Stephen Colbert And Al Gore Debate What To Do About Global Warming (VIDEO)

On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert took on the topic of what to do about climate change. In his segment, Formidable Opponent where he debates himself using a split screen, he comes to a stalemate over what Al Gore says about free market solutions to global warming. Then, in walks.... Al Gore! Check out their hilarious interaction and watch to the end where Gore simulates what adapting to global warming will be like for Stephen.

WATCH:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Formidable Opponent - Global Warming With Al Gore
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[Tim303]

Pretty pictures for those of you who like pictures rather than words:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

[DrFitz]

LOL, did Al Gore just waterboard red-tie Steven?

[JerryAguy]

I think there is more danger from a super volcano, gamma ray burst, black hole or meteor than the warming that hasn't happened and may well be just natural. You have one of those things happen and we are not even closely prepared for a Yellowstone eruption that's overdue. I would like some of those funds to prepare for an eruption we know is coming, I guess you can't trade credits and make money off that could you Mr. Gore? He isn't concerned about any other natural disasters except if a hurricane comes along and he pops out to say it was global warming that caused it.

[Exusian]

"the warming that hasn't happened and may well be just natural"

Which is it, it hasn't happened, or it has but it's natural?

Talk about having your cake and eating it too. Most global warming/climate change denial arguments are full of contradictory "thinking" such as this.

The fact is Earth's mean surface temperature HAS warmed, with the last decade being the warmest in the instrument record.

The fact is despite 2008 being a La Nina year and despite the quietest sun in a century, 2009 has already set several temperature records, and the new El Nino is just getting started.

The fact is there is no natural cycle that can account for that warming, but the known physics of the greenhouse effect and the measured increase in atmospheric CO2 can.

The fact is because of the thermal inertia of the ocean we have not yet seen the full warming that we know that increase will produce, let alone the warming future increases in CO2 under business as usual will produce.

In view of those facts it make sense to prepare for warming that we know for certain is coming.

[gulfofmexico1]

Only problem is the world has been cooling since 1998. Whatever happened to all of those terrible hurricanes that where going to destroy the US. IDA is all you got! LMFAO!!

[Exusian]

No, the world has not been cooling since 1998.

GISTEMP:
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/gistemp/from:1998/to:2010/plot/gistemp/from:1998/to:2010/trend

In any case, starting with 1998, a particularly strong El Nino year, is blatant cherry picking. Furthermore, 11 (almost 12) years illustrates year-to-year natural variation in weather, and nothing about any underlying long term trend in climate.

How many times does this particular lie need to be refuted?

[scottyknows]

If he used a toilet I'd be convinced.

[Chip W]

That about sums it up: Economic Health vs Ecologic Health.
I think I can predict the winner.

[DocSkull]

It is also short-term economic health vs. long-term economic health, greed vs need, and you vs your grandkids.

[RTIII]

"You vs your grandkids" would apply to the dinosaurs in congress and the heads of our mass media.

For the "Millennials" - more like you and an older you.
.

[Chip W]

Good point.
I'll throw in the somewhat related idea of management by crises, which is easier because priorities are more clear, and decisions therefore easier.
But by then, available options will be fewer.

[kate99]

what good is an economy if we are all dead fact is doing stuff to fight global warming is good for the economy because who ever inventes all that new tech will profit big time burying your head in the sand and hoping it will fix itself will not help you

[DorianCorso]

I think we're ready for the GW version of the Scopes monkey trial.

[dobermanmacleod]

Al Gore doesn't know about this new American clean energy technology that offers electricity for an amazing low cost of 1 cent per kilowatt hour. As reported by both CNN and the New York Times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1iqa0dSJO0

Check out above link to a 2 and a half minute youtube video of a CNN report. What are the odds that the independent testimony below is fraudulent (not bloody likely unless you are a paranoid conspiracy theorist)? Here is a silver bullet technology: clean cheap and abundant energy.

In a joint statement, Dr. K.V. Ramanujachary, Rowan University Meritorious Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dr. Amos Mugweru, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Peter Jansson P.E., Associate Professor of Engineering said, "In independent tests conducted over the past three months involving 10 solid fuels made by us from commercial­ly-availab­le chemicals, our team of engineering and chemistry professors, staff, and students at Rowan University has independently and consistently generated energy in excesses ranging from 1.2 times to 6.5 times the maximum theoretical heat available through known chemical reactions."

Also, check out this article: http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2008/10/21/21venturebeat-blacklight-power-bolsters-its-impossible-cla-99377.html

Brad Arnold
St Louis Park, MN, USA
dobermanma­cleod@gmai­l.com
www.myspace.com/dobermanmacleod

[RTIII]

So, either the guys at Rowan University are in the midst of a discovery of new physics - having demonstrated either that the laws of thermodynamics as previously known are wrong, or that there are new such laws as yet unclasified - or they're sloppy scientists who have bungled their apparatus somehow, or they're outright charlatins.

I'll go with sloppy scientists who have bungled their testing apparatus.

As for conspiracy theories, only a fool believes there are no such things as conspiracies - in fact that belief is one of the largest conspiracies of them all! And, citing such expressions in an attempt to bolster the strength of one's argument merely illustrates the speaker knows the weakness of their own hand.
.

[Tim303]

Yes. The objection commonly made to any kind of solution is:

"That's no solution! What we need is something that will reverse entropy."

Of course they don't put it that way, because to do so would be to reveal oneself as a turnip head.

[econ1]

Very entertaining.

Cap and Trade will be great for Goldman Sachs and the rest of the banks....the trading profits will basically be sucked out of the economy most people live in and distributed by the government (Republican or Democrat) to their friends.

Al's car company gets a $500million, no-resource loan. That's a dollar plus from every American.

Yes....he is very, very good.

[DocSkull]

Gore has ordered one of the American-made hybrid cars and supports the company's efforts, but to say that it's "his" car company is a gross distortion. Companies competed for the loan.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125383160812639013.html

[JerryAguy]

He has become very wealthy on this, but why would he buy a condo right next to the ocean if what he says is true he would not ACT as he does, his monthly power bill is and jet fuel is more than I make in a year. One month of that bill I could live on that much power the rest of my life.
It's very hard to believe someone so financially tied to the whole thing. He has a big dog in this for sure.

[cmvortex]

Al Gore should be irrelevant in this issue, although I agree he has helped polarize the issue in a bad way. Nonetheless, the science is clear on this (that the observed and future planetary heating is significantly manmade), and there is little the scientists will gain by their findings, other than helping society with better information to deal with challenges that are in front of us.

[ResidualSelfImage]

Al Gore is a liar.
Its called a sun cycle.
100 years ago astronomers noticed Mars southern polar cap was melting
(Mars must be burning too much coal!!!)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

[Exusian]

Your self-image is highly inflated.

Yet another person who needs to learn how to follow a news story forward in time:
Mars Warming Due to Dust Storms, Study Finds
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070404-mars-warming.html

Better yet, if you want to accurate information on science, learn how to search in the scientific literature instead of popular media:
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=mars+warming&hl=en&btnG=Search

[Spiky Kitten]

What - Dust storms in Australia - lead to global cooling

[DocSkull]

Climatologists are quite aware of the changes in solar radiation.

[kate99]

no its not but ok if you are right answer me this

if its a sun cycle that happens every few hundred thousