Gore says Bush administration paying scientists to dispute global warming

[Locutus]

It just keeps getting better and better with this administration.  Now they're attempting to backtrack on 6 years of history.

Updating Bush's spin on climate change

The White House is choosing the president's past words carefully in its portrayal of him as a longtime ally in the fight against global warming.

By Maura Reynolds and James Gerstenzang
Los Angeles Times

February 11, 2007, 9:45 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is widely considered one of the world's most prominent skeptics of global warming. But to hear White House officials tell it, the world's view of him is wrong.

In recent days, White House officials have made a special effort to argue that Bush has always been concerned about climate change. Moreover, they say, he has long acknowledged that human activity may be a significant factor.

"Perhaps folks have not taken notice of the fact that this is an administration that's been keenly committed both to environmentalism and conservationism from the start," White House spokesman Tony Snow said last week.

Indeed, the climate around global warming in Washington is getting hotter. Members of both parties are scrambling to get ahead of each other — and ahead of public demands — to take measures against the threat.

Apparently concerned that Bush was not perceived as being on the global warming bandwagon, White House officials released an unusual open letter Wednesday contending that "climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office."

"Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem," said the letter, signed by John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

But the record isn't quite so clear.

The letter cites a June 2001 speech by Bush, quoting him as saying that "we know the surface temperature of the Earth is warming.... There is a natural greenhouse effect that contributes to warming.... And the National Academy of Sciences indicates that the increase is due in large part to human activity."

But the parts of the speech excised or ignored by the letter give a somewhat different impression. For instance, the citation deletes a sentence that asserts that "concentration of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, have increased substantially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution" — a time frame suggesting that the contemporary world may have played only a small role.

Moreover, Bush's mention of the National Academy of Sciences was quickly followed by a sentence that cast doubt on the notion of human contribution to climate change. "Yet the academy's report tells us that we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming," Bush said at the time.

"We do not know how fast change will occur or even how some of our actions could impact it," he added.

Critics see such discrepancies as evidence that the White House is trying to take positions on both sides of the debate. "The president is all over the map," said Daniel Becker, a global warming expert with the Sierra Club, an environmental group.

The critics argue that Bush soft-pedaled the issue early in his presidency because of pressure from corporate interests, such as oil companies and operators of coal-fired power plants, that oppose regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. They note his frequent statements that technology is the answer to the problem.

"America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil," Bush said last month in his State of the Union address. "And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."

Last week's release of a United Nations commission report proclaiming that global warming is incontrovertible has put additional pressure on Bush to appear responsive.

However, despite his pledge to devote new funds to research and to support efforts to curb the use of gasoline, critics remain unconvinced that Bush truly intends to confront longtime business allies.

Bush's latest pronouncements suggest that he is no longer ignoring the problem, Becker said, but also that he is still not committed to acting.

Critics say that Bush has repeatedly pledged to take action on climate change, only to backtrack.

The pattern began, they say, in Saginaw, Mich., on Sept. 29, 2000, during Bush's first presidential campaign. While calling for greater production of oil and natural gas, and more coal mining to reduce the reliance on foreign oil, he also said that "with the help of Congress, environmental groups and industry, we will require all power plants to meet clean-air standards in order to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time."

Six months later, as president, Bush stepped away from that pledge, saying he had decided not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants out of concern that doing so could increase already high energy prices.

But perhaps the defining moment came in June 2001, when he declared the Kyoto Protocol — the United Nations' consensus document on climate change — "fatally flawed in fundamental ways" and announced that the United States was withdrawing from the pact. That is the speech his aides are now citing as evidence of his commitment to tackling the problem of global warming.

Kyoto "would have been economically ruinous and would have thrown a lot of people out of work," Snow said last week. "The president instead has aggressively pursued ways of trying to clean the environment that don't have to make people lose their jobs, and ... at the same time, proceed on all the major areas where pollution is concerned."

The Kyoto agreement, completed in 1997, proposed carbon dioxide emission caps for the 35 richest countries. President Clinton signed it but never submitted it to the Senate, where it would have faced certain defeat from lawmakers concerned about the protocol's impact on the U.S. economy and irked that it did little to curb emissions from such large developing nations as China and India.

Bush in effect erased Clinton's signature, removing the United States from any obligation to meet the pact's emissions-reduction goals even without Senate ratification.

