December 14, 2006 3:35 PM PST
Gore urges scientists to warn public about global warming
- Related Stories
-
Keeping watch on Earth and space
December 14, 2006 -
Ignoring an inconvenient truth
December 14, 2006 -
Megacities, global warming make nuclear war even more dangerous
December 11, 2006 -
Study: Most Arctic sea ice could disappear by 2040
December 11, 2006 -
Supreme Court to consider climate change rules
November 29, 2006
"It is time for the scientific community to consider playing a more active communications role," Gore told an audience of a few thousand at the American Geophysical Union, a weeklong scientific conference taking place here. "We have to find a way to connect the dots and make clear and compelling the basis for dramatic change."
Climate change presents an unusual, and dire, set of circumstances, he noted. For one thing, the effects of global warming appear to be accelerating. Just this week, a report released at the conference predicted that the permanent arctic ice sheet could nearly melt away by 2040. (The earlier estimate was 2060.)
"If we let it go, it won't come back in any time scale relevant to the human species," he said. "I was shocked that (researchers') horizon is now 34 years."
Getting the public to understand the problem, though, and then act upon it is not easy. Humanity will essentially have to make large changes in how it consumes natural resources, and instilling massive societal changes is difficult. Typically, reform movements only begin after an irrefutable disaster.
To top it off, society has become more short-term in its thinking, he asserted. Television has crimped the attention span of the average person. Politicians now concentrate on overnight polls, and financial analysts look at shorter and shorter time horizons. The future doesn't get a lot of attention, he said.
"We have somehow persuaded ourselves that we don't have to concern ourselves much about what we are doing to future generations," said Gore.
He particularly criticized the role of TV. In the past, individuals did more reading, and the printing press allowed a marketplace of ideas to flourish, he said, noting that many of America's Founding Fathers stayed up on the latest scientific advancements. But TV functions differently than print. TV stations, for example, tend to be controlled by a handful of individuals, and that old marketplace of ideas has given way to sitcoms.
"The well-informed citizenry has become the well-entertained audience," he said. "The age of print that began with Gutenberg essentially ended."
He later added: "The Internet, for all of its limitations, is growing, and it offers a hope of a meritocracy of ideas accessible to all," he said.Gore also told the audience that scientific research appears to be under attack. The Environmental Protection Agency has resisted attempts by Congress to give the public access to files concerning pollution and global warming. A new federal directive will force some scientific research to be submitted for political review, a move that some researchers have compared to censorship.
The general public, he said, is becoming "desensitized" to the issue of scientific censorship.
But the speech wasn't a complete downer. Gore opened up with some jokes. He told a story about how a Nigerian news reporter mistakenly reported that he and his wife, Tipper, were going to open a Shoney's restaurant. (Shoney's is a chain of Denny's-like restaurants, mostly in the South.) Gore also did a short, but fairly spot-on imitation of former President Bill Clinton.
And he concluded by noting that climate problems can be tackled.
"In the U.S., the will to act is a renewable resource," he said.
See more CNET content tagged:
global warming,
scientist,
Al Gore,
audience,
VP
Al Gore has never stated that he invented the internet either directly or indirectly.
The closest he ever came to that was stating that while he was a US senator he took an active role in promoting various laws and initiatives that were important for the growth of the internet in its early years (which is true).
He also warned of a general trend in the US government for leaning towards active censorship of inconvient research results.
But that isnt as controversial as global warming so thats what the media outlets are fixating on for revenue.
Instead, I'm always reading about him motoring around in limos or Suburbans, and traveling by private jet instead of going commercial. And he has three residences? One of which supposedly runs about 10,000 square feet. That quite a bit of floor space for just him and Tipper.
And he wants everyone to go around waving their arms in the air and think "the end of the world is nie"?
I say start practicing what you preach before you ask me to have some kool aid.
Hes not allowed to ride around town on a bicycle or pop into starbucks for a frappachino.
Once youve worked in the white house your accompanied everywhere for the rest of your life by secret service agents.
And I dont think they fit well on the back of a moped or would make life very comfortable in an 800 square foot apartment.
They like to move you around a lot the more houses the better is their motto because if they keep secret which one your at terrorists/foreign governments/uncle Billy-Bobs with shotguns only have a 1 in 3 chance of attacking the right place.
2.He lives a carbon neutral life, so it doesn't matter how many houses he have or how big they are. His net emission is zero unlike yours. You could operate the entire Capitol Hill with clean energy, by the way, so your point about the "10,000 square feet" is a non sequitur.
