Sep/090
Obama For Action Despite Facts:
Obama
Only a week after top scientist make a u-turn on global warming, our president faces major nations of the world to announce what America is doing to combat “man-made climate change”
By JOSH GERSTEIN | 9/22/09 10:28 AM EDT
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27430.html#ixzz0RtI5FCcr
President Barack Obama’s closely watched climate change speech at the United Nations got a mixed reaction Tuesday: Some world leaders saluted his rhetoric, but environmental activists expressed disappointment that he didn’t commit to a timeline to pass cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate.
“After too many years of inaction and denial, there is finally widespread recognition of the urgency of the challenge before us. We know what needs to be done,” Obama told fellow heads of state gathered for a climate change summit called by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“The House of Representatives passed an energy and climate bill in June that would finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy for American businesses and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Obama said. “One committee has already acted on this bill in the Senate, and I look forward to engaging with others as we move forward.”
Many diplomats and environmentalists were hoping that Obama would detail his strategy to move House-approved carbon-emissions-trading legislation through the Senate and onto his desk to be signed into law ahead of a key climate change conference this December in Copenhagen. But the president made only a vague pledge to continue pushing for the measure.
“The Obama speech was a missed opportunity,” said Annie Petsonk, international counsel for Environmental Defense Fund. “Leaders want him to lay out a game plan to get a bill through the Senate, to give some timeline, some commitment to do it on a timely basis. … They didn’t get it.”
Environmental activists are particularly concerned that U.S. influence and leadership in the climate issue are dwindling ahead of Copenhagen, with the issue of global warming getting pushed further and further down the presidential agenda by other pressing concerns, such as health care reform, the recession and Afghanistan.
Former Vice President Al Gore gave a warm, but not effusive, reception to Obama’s remarks.
“I thought that he was simply recognizing the reality of the situation that this legislation is still pending,” Gore said at a U.N. press briefing. “I welcome his promise to get personally engaged in the work of the Senate committees.”
Gore said it would be “far better” for the climate change treaty talks set for Copenhagen in December if the U.S. Senate acted by then.
“I would encourage the Senate to take up the climate and energy legislation immediately upon conclusion of the pending health care debate, if not before,” Gore said. “I interpret President Obama’s statement about getting involved in that process to mean that he will urge them to do exactly that.”
Asked about the decision not to set a timeline, White House climate czar Carol Browner said the Senate’s pace was not under Obama’s control. “The Senate is hard at work,” Browner said. “Health care has obviously taken up more time than was originally anticipated. … At the end of the day, [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid does set the schedule for the Senate, and we have to be mindful of that.”
Obama said little about the resistance in the Senate but indicated the recent economic slump has left some lawmakers reluctant to impose emissions changes that could affect a weakened economy.
“We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession, where every nation’s most immediate priority is reviving their economy and putting their people back to work. And so all of us will face doubts and difficulties in our own capitals as we try to reach a lasting solution to the climate challenge,” Obama said. “But I’m here today to say that difficulty is no excuse for complacency. Unease is no excuse for inaction.”
The president insisted his administration has taken a series of important, groundbreaking actions to fight global warming, such as increasing fuel economy standards and directing stimulus funds and tax credits to energy efficiency.
“These steps represent an historic recognition on behalf of the American people and their government,” he said. “We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. We will meet our responsibility to future generations.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27430.html#ixzz0RtICWibT
Oct/070
Gore gets a cold shoulder
Steve Lytte
October 14, 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html
ONE of the world’s foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize “ridiculous” and the product of “people who don’t understand how the atmosphere works”.
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
“We’re brainwashing our children,” said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. “They’re going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It’s ridiculous.”
At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: “We have to quickly find a way to change the world’s consciousness about exactly what we’re facing.”
Mr Gore shared the Nobel prize with the United Nations climate panel for their work in helping to galvanise international action against global warming.
But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures – related to the amount of salt in ocean water – was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.
However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.
“We’ll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was,” Dr Gray said.
During his speech to a crowd of about 300 that included meteorology students and a host of professional meteorologists, Dr Gray also said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were in error.
He cited statistics showing there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed.
“The human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures,” Dr Gray said.
He said his beliefs had made him an outsider in popular science.
“It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong,” he said. “But they also know that they’d never get any grants if they spoke out. I don’t care about grants.”