At the same time, Bush sought to blame global warming on "a natural greenhouse effect," suggesting it wasn't primarily caused by human activity. And, though acknowledging that limiting emissions was one way to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases, he immediately raised issues with such an approach, saying, "A growing population requires more energy to heat and cool our homes, more gas to drive our cars."

Whether White House officials succeed in their campaign to paint the president as a leader in battling global warming may, at this point, make little difference. The energy on the issue has moved to Congress, where the Democrats — now the majority in both chambers — and prominent Republicans are pressing ahead with an agenda that may depend little on Bush.

"For years we have been frustrated by the lack of recognition, much less cooperation, on the part of the administration in addressing this issue," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a potential presidential candidate in 2008. "Hopefully, we have now turned the corner, in that there is finally recognition that the debate is over."

Link to article

[Sandy Eggo]

AL GORE, KEVIN WALL, PHARRELL, CAMERON DIAZ LAUNCH UNPRECEDENTED CAMPAIGN, CONCERT TO COMBAT CLIMATE CRISIS "Live Earth" Concerts in All 7 Continents to Reach Global Audience of Over 2 Billion

Los Angeles, CA - Detailing a historic effort to engage billions of people across the globe, Kevin Wall, Al Gore, Pharrell Williams, Cameron Diaz, and the MSN Network today launched Save Our Selves (SOS) - The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. The announcement was made at the California Science Center.

SOS is designed to trigger a global movement to combat our climate crisis. It will reach people in every corner of the planet through television, film, radio, the Internet and Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world's top musical acts. Live Earth alone will engage an audience of more than 2 billion people through concert attendance and broadcasts. MSN has partnered with SOS to use its reach to make the Live Earth concerts available across the globe. The Live Earth audience, and the proceeds from the concerts, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by The Alliance for Climate Protection and its Chair, Vice President Al Gore. SOS was founded by Kevin Wall, who won an Emmy as Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8.

"Our climate crisis is the paramount challenge facing humanity. SOS is more than a global distress call. SOS will give the world the tools we need to answer that call with meaningful action. The most important part of SOS is how individuals, corporations, and governments respond," Wall said. "Our climate crisis affects everyone, everywhere, and that's who SOS is aimed at. Only a global response can conquer our climate crisis. SOS asks all people to Save Our Selves because only we can."

"In order to solve the Climate Crisis, we have to reach billions of people. We are launching SOS and Live Earth to begin a process of communication that will mobilize people all over the world to take action," Gore said. "The Climate Crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement. We hope to jump-start that movement right here, right now, and take it to a new level on July 7, 2007."

"At MSN, we have the worldwide audience and the technology stage to help unite a global community around SOS and Live Earth," said Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN. "Anyone around the world with an Internet connection will be able to come to MSN to view not just the concert events, but also an extensive collection of interactive media that will entertain, educate, inspire and ultimately drive change." Wall announced 25 of the 100 top musical acts that have answered SOS's call and are performing at Live Earth. SOS is also engaging other celebrities, CEOs, athletes, academics and government leaders to engage their constituencies. Please see that attached list of 25 artists.

"More than 100 artists are performing at Live Earth and they're all headliners. That's what it takes to engage billions of people. We're not just engaging fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg, or the Foo Fighters and Faith Hill. We're engaging them and everyone in between," Wall said. "We've been overwhelmed by the response from the artist community and are feverishly working out the logistics for all of the bands that want to be involved. Today we are announcing just the first 25 and will soon be announcing even more headliners who, for contractual reasons, cannot be announced today." The campaign's identity is based on SOS, the international Morse code distress signal: three dots, followed by three dashes, followed by three dots. SOS is the most urgent, universal message we have, and SOS will use that signal as a continuous distress call to prompt individuals, corporations and governments around the world to respond to our climate crisis with action. "SOS is creating an unmatched communications platform to take on an unparalleled crisis," Wall said. "Our message must saturate the globe if we're to succeed, and we will. In the US, we're partnering with NBC-Universal and its networks. On satellite radio, we have SIRIUS and XM. In the UK, we're partnering with the BBC. In Japan, we have a historic partnership with two broadcast partners. We have already secured television, Internet and wireless coverage in 120 countries, and the rest are soon to come."

Wall announced that Live Earth concerts will take place in the Brazil, Shanghai, Japan, Johannesburg, London, Sydney, and the Eastern United States.

