The Climate Post: Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from the midterm’s effects on climate #p2 #tcot

Because nothing closes the window of opportunity on peaking greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 quite like a new of speaker of the House who once expressed outright disbelief about the veracity of scientists' claims regarding the threat of climate change, geologists published a paper this week suggesting the Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from the effects of the global warming resulting from our current emissions trajectory.

In an election season characterized by countless acts of questionable taste, the lack of climate as an issue in most campaigns could be considered a blessing. Notable exceptions include Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), whose defeat was largely due to his collaboration with the Obama administration on the climate bill, says his former chief of staff. Rookie Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello, a vocal proponent of the climate bill, was also defeated.

An analysis by Dow Jones Newswires argued a "yes" vote on the climate bill hurt at least 12 Democrats who lost their seats on Tuesday, but paradoxically, Democrats who voted against the bill "actually fared worse proportionally—27 of the 43 who opposed it lost."

In addition, perhaps the two most visible proponents of the climate bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, both managed to hold onto their seats in contested races.

Whatever the causes of the shift of power from Democrats to Republicans, the general result is an Obama administration doubtful it will get anywhere close to passing clean-energy legislation until the composition of Congress changes once again.

Political megatrend goes unnoticed: In all the excitement over elections at the national level, a second, even more powerful political riptide went largely unnoticed: The GOP gained 680 state legislature seats, "giving the party unilateral control to remake the boundaries of 190 congressional districts."

This level of state legislative control was last seen in 1952, and if the tendency for GOP candidates to view action on climate change unfavorably continues, it will shape climate and energy legislation for the next decade.

California kneecaps its own green efforts with Prop 26: Californians who are in favor of greentech development celebrated the defeat of Prop 23, which would have neutralized the historic emissions reduction legislation passed under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But California's other anti-environmental regulation, Prop 26, passed early Wednesday morning. The New York Times calls it Prop 23′s "evil twin" and says it could have almost as profound an effect on the greenhouse gas regulations.

rest at http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-04-the-climate-post-earth-will-take-100000-years-recover-midterms