Gore warns of planet 'emergency'

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, who has reversed his political fortunes to become a potential contender in the 2008 presidential race, made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday in an appeal for an even more dramatic rescue -- saving the planet.

Gore -- who is one of voters' top choices for the Democratic presidential nomination even though he says he's not running -- implored lawmakers to adopt a list of policy prescriptions to stop global warming.

Fresh off a triumphant Academy Awards appearance in which his climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a "true planetary emergency" if Congress fails to act.

He said addressing the problem is a moral issue and should not be a partisan or political.

Gore advised lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide and other warming gases 90 percent by 2050 to avoid a crisis. Doing that, he said, will require a ban on any new coal-burning power plants -- a major source of industrial carbon dioxide -- that lack state-of-the-art controls to capture the gases.

He said he foresees a revolution in small-scale electricity producers for replacing coal, likening the development to what the Internet has done for the exchange of information.

"There is a sense of hope in this country that this United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis," Gore said. "Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination."

He rejected the contention by opponents of quick action on global warming that the United States should only impose mandatory controls on greenhouse gases if China, India and other rapidly developing nations agree to do the same.

"The best way and the only way to get China and India on board is for the U.S. to demonstrate real leadership," Gore said. "As the world's largest economy and the greatest superpower, we are uniquely situated to tackle a problem of this magnitude," he said.

A chilly exchange

"You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong," said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as he challenged Gore's conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions cause rising global temperatures.

Barton and Gore's exchange grew testy at one point -- Barton demanding that Gore get to the point and Gore responding that he would like time to answer without being interrupted.

"Global warming science is uneven and evolving," Barton said.

"A lot of those recommendations are more regulations and more taxation," said former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, though he added that he agrees with Gore that the scientific debate on climate change is over.

"I think we can find answers to use the coal energy, to use the natural gas we have."

Gore was warmly welcomed back by some of his critics, such as Republican Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas.

"You're dear to us, but I just don't agree with you on this," Hall said.

A moral, not political, issue

Gore said he sees a limited role for nuclear power, which the Bush administration has promoted, because the plants are expensive to build and "only come in one size: extra large."

The former Vice President insisted that the link is beyond dispute and is the source of broad agreement in the scientific community.

"The planet has a fever," Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, `Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.'

"If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."

Gore's congressional testimony marked the first time he had been to Capitol Hill since January 2001, when he was the defeated Democratic presidential nominee still presiding over the Senate in his role as vice president. It comes 20 years after Gore, then a congressman from Tennessee, held the first hearings in Congress on global warming.

Gore appeared before a joint hearing by two House committees, with his wife, Tipper, sitting behind him and a stack of boxes beside him containing hundreds of thousands messages asking Congress to act on global warming. (Interactive: View one poll's results)

Later in the day, he was to testify before a Senate committee that included Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gore has said he has no plans to seek the presidency again, but he ranks third in some polls and could threaten Clinton's front-runner status if he decided to enter the race.

Gore said he hopes whoever is elected president in 2008 "can use his or her political chips" to lead the world toward a new global climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol that requires 35 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gases.

The Bush administration argues Kyoto would hurt the U.S. economy and objects that high-polluting developing nations like China and India are not required to reduce emissions.

"I fully understand that Kyoto, as a brand if you will, has been demonized," Gore said.

Gore favors a "cap-and-trade" program for the U.S. economy, not just specific sectors such as electricity or manufacturing, which would set an overall limit on warming emissions but allow industry to meet the target by trading pollution allowances.

Congress has nearly a dozen bills before it that call for reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/21...e.ap/index.html

[almaty 19]

what? sounds like al has been taking to many drama lessons

[Niels Bohr 72]

Did you know you can buy 2 tons, or 2 megagrams of dry ice for roughly five dollars!

[dalegg 143]

"The best way and the only way to get China and India on board is for the U.S. to demonstrate real leadership," Gore said.

Well, I'm convinced.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Did you know you can buy 2 tons, or 2 megagrams of dry ice for roughly five dollars!

I'll take some.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

what? sounds like al has been taking to many drama lessons

BoreGore (currently 58, soon 59) has been ham-acting like a cranky six-year-old since he was 52--you recall his claim that the election was "stolen" from him (real gall from someone whose party has actual experience in doing such--in 1960)?

[Nagishkaw 510]

Algore is an environmental communist.

[almaty 19]

Algore is an environmental communist.

a commie...wow, i thought he was from tennessee

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The crib's on fire people!!!!!! Do something!!!!

[notrepetiteashley 0]

I disagree. I dare, I dare.

[Rob and Melinda 0]

The facts are that our Sun has increased in it's heat output more than 30 percent since it was created and is getting hotter every year. The heating of the earth is a natural process that is happening becaue of the sun's increase in temperature. There are just as many Credible scientists that say that Global warnming is not caused by human activity as those that say that it is.

Rob and Melinda

[chuckandkim 0]

The Planet Is Fine[

b].....The Planet Is Fine! - George Carlins' thought ot this.... I think it holds some truth...[/b]

[almaty 19]

The Planet Is Fine[

b].....The Planet Is Fine! - George Carlins' thought ot this.... I think it holds some truth...[/b]

that was good..always enjoyed carlin

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

classic:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are ######. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?"

[ajames79 0]

The Planet Is Fine[

b].....The Planet Is Fine! - George Carlins' thought ot this.... I think it holds some truth...[/b]

That was a good read!