservation movement a century ago. As many as 10 governors and leading experts on global warming plan to attend the conference Thursday and Friday at Yale University, and review state programs and develop a strategy to combat global climate change.

"I think we have high hope this will mark a significant turning point in a commitment to action on climate change," said Dan Esty, a Yale environmental law professor and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. The conference is part of a series of initiatives designed to pressure officials to take action, Esty said.

He cited former Vice President Al Gore's new three-year, multimillion-dollar advocacy campaign calling for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, along with proposed federal laws, a partnership between business and environmental groups calling for curbs on emissions, and measures or commitments by 28 states and 600 mayors to address the issue. Esty also noted that all three presidential candidates favor stronger action to deal with climate change.

The gathering will also celebrate the centennial of President Theodore Roosevelt's landmark 1908 Conference of Governors. That conference launched the modern conservation movement and planted the seed for the National Parks System and significant state efforts to protect land...

Theodore Roosevelt with John Muir at Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park, back in the days when conservation was a Republican idea. Photo by Underwood & Underwood, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons