Obama: "We Can't Solve Global Warming Because I F---ing Changed Light Bulbs In My House"

While most of Newsweek's behind-the-scenes Special Election Project reporting reveals serious campaign issues on both sides, there's one funny moment when Barack Obama talks candidly about dumb debate questions:

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

Read more highlights here. Read Newsweek's story here.

Comments

[TMann99821]

First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown, and second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now, is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for recycling, protecting the environment and lowering our dependance on fossil fuels. However, the earth has been on a warming cycle since the last mini ice age. This cycle has continued for eons even before humans inhabited the earth.

[indy100]

Okay, so forget the term "global warming" and think "environmental destruction", because that's really what it all boils down to. And, if the enivorment is destroyed you, your children, your grandchildren etc. will be (and already are) living with the effects. Here's what I say to everyone who says they don't believe in "global warming": even if global warming is all bs (which it isn't) what do you have against clean water, safe food and breathable air? I've never heard an answer yet. Hmmmm...............

[TMann99821]

See above.

[Buckytroll]

Gaia fixes herself. The environment will not be "destroyed" it will just be made unsuitable for humans; we will pass on or adapt, the environment does not give a F*** which one.

[Exusian]

You know, you can actually look this stuff up instead of make it up.

The peak of the Holocene Climate Optimum was almost 8,000 years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_climatic_optimum
and until recently we've been in a long, slow decline ever since.

Oh, I don't get you wrong at all.
You're just another ordinary run-of-the-mill anti-science climate change denier.

[TMann99821]

Did I say there was no global warming? Did I deny the climate was changing?

The question I'm asking is who should decide for all humanity that our current climate is what it should or shouldn't be?

We should all do our part to recycle, protect the environment and decrease the use of fossil fuels.

[Exusian]

I note that in your posts you do not mention CO2 or any other greenhouse gasses at all, or the need to reduce their levels in the atmosphere, or at least halt any further increase due to human activity.

So tell us, then, what is your position on what is causing the current global warming?
And what should be done about it?

[Exusian]

Actually, TMann is entirely correct that if humans ceased to emit CO2 this minute the current warming trend would not stop nor the climate stop changing for some time. That's because Earth's radiative balance has not yet reached equilibrium in response to the 38% increase in CO2 that we have already introduced into the atmosphere. Thus there is more warming still 'in the pipeline,' as the expression goes.

Here is my point:

That Earth has gone through past natural periods of cooling and warming in no way disproves that human activity is currently altering the atmosphere and climate.

We know by laboratory experiment and direct observation and measurement that:
- the natural forcings that caused past natural periods of cooling and warming are not the main cause of the current warming
- CO2 is a greenhouse gas that delays heat radiated upward from the surface escaping to space, and therefore warms the atmosphere and surface (In fact, we know CO2 played a secondary feed-back role in every one of those past natural periods of cooling and warming.)
- global mean temperature has risen over the past century
- both the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased since the beginning of the industrial revolution
- burning fossil fuels is the overwhelming source of that increase by comparing isotopes of carbon in atmospheric CO2

We know, in other words, that humans have already inadvertently and unintentionally 'controlled' the Earth's climate.
To assert that we have not is what is truly

[Exusian]

Missing last word:

To assert that we have not is what is truly....absurd.

[thepianodiva]

Well, I don't know about "which human beings .......are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate ......., is the best climate for all other human beings."

I'm just worried for the polar bears. :-(

[TMann99821]

I feel bad for the polar bears too, however, 99% of all life that has ever existed on Earth is now extinct. If evolution has taught us anything, it is that animals adapt or become extinct. This has also happened to civilizations. As humans, we should be trying to figure out how we are going to adapt to a warmer climate or to a colder one. Even if humans were not here, the Earth would continue periods of warming and cooling.

[Hillblogger]

President-elect Obama is 100% right!

[Ermasdaughter]

He's totally right!

[BarackDaVote]

"We Can't Solve Global Warming Because I F---ing Changed Light Bulbs In My House"........LOVE IT!

OBAMA is funny!

[Hillblogger]

And he's absolutely spot on... how could you solve global warming when the whole world light bulbs. Am glad this thing is being leaked. Shows that Obama doesn't suffer fools gladly.

[thatonetoo]

That was HILARIOUS!!! This guy is so smart and,along with most of America thinks the "big" media guys are pretty pedestrian. Do they really think they're clever? Gonna trip him up? PUHLEESE.

[TMann99821]

You think it's funny a man claiming to be a Christian dropped the F Bomb? If your Pastor can say GD in church, then I guess you're right.

[Eres]

Is the "F-bomb" somehow worse than real bombs? Pretty twisted thinking.
Last I noticed, there are a whole lot of so-called Christians out there who have no problem with murdering millions of innocent people in the name of their so-called religion.