This ******** comes from Peter Schweitzer, who of course doesn't tell us how on earth he got that data. Probably he pulled it out of his ass, like he did with everything else in that USA Today article.
3.He does not say and never said that "the end of the world is near". You attack a strawman.
GORE: Well, I'm an optimist, and I'm convinced that we will, but the leading scientists in the world on this issue, people like Jim Hanson at NASA, are now some of them beginning to say for the first time that we may have no more than 10 years before we cross a point of no return.
KING: And what will happen?
GORE: Well, the world wouldn't end the next day, but if they're right, and I believe they are, that would mean that the process of destruction and disintegration of the integrity of the earth's ecological system that supports human civilization would deteriorate and would be irretrievable. The good news again though, Larry, is that we can solve this and we have everything we need to get started.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/18/lkl.01.html
The 10-year window comes from here:
World has 10-Year Window to Act on Climate Warming - NASA Expert
SACRAMENTO, California - A leading U.S. climate researcher said on Wednesday the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a weather catastrophe.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0914-01.htm
4.Gore does not ask you to do anything which he himself has not done already. Become carbon neutral and that's it.
5. You should not run with every stupid story you hear from someone somewhere in the media.
Now that's it for that new marketplace of ideas. You can see a bunch of crap on the Internet just like in the 'old media'.
You should always ask the question: why should I believe you? What's your evidence?
Sources:
The op-ed attacking former vice president Al Gore's environmental record was extremely misleading.
Former vice president Gore has worked to implement the recommendations from his movie and book, An Inconvenient Truth, and that includes his personal commitment to live a zero-carbon lifestyle.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2006-08-16-gore-letters_x.htm
First things first: I talked to some of Gore's people today, including Kreider, about the specific charges. Suffice to say, they're false. Gore receives no royalties from the mine, which shut down in 2003. (USA Today actually printed a correction about this, way down on page 10A.)
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/8/17/133652/848
Al Gore was on CNN's Larry King Live in June of this year where he stated:
"I drive a hybrid. Tipper and I got a Lexus hybrid. And we have a couple of Priuses in the family with our children. And I encourage people to make environmentally conscious choices because we all have to solve this climate crisis."
The Lexis is an expensive car, but hey, its a hybrid, which spews out less air pollution.
Al Gore was on CNN's Larry King Live in June of this year where he stated:
"I drive a hybrid. Tipper and I got a Lexus hybrid. And we have a couple of Priuses in the family with our children. And I encourage people to make environmentally conscious choices because we all have to solve this climate crisis."
See the entire transcript at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/18/lkl.01.html
The Lexis is an expensive car, but hey, its a hybrid, which spews out less air pollution and green house gases.
I didn't read it because I think Global Warming is FUD. I don't believe in it at all.
Just wanted to write in and tell you that. This article to me is not even worth the electricity to illuminate the pixels that its printed on.
Cheers!
Hehe reminds me of a little kid with his fingers in his ears going "LALALA I cant hear you" thinking that if they ignore a problem it both doesnt exist and will go away on its own (how can it go away if it doesnt exist in the first place? Yeah I dont get it either).
Its scientific fact deal with it.
You can argue the cause all you want but that doesnt mean we shouldnt figure out what to do about it and prepare beforehand.
Why did you comment no an article you didn't take the time to read. Your no better than someone who searches for articles on Windows, Apple or any other hot topic just to make a competely uneducated opinion.
Global Warming is real. But you likely think that planes are held in the air by black magic, Cameras steal your soul and trap it on paper and science is all a lie to overthrough the church.
Ignorance is a lack of seaking available information to gain knowledge. It can be cured, if your ignorant, start learning.
Stupidity is a lack of abuility to gain knowledge. I fear this may be closer to the truth about you.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1610696
Which is it Al? Why did you not mention alternative energies at this summit or the world's need to distance ourselves from the oil economy? Are you really "green" as in "Green Tea" or "green" as in "Texas Tea"?
They said that we were going to experience MANY hurricanes this
season... Where are they? I do not see anybody saying that they
were wrong... after they scared the public.
http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_3899807
You attack a strawman.
Noone said that global warming will lead to an above average Atlantic hurricane season every year. If that was the case we would be in really big trouble already.
It's that global warming increases the likelihood of very strong tropical storms like Katrina, Rita were in 2005 or Bilis, Larry were this year. It's not just the Atlantic season you should pay attention to. This is a global phenomenon.
