Perdue weighs in on climate change debate

Gov. Sonny Perdue nearly ran over reporters when he test-drove a solar-powered golf cart Wednesday. Energy company BP America donated the vehicle for use at state parks.

Perdue says it is one example of what Georgia can do to improve the environment. While other Republicans at the Capitol question whether climate change is fact or fiction, he says the state can and should do something to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, power plants and other sources.

"The steps we would take make good common sense irrespective of whether it's fact or fiction," Perdue says.

Last week, the House energy committee held a hearing, in which skeptics said the threat of global warming was exaggerated. They said the state could cause problems if it tried to impose restrictions on energy companies. Republican lawmakers agreed, saying they had no plans to act.

Rhetoric vs. research at legislative hearing on climate change

Rhetoric and research clashed during a hearing Tuesday at the State Capitol called "Climate Change: Fact or Fiction?"

Georgia Tech scientist Robert Dickinson pointed to mounds of data showing acceleration in global warming.

"The present warming is consistent with greenhouse gases and there has been no other explanation that's at all close," he said.

But Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute said global warming was not that big of a deal and there was no reason to rush into policy making.

"I believe this issue is being driven by hysteria right now," he said.

Georgia lawmakers are not in a hurry to do anything. Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White), who chairs the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, says other states are moving too quickly to pass pollution-control legislation and could be jeopardizing their economies. He says Georgia will not do the same.

Legislative hearing: "Climate change: fact or fiction?"

A House committee is drawing proponents and skeptics together for a knock-out debate over whether climate change is really happening. They are calling the hearing "Climate change: fact or fiction?"

Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Lewis (R-White) says the matter is far from clear. He thinks other states in the Northwest and the Northeast may be crippling their economies by setting policies to counteract climate change.

"They're setting policy based on what is probably a limited scientific theory," White says. "We want to make sure that if and when the time comes for the state of Georgia to enact--whether it's energy policy, environmental policy, or manufacturing and economic development policies--that it is based on real science and not so-called 'junk' science."

Meanwhile, environmental groups are up in arms. They have sent e-mails to their members and journalists telling them that climate change is, indeed, fact, and not fiction.

Environmentalists urge gardeners to adjust to global warming

The National Wildlife Federation, Environment Georgia and the Garden Club of Georgia have released "The Gardener's Guide to Global Warming."

The report is based on evidence showing many of Georgia’s common plants won't be so common in the next century, if climate change continues at its current pace.

Georgia's climate is becoming more like that of Florida, and, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, wildfires, droughts, and intense hurricanes will become more common nationwide.

The guide recommends that gardeners plan for these trends. For example, the federation's Sue Sturges says, Georgia will need a new state tree to replace the live oak.

"If I was a developer building a new development, I would not be planting the oaks right now," Sturges says. "I'd be choosing other trees in their place because the oaks are going to die out. It’s inevitable."

Sturges says magnolias will do well in Georgia's changing climate. She also recommends that the loblolly pines now burning in southeastern Georgia wildfires be replaced by hardier longleaf pines.