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Gore, Czech president, disagree in Congress on emissions (Roundup)
By Pat Reber Mar 21, 2007, 23:15 GMT
Washington - Al Gore, the former US vice president and Hollywood Oscar winner, Wednesday urged Congress to address the 'planetary emergency' by taking strong steps to limit greenhouse emissions blamed for global warming.
'The consequences of inaction would be devastating to both the environment and the economy,' Gore told a joint hearing of the energy and science committees in the House of Representatives.
Gore's testimony came a day after a centre-left Democratic legislator, Henry Waxman, and 125 colleagues introduced the Safe Climate Act of 2007.
The bill would freeze emissions until 2010, reduce them by 2 per cent a year through 2020 and 5 per cent a year through 2050. The bill provides for a flexible cap-and-trade programme that would encourage technology and renewable energy.
'In effect, the Safe Climate Act sets the targets and then unleashes market forces and American ingenuity to solve the climate problem,' Waxman said in a statement.
The US is the world's largest carbon-emissions polluter, spewing 25 per cent of the world's total every year.
Gore's testimony marked his return to the very platform where he held the first Congressional hearings on the environment 30 years ago as a member of Congress. Last month, Gore's film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Academy Award for the year's best documentary.
The opposite side of the issue was delivered by several US legislators - and global-warming denier Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who was invited to attend but could not be there in person.
Klaus however provided answers to five questions sent to him in a letter signed by Republican members of the committee, Congressmen Joe Barton and Dennis Hastert. Klaus recently said in a newspaper interview that only Al Gore, and not a sane person, could say that mankind is ruining the planet.
US President George W Bush and his centre-right Republican Party, face growing financial and political pressure to set emissions limits similar to those in the Kyoto Convention on global warming - which Bush rejected when he took office in 2000.
With the centre-left Democrats now in control of both houses of Congress, Waxman's legislation stands a chance of passage, but could be vetoed by Bush.
US investors who control 4 trillion dollars in assets Monday added their voice to the growing crescendo of demands for controls on carbon emissions.
The group of 65 institutional investors and major corporations said they were alarmed by the financial risks of global warming and worried that US companies cannot compete with technology initiatives in countries like Germany where strict regulations are already in place.
The group includes companies like Allianz, which manages 1.6 trillion dollars in assets, Merrill Lynch, Alcoa, DuPont, BP America and other companies, and dozens of pension funds, labour groups and state employee pension funds.
The initiative, organized by a coalition that operates the Investor Network on Climate Risk, represented aone of the highest profile bids yet to put pressure on government for action.
Another major initiative is gaining steam from individual states frustrated by the lack of action at the federal level. Twenty-nine of the country's states have enacted or are in the process of enacting climate action plans to limit emissions.
The prospect of dozens of different standards around the country is daunting to developers of clean technology and points to the need for federal controls, advocates say.
'No business wants to work with such a patchwork of demands,' said Mindy Lubber, executive director of the investor network, earlier this week. 'Businesses want controls because they provide certainty and send the right market signals to innovators.'
Gore called for a freeze on the level of carbon dioxide emissions in the US followed by mandatory reductions. He suggested revising the tax code to discourage pollution, raising fuel-economy standards for cars, and requiring companies to disclose their carbon emissions, Bloomberg financial news agency reported.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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In the article, your reporter used the phrase, 'US President George W Bush and his centre-right Republican Party...' I need to clarify this: The Bush-Cheney administration is the most extreme-right force that has ever run this country, and has ruled as a royalty, immune from the checks and balances that were built into our Constitution precisely to prevent the unchecked power with which they have subverted our democracy. Their subversion has included bizarre, twisted definitions of words that have encouraged them to carry out torture and denial of basic enshrined citizens' and foreigners' legal rights, to our long-lasting international shame. This 'centre-right' group, enabled by the Republicans in our Congress and Senate, is just at the edge of fascism, and let's all hope that we can extracate our country from the collossal mess that they have made of it in just seven short years. At least, hopefully, we can accomplish that. We cannot bring back all the dead people to life; we cannot re-attach the thousands of severed limbs and make the blinded people see again.
I witnessed this hearing on capitol hill, and must say that there was a general consensus (with few foolish exceptions) about global warming. Al Gore was put on the spot by one rep when asked if he would give up his current lifestyle for one of less carbon use, to which there was a pause, some stuttering about carbon credits, to which the rep told him were a gimmick for the rich, followed by Gore pleading with the legislator to sit and talk sometime with a mutual friend they know and just talk this issue over with out the lights and cameras. I was also unsettled by the reps constantly pushing 'pollution free' nuclear power (What would you call nuclear waste?). There is much work that needs to be done on this issue, but this was a step in the right direction (I think).
I suggest that House of Representatives start with immediate implementing of CO2 caps for any Alcoa smelter and actual lowering of their levelwithin two years.
I am sure that Alcoa's 'leadership'will aprove of it.
Right???
Hear hear, Richard -- yes, exactly on all in your paragraph above.
Also, I wish to add, the Czech president must be high on crack if he still chooses to live in denial about Global Warming.
Clearly, the author of the above article, while seeming do be doing fine reporting work and clear communication, needs to be educated on the realities of the George W. Bush 'Administration'.
Very early on in Bush II's toxic and damaging period of irresponsible decisionmaking and non-leadership of the lowest order, he jokingly remarked [on three different occasions]:
A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.'
- President George W. Bush, July 26, 2001.
'If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.'
- President-elect George W. Bush, December 18, 2000.
'You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier.'
- Texas Governor George W. Bush, July 1998.
There is another crisis that needs to be addressed by the American public in addition to global warming. Between 1980 and 2002, approximately there was a 40% rise in the number of men fathering babies between the ages of 35-49 and a substantial increase in the number of men fathering babies when they were 50+.
Risk of sporadic schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes 1,and some cancers,etc. has been found to rise in offspring with increasing paternal age at ones birth. Dr. Dolores Malaspina said that: 'The actual percentage of cases with paternal germ line-derived schizophrenia in a given population will depend on the demographics of paternal childbearing age, among other factors. With an upswing in paternal age, these cases would be expected to become more prevalent.'
I strongly suggest that everyone read her brillant and informative article,
'Schizophrenia Risk and the Paternal Germ L.ine' Also read James F. Crow's article, 'The High Spontaneous Mutation Rate: Is it a health risk?' If you want to read more read the press release on March 15, 2007 from the CHSL.
How about some balance in the scientific community.
Try listening to both sides of the issue.
Check out the other side here:
www.cathousechat.com/cathouse_chat/2007/03/global_warming_.html
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RichardMar 22nd, 2007 - 00:45:42
I'm disturbed by your naming
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