Only in the Americas are strong tropical storms called hurricanes. In east Asia, they are called typhoons, elsewhere, they are called severe tropical cyclones.
When it comes to global warming they key issue is the link between the increases in the average temperatures of the ocean surface and storm duration and intensity.
Katrina was a Cat 1 hurricane when it hit Florida. Then it moved over very warm water in the Gulf and strenghtened to a Cat 5 hurricane then made landfall as Cat 3.
For the Atlantic season this year, there were 5 hurricanes (2 major) and 4 tropical storms: a below-average season when compared with the recent 1995-2005 average, yet similar to the average of the preceeding 25 years.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2006/hurricanes06.html
At the same time:
The Eastern Pacific was above average with nineteen named storms formed in the East Pacific Hurricane basin during the 2006 season, which is above average. Eleven of these storms were classified as hurricanes and 6 storms were major hurricanes (category 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). The average seasonal activity in the East Pacific Basin is 16 named storms, 9 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2006/pachurricanes06.html
As for the Western Pacific there have been 10 Cat 4-5 typhoons so far.
http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/w_pacific/2006/index.html
Global warming implicated in China's killer typhoons
BEIJING, 14 August 2006: Global warming is contributing to an unusually harsh typhoon season in China that started around a month early and has left thousands dead or missing, government officials and experts say.
"The natural disasters caused by typhoons in our country have been many this year," said Qin Dahe, head of the China Meteorological Administration. "Against the backdrop of global warming, more and more strong and unusual climatic and atmospheric events are taking place.
"The strength of typhoons are increasing, the destructiveness of typhoons that have made landfall is greater and the scope in which they are travelling is farther than normal," he added.
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/553
China Confronted by Unusually Active Typhoon Season, with Global Warming Threatening More of the Same
Global warming is contributing to an unusually harsh typhoon season in China. Instead of late July, this year the first typhoon hit Guangdong province in mid-May—the earliest recorded typhoon in that region since 1949. The head of the China Meteorological Administration, Qin Dahe, said that the strength of typhoons is increasing, the destructive power of typhoons that have made landfall is greater, and they seem to cover a wider geographical area than normal. Natural disasters in China this year have killed 1,699 people in 2006 so far and left another 415 missing, according to the its Red Cross Society.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4589
Meanwhile Australian was hit by two extremely strong cyclones.
Last month, Category-5 Cyclone Larry — the most powerful cyclone to hit northeastern Australia in decades — tore through the rural community of Innisfail, about 62 miles south of Cairns, destroying thousands of homes and devastating banana and sugar cane plantations.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2006-04-19-australia-cyclone_x.htm
Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica was a tropical cyclone that affected northern Australia from April 17, 2006 until April 26, 2006. Monica is one of the most intense tropical cyclones ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the strongest tropical cyclone (in terms of wind) ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Monica
So you don't have to wait for those big storms this year. They have already been here you just missed them because you don't care about anything that happens beyond your backyard.
Global warming may be a precursor to this event, changing the Gulf Stream, Jet Stream, and other major Earth systems in a prelude to the big freeze - we may be accelerating this tipping point with all the goo we're putting into the atmosphere, and global warming may actually be a last gasp before the colder times looming on the horizon.
-- whether they be manmade or natural -- at least Gore wants to
do something positive for Mother Earth. What comparable
contributions have been made by the unsophisticated, self-
absorbed critics?
For example, the formulations of medicines and vaccines have to be constantly adjusted to deal with the fact that bacteria and viruses continuously mutate to improve their chances of survival. This very observable phenomenon provides an indisputable confirmation of the theory of evolution. Yet, many people still choose to deny the fact behind constantly-modified medicines and vaccines, even as their lives and well-being depend on it.
Religious fundamentalists are adamantly against any environmental protection because they believe in divine providence. They think humans have a special place in the universe because their god says so. Hence, it is only natural that the earth and its living creatures be exploited to the fullest for the benefit of human beings. The consequences are immaterial as god will protect his most favoured creation from harm. Even when it becomes clear that the ecosystem is near total collapse, nothing should be done to halt its final demise as it is god's will. In fact, the end of life on earth should be welcomed as the arrival of Judgment Day, where non-believers who tried to save the planet will realise the futility in their attempts and be rewarded with being barbecued for eternity. Believers shall rise to heaven and laugh at the foolishness of those who had cast god aside in favour of "facts".