Live Earth will be broadcast worldwide on MSN, which was the first sponsor to answer SOS's call. MSN is one of the world's most popular Internet destinations, and as such will allow the SOS campaign to have a global reach. MSN has services in over 42 markets and 21 languages, and more than 465 million people around the world visit MSN each month. Beginning today, people can go to http://liveearth.msn.com and begin participating in the global movement, and on 7/7/07, to watch the Live Earth concerts. Live Earth is being produced by Control Room, of which Kevin Wall is the CEO. Control Room has produced and distributed more than 60 concerts since its founding a year and a half ago featuring Beyoncé, Madonna, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, Keith Urban, James Blunt, Snoop Dogg, the Rolling Stones, among others. Its multi-partner network provides a global reach for live offerings through broadband, television, digital movie theatres and mobile phones throughout the U.S. and the world. Live Earth will implement a new Green Event Standard that will become the model for carbon neutral concerts and other live events in the future. The Green Event Standard is being developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Commission to create a way for venues to be LEED-approved.

MSN 02/15/07

MSN 02/15/07

[Sandy Eggo]

Where's Henry?!?  I miss him.


Has anybody heard from him? How's his son?

[Henry Hawk]

THAT HAS BEEN MY POINT FROM THE START

YOU ARE ASKING OTHERS TO BACK UP A STATEMENT MADE BY GORE

I FOUND ONE

REFUTE IT

No....the statement made by Al Gore was...."the Bush administration was paying".....that is a lie....PERIOD.

[Henry Hawk]

"House hearing on 'warming of the planet' canceled after ice storm."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/2/14/151325.shtml?s=us

[awol]

that is a lie....PERIOD.

nope.

[Henry Hawk]

nope.

yep   

[Henry Hawk]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/14/nepal.snow.reut/

Kathmandu: First snow in 63 years

[Gryphon]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/14/nepal.snow.reut/

Kathmandu: First snow in 63 years

whats that, your anecdotal proof that global warming doesnt exist? If so, you really should read up on the subject, your ignorance is showing.

[Henry Hawk]

whats that, your anecdotal proof that global warming doesnt exist? If so, you really should read up on the subject, your ignorance is showing.

I have read plenty....no, that is not proof....but, simply a reminder that nobody can forecast our climate, let alone what it will be in 2100....

I'm sick of the over inflated hype of the un-proven theory that it is man's fault....

If I'm showing ingnorance, then you are showing arrogance....

[IYT]

I'm sick of the over inflated hype of the un-proven theory that it is man's fault....

Why?

[Henry Hawk]

Why?

because of the political hacks (Gore ) and the United Nations and kyoto treaty...I think they are doing more damage than good....quit the bs, and let's talk straight about this....it makes me sick....and it turns me off to the point, I want them called out on their crap.

[IYT]

I agree, but it works both ways (as far as calling people out on their crap), IMO. 

Let me preface this by saying I agree that the earth goes through stages of heating and cooling. I would also contend that the earth has mechanisms to repair itself, for lack of a better term. Now with that said, I do believe in human accelerated climate change, and it's not because of Al Bore. I haven't watched his movie nor do I intend to. There's evidence that humans are accelerating climate change (whether you like it or not)and to me it is overwhelming. But I can see how other people just believe that this is a typical warming stage the earth is going through.

I hate that this has become a political issue. From what I've read in magazines and seen on The Discovery Channel and such, I believe there are a plethora of other ways to provide power to our planet that are more environmentally friendly and just as reliable. I think researching renewable resources we can harvest ourselves in our own backyard should be a top priority so we can reduce our dependance on foreign oil and thus get the hell out of the Middle East (and reduce pollution). Besides, regardless of whether we are responsible for climate change or not, pollution is bad...period, and a few environmentally friendly policies will not bankrupt the economy like many believe. But that's just my opinion.

KILL ALL POLITICIANS!!!
just kidding, only some of them

[Henry Hawk]

I think EVERYBODY agrees that we need to be responsible and pro-active in cleaning up our act....this president has enforced some good steps towards that....he is just not convicenced that kyoto is a logical way for the United States to go....and, with much reading about this, I agree.

maybe we can inflict some career ending injuries upon ALL politicans...

[IYT]

he is just not convicenced that kyoto is a logical way for the United States to go.

Isn't that because China and India wouldn't sign it?  I read that somewhere.