US News
Gore pushes for climate action, treaty by end of year
Jan 28, 2009, 19:11 GMT
Washington - Former US vice president Al Gore on Wednesday urged a stronger global effort to combat climate change as governments gear up for a tough year of negotiations on a new global treaty to lower greenhouse-gas emissions.
Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to raise awareness of global warming, said he rejected as a 'false choice' the debate between tackling climate change and averting a recession that has taken hold in the United States and many other economies.
'The solutions to the climate crisis are the very same solutions that will address our economic and national security crises, as well,' Gore said in testimony before the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.
At issue was an 'urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization' as a warming planet threatens to unleash stronger storms, more droughts, rising sea levels and other dangers.
President Barack Obama signalled an immediate shift in US climate policy at the start of his administration, promising to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050.
Earlier this week he named Todd Stern as a special envoy for climate change to lead negotiations on a new global treaty. He also signed executive orders allowing US states like California to enact tougher vehicle emissions rules - the first step towards reversing a Bush administration block on such state action.
Governments have resolved to agree by the end of this year on an enhanced climate deal that would place further restrictions on countries' greenhouse-gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol, the world's first attempt at setting international targets, expires in 2012. It was never adopted by the US.
Gore said it was critical that a new deal be reached by the end of this year. US leadership would be key to getting other countries on board a new treaty, which must include commitments from industrial and developing economies and will be thrashed out at a climate summit in Copenhagen in December.
'A fair, effective and balanced treaty will put in place the global architecture that will place the world, at long last and in the nick of time, on a path toward solving the climate crisis,' Gore told the committee.
But Gore said the United States would have to enact its own domestic limits on emissions by the end of this year in order to 'regain its credibility' ahead of the Copenhagen talks.
Obama has called for a cap-and-trade programme that would force heavily polluting companies to pay for their emissions. But the plan faces some opposition from Congress - especially in the midst of a serious recession - and passage by the end of this year is in doubt.
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Older Talkback
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you're passe. There's a new crisis this week. It's called the economy farce. Under Bush, the oil companies raped the pocketbooks of the consumers. Now the financial sector says it's their turn to rape your bank account. If a person takes a real, hard look, there isn't much wrong. Yes growth is down. But it is down only about 1.5% That means insted of growing at 6% it is growing at 4.5%. Do you get that? It is still growing. Does anyone else get the feeling we're being lied to - again? This whole thing stinks worse than a pound of Limburger cheese.
Really Al? It's time to start crusading against something else. Sheez!
Climate change has been part of the earth's cycles for at least the past 4,500 years. In all that time the people have just learned to live with it and have gotten along fine. It sometimes baffles me to think that so many in this present generation think that it's up to us to change the weather.
But since the climate is actually cooling down a bit from what it has been, at least he's smart enough to stop calling it 'global warming' and refer to it as a climate change.
'Climate change has been part of the earth's cycles for at least the past 4,500 years'
Say what??????
The Earth is about 4.55 billion years old. Even though it was not habitable for a long period of time, one can safely assume that it has had a climate of some sort for all of those 4.55 billion years. And it has been in a constant state of change. But other than that small error, a good post.
I am wondering if this was the change I really wanted?
Liar, a real 'Lifetime Dem' would not call himself that and would have the brains to understand that it will take more than 9 days to fix 8 years worth of total failure. Get a life, you are not impressing anyone. Again, liar!
gore is intent on insuring the US is destitute and my grandkids starve. he has made enough from lobbyists that he won't be hurt.
For real insight on the validity of the AGW theory, Google the words Pravda and Milankovich and follow the link.
Here's an excerpt from the article in Pravda---
Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The Ice Age will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the effects of AGW.
The AGW theory is based on data that is drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.
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SP4: 'hello?'Jan 28th, 2009 - 21:51:45
'yes, this is President Obama(best chapelle white person voice)...oh...hello Mr. Gore.....why yes,...good news...the stimulus bill is passing...yes, we are particularly proud...I do not think there has been so much pork pass since the bad lenonaide was served at the Texas BBQ cook off last year.....'
'why?...uh yeah, Al..uh climate legislation...I mean...well....an extra million folks are looking for work and all....yeah Al...we'll be sure to get right on it...anything else (dickhead?)'
'oh yeah Al..one other thing...we found some brief cases in the VP's office with chinese markings on them. We dusted for prints and Cheney's were not on it...they are unopened and we were wondering....send em over? Will do Al!'
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