It would appear that the you are under the mistaken impression that beneficial mutations are a problem for creationists. Some creationists make this unfortunate error. The issue is not whether the mutation is beneficial but if it adds new genetic information (specified complexity). Seeing how any argument on this topic would consume books and necessarily be highly complex, I will instead refer to a web site that does just that. Go and argue all you want.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/mutations.asp
Divine Providence, huh? Sure, you can find Christians who spout divine providence, and you can also find atheists who spout ghosts, and "we didn't go to the moon", and "the holocaust didn't happen", on and on. There are nutbags in every camp, using them to argue that your every point is true is just plain ignorant. Divine Providence is not a Biblical way to live. In fact, the Bible makes clear that man is given complete free choice. Man can easily choose to ruin the earth, as he did with the fall of man, or choose to preserve.
I, as a Christian fundamentalist, am for environmental protection(EP) when it actually protects the environment without a greater cost to human life.
Now, for "your" facts. Yes, there is climate change. Always has been, with or without humans. Climate is not constant and that will not change, with or without EP. There have been ice ages, warm seasons and, one day, the earth will burn up, with or without EP.
There is no denying that during the history of recorded temps (about 100 years) there has been a warming of the earth of an average of 1 degree, global warming is fact. Only idiots would deny this. The argument is whether or not humans have cause it. Consider a higher than average solar activity the last fifty years, consider that a volcano emits more cfc's in an eruption than the history of man. Consider that the weatherman can not tell me the weather next week, but Al Gore can tell me the weather in 20 years, BS.
And in no case will bad science be used to define bad public policy when the majority simply doesn't support it. And the majority doesn't.
So, if you are so stinkin worried then put your lifestyle where your mouth is nature-boy! Move out of your pad, sell your car (or better, burn it), and live in a tent out in a field with the rest of the animals. Until then you are the worst kind of bigot, coward and hypocrite.
And one more thing: When you can scientifically prove that inanimate matter sitting on the bottom of a pool of water became animate, figured out all by itself how to divide and multiply into a complex organism, and (after billions and billions of years) became self-aware to the point it decided to fly itself to the moon...
Pigs will fly as well!
We are both on the same side of this issue but you need to check you facts before you alienate religious people that might agree with you otherwise.
I have never heard any religious person say the kind of things you mentioned. Ever.
Among people who believe the world will end, almost two-thirds said they believe it is "very likely" that Jesus Christ will reappear on Earth; 15 percent rated it "somewhat likely." Among Southerners, 73 percent said it is "very likely" Jesus will appear.
Asked specifically about the "Left Behind" books, four of five people questioned who were familiar with the series said it is possible that the events will happen in real life; 41 percent said they "agree strongly," while 42 percent said they "agree somewhat" with the possibility. Of those who said they had read some or all of the "Left Behind" books, 44 percent were Southerners.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund106.html
Jesus will come back blah blah blah
They said the same thing 50 years ago. Nothing happened.
Well, maybe the Earth is not 6000 years old, after all.
The very same people who don't care about global warming believe we had to invade Iraq otherwise the boogeyman would have blown up NYC.
These are the same nutjobs who still believe Saddam had something to do with 9/11.
It's not that they are not afraid. They are. In fact they are the most paranoid people on Earth.
They just happened to be afraid of non-existent threats while ignoring real ones so they learn climatology from South Park. Hooray!
American now can be proud of being the most irrational country in the developed world.
I'm not really religious and I don't support it. Couldn't give a damm even if all the facts are true and we only got 5 years. I say bring on the sunscreen! If people want to stop global warming they are however free to do so.. knock your self out.. but may not force others to do the same.
Why bash on religion.. are they the "bad guys" ..
Tell me.. with the size of space.. why is it when I look into the sky.. the moon and the sun appear to be the same size? Do you think thats a bit odd??
Or how about this.. Have you ever seen a ghost or had a bad feeling about something? Science says it doesn't exit.. but if you ever had seen things you KNOW you cant explain.. well.. I propose we are not much different internally now then we were in the dark ages and our science is still a little.. how do you say.. "rough around the edges"
Hurricane Season in America and how it would be so deadly and
destructional..... we only have 2 weeks left in the year 2006 now
and I am still waiting for all of these hurricanes to come,
especially the ones that were supposed to batter the northeast
states and New England.
If the media wants to report about pollution, they should report
about Gore's private-airplane flights and the huge Tennessee
house he lives in and the other homes he owns. If Tipper Gore
stopped eating so much, half of Africa wouldn't be hungry.