[1LTUSMC]

A litttle bitter are you TM? Words belong to the person who speaks them, not the person who hears them.

[Cooper1608]

Tmann99821 go stick a sock in it. Guess you've never used profanity. Don't answer that with a no, because that would be the biggest lie today, Every body is human. I bet you don't have any lights glowing around you, now do you. President elect Obama won the election, now please get over it.

[Audrey704]

Go Obama....

[princessofnowt]

I love the way Obama is human, while maintaining professionalism of his office exactly as necessary.

He's not going to act like a swaggering buffoon, nor grab female heads of states inappropriately, while privately he will be like many other private Americans.

I do not think he will embarrass us. That right there is a huge change.

[ohioan73]

Many community organizers drink, smoke and curse. They are good people but they are overworked and jaded. If you knew how truly corrupt your government was, you would have to say a curse word and smoke a cigarette every once in a while, too. Nobody knows how impossibly nasty and evil some of these politicians are until you have to pull their coat about neglecting and abusing their constituents, then they spew venom, sell your entire city down the river..etc..for cheap--a few thousand dollars in the pocket of a Senator to grease some legislature through that would allow harm to people and cause them to lose their homes. Once you see things like that, you are never the same. Your voice falls on deaf ears: "FIRE THEM!!! You have the right! Vote for someone to do the job right. Call their office and complain. Organize your neighbors. Politicians work for YOU, not the other way around!" Nobody listens because crazy, radical, lefty, hippy dude is trying to start a ruckus again.

Obama knows that America works from the bottom up. Its up to the People of the United States to run their OWN government based on majority vote. DEMOCRACY is not radical or liberal. Why isnt Bush impeached?? I'm glad everybody woke up and remembered that they are American and dont have to take this mess. Thanks Obama--the super organizer.

[brownjuice]

anyone who has read Dreams From My Father already knows that Barack curses...

[Myrell002]

exactly...

[KillBillV2]

Teehee

[kshawNCvoter]

My President gets it right again. Bwilliams is a fool.

[bhyman]

I wouldn't go that far. Brian Williams is just about the only newsie that can hold his own on the Daily Show with John Stewart. I think he leans right in his views (not certain), but he is smart and funny. I can suffer a republican news guy as long as he entertains me.

[booker52]

Too funny, makes you wonder if President elect Obama will ever slip up and say it one day??? Naw, he is way to careful.

[Cooper1608]

And even if he does, he's still human. That's what we tend to forget. I guess it's because he ran a flawless campaign we think he can't make mistakes, sure he can make mistakes.

[GonzoFactor]

Everyone occasionally asks a stupid question, just like everyone occasionally gives a stupid answer. Williams is not the only person who asked a stupid question of the candidates. All of the debate hosts had at least one.

What I'm concerned with is people who gave stupid answers. Obama never did. Biden did upon occasion. McCain did a LOT. With Palin, it was a never-ending stream of gibberish and ignorant, self-serving, scripted blather. And therein lies the cause of the Republican defeat.

[Ouroboros]

Why is Brian Williams an anchor on TV? Especially after his miserable, know-nothing approach to journalism? Because GE decided he was conservative enough, and they thought after 2004 that America is a Conservative nation. A Red State Nation. Now that their theories about America's political will have been smashed by the people, can somebody take this moronic lantern-jawed ignoramus off my TV altogether?

[naeblisone]

Brian Williams always pops up here and there on the Daily Show and on Conan O'Brien's show to try to prove that he's "hip" and "relevant" but at the end of the day... the dude's boring as hell.

[Old time Dem]

I often wondered what Obama was thinking when these media clowns were asking him all these stupid questions!

Good go, Obama!

[MrsKohler]

That was great....He and Tom Brokaw both need to give up and just retire already. They make me need a nap.

[ObserverinVancouver]

Wouldn't you love to know Pres-elect Obama's full, frank, unvarnished opinion of Tom Brokaw?

[P3]

What wisdom is looking for is what comes out of the mouth, because it comes from the heart,
as with McCain for example, uncleanness or dirty stuff came out when upset or angry, since dirty
stuff finds its home inside him, we can expect that his mind gets clouded and confused.

"A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks with his eye, signals
with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deciet in his heart-he always stirs
up dissension. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed
without remedy."

Wisdom from Proverbs 6:12-15

[HBD]

Yeah...you've clearly illustrated the problem. When people like you live by an ancient book of tales, they have little connection with the real world of today. Feel free to live that way. Just don't force your narrow beliefs on me.

Wisdom from Me 11:6:2008

[ObserverinVancouver]

My, my. Aren't you especially clever! You were so eager to dis this comment that it is doubtful you read carefully the passage from Proverbs. Do you think we will ever read a better summary of the career of Karl Rove?

[VetKor51]

on my face...LOL