Al Gore issues lawmakers dire warning on climate change
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday March 22, 5:30 AM
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Al Gore issues lawmakers dire warning on climate change*
Armed with an Oscar, tipped as a possible Nobel laureate and hailed as a
champion of the environment, Al Gore Wednesday swept back into Congress
for the first time since he had to announce his defeat in the 2000
presidential elections.
With his political star on the rise amid rumors that he could be
convinced to make another bid for the White House, the former US vice
president stood before lawmakers with an even more ambitious mission --
saving the planet.
Climate change "threatens the survival of our civilization and the
habitability of the Earth," Gore warned as he called climate change a
"planetary emergency."
"Today I am here to deliver more than a half-million messages to
Congress asking for real action on global warming," he said.
"Global warming is real, and human activity is the main cause," Gore
told a joint hearing of separate House of Representatives committees
governing energy and environmental matters.
Gore, who last month won an Oscar for his blockbuster documentary about
climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," has reinvented himself from
failed presidential candidate into the country's leading environmental
gadfly.
Although he says he is happy with his role as the nation's environmental
conscience, supporters have launched websites such as
"draftgore2008.org" and "algore.org" to goad him into tossing his hat
into the ring.
So far, he has resisted calls to join the 2008 presidential fray,
although the lifelong Democrat has not entirely ruled out another crack
at the White House.
He has recently been involved in a number of high-profile events and
honors -- including his Oscar victory and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination
-- any of which would make a fine launchpad for a possible presidential bid.
And he is organizing a seven-continent musical series intended to be a
fundraiser for environmental causes, including a blowout concert on the
steps of the US Capitol in July.
Once derided as awkward and geeky, Gore drew standing-room only crowds
in Congress for Wednesday's testimony, which was covered live by cable
news channels. The last time he appeared in Congress, when he was vice
president and the official head of the Senate, he had to announce his
failed 2000 presidential bid.
And his visit to Capitol Hill was a sort of homecoming for the former
lawmaker from Tennessee, who served in both the House and Senate before
being elected Bill Clinton's vice president in 1992.
The first president George Bush, the father of the incumbent, once
mocked Gore as "ozone man" for what were deemed to be his far-out
environmental views.
But in recent years Gore's stock has again risen, as global warming has
become a front-burner issue with growing numbers of Americans.
Gore noted that, ecologically speaking, America long has been out of
step with other countries, with the US government rejecting the Kyoto
accord on global warming accepted by much of the rest of the world. US
consumers also continue to squander energy, particularly with their
penchant for oversized, gasoline-guzzling cars.
Gore said Wednesday that it was time the United States sets an example
on climate for developing countries China and India, whose energy use is
poised to spike dramatically in coming years.
"The best way and the only way to get China and India on board is for
the US to demonstrate real leadership," he said.
But he found himself on the receiving end of criticism, accused of
hypocrisy by conservatives who say his Tennessee mansion uses more
electricity in one month than most American homes use in a year.
One of Gore's most ardent critics in Congress, US Senator James Inhofe,
who often has said he believes global warming to be a hoax, urged Gore
to sign a "personal energy ethics pledge" to curtail his own energy use.
Gore, in response, said he has taken compensating measures to minimize
the impact of his family's energy use.
"We live a carbon-neutral life," he insisted.
More generally, Inhofe dismissed the former vice president's message as
"alarmist."
"It seems everything gets blamed on global warming," said Inhofe, the
top Republican on the Senate Environment Committee.
"How come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold?"