Obviously Gore isn't perfect, but he does make an effort to offset the CO2 accumulation from his activities. Even without active carbon offset, his campaign is likely to be a net positive as more people seek to reduce wasteful consumption.
Why do we need to go crazy about it ?
These changes seem to accelerate from one year to another invalidating all these "scientific" predictions and models.
Our species is doomed anyway (not in a stupid religious way, Matrix - agent's Smith description of our species is unfortunately a precise one), no worries fellas, IF our species can adapt to whatever the climate will be here in the future, and can live for another 100,000 years, the Y chromosome will be in such an advanced degraded state that we will be unable to have offsprings anyway.
Some pseudo-politicians with too much free time on their hands feel like they can push things around with their climate+disaster+ecological+"science"+political scenarios, and some media companies feed some people's fears.
Al Gore, go fishing !
If the man-bear-pig won't bite your bottom.
Many of us are aware, WE LIVE HERE, TOO, ON THE SAME PLANET, we see the changes, no solution seems to be right and/or can be implemented fast enough to have a fast positive impact, so far !
Global warming will hit two days before the day after tomorrow !
And this one in Nature:
"IF our species can adapt to whatever the climate will be here in the future, and can live for another 100,000 years, the Y chromosome will be in such an advanced degraded state that we will be unable to have offsprings anyway"
Whooha! I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.
No reason to worry about the next 100 years, indeed. Can we just get out of Iraq tomorrow?
After all we are all doomed anyway no matter what Sunni extermists do in the next few years over there.
Or maybe we just should sell our own nukes to Kim Jong Il. Who cares? We are doomed, anyway.
The rest of your post makes just as much sense as that statement. One can understand that since you get your scientific education from South Park.
You know nothing about climate models so go fishing and leave climatology to climatologists and those who listen to them, not Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
BTW Gore never said that anything we should do would have a "fast positive impact". Strawman.
help. No one can dispute his claims as its pretty much evidence. I
live in Iowa and here we are in December and its 45-50 degrees
almost every day? It's crazy what's going on....and people still can't
get it through there heads. China has better standards when it
comes to MPG for cars..come on China? Why are we using the
same technology (Oil/Gas) as we were 50 + years ago? The
technology is there to get rid of it, but money talks and apparently
people still aren't grabbing a hold of what is going on...wake up!
Proof positive: Bush is in the White House.
Geez! He couldn't have become president in any other developed country. Only in America only in America.
I bet most of these denialists here didn't watch Gore's movie but they still "know" it's just a big hoax.
Also, my brother went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last winter and it was their coldest winter on record. How does that support surefire evidence that global warming is occurring.
Thanks,
Justin
http://www.lumensflashlights.com
Also, my brother went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last winter and it was their coldest winter on record. How does that support surefire evidence that global warming is occurring.
Thanks,
Justin
http://www.lumensflashlights.com
any other. The child is raised to consume as much resourses it
can. Espesially food and petrol. The most important human right
in Calif. is «fill it up». Cheap gas is the freedom item you go to
war for and. This has to stop. OK. Thats on side.
The USA is also maybe the only country that can realy start
doing something because of attitude of getting the job done if
the the ordinary man makes his mind up. The problem is that
most american people dont want to save the nature, they want
to consume it. And the upper class i US is the worst kind of all.
- first tripple the gas price, then use your warbudget to fix up
Africa instead. Gives cred and it is cheaper. Environmental
friendly politics is difficult in europe where I come from (Norway)
because of silly political systems. It is in some way easier i US.
As absurd as it sounds I think Norway is personally to blame and so I nominate them to save the earth. Get to it guys! Do you not see how absurd this is? Your just using the US as a fall guy.
You are correct however in saying I do not want to save Nature. I don't hate nature.. but I am not going to waste my time money and energy to save it.. if you want to you can do it.. I reserve the right to have other pursuits in life.. and that is (at least for now) ok.
- GLOBAL WARMING A SAFE BET POLITICALLY
-
by BustaScammerNow
December 16, 2006 11:40 PM PST
- Getting the economy squelched will 1)lead to a reversal of global warming, or 2) not lead to any lessening of global warming which 3) allows the pseudo-scientists and their allies,the publicity hounds in politics to continue their ignorant quest for that which neither they,nor anyone else, has one speck of control. What happened to the ice age that was about to engulf us a decade ago? Al Gore,Jessie Jackson,and Al Sharpton are all a bunch of publicity hounds.
-
Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (115 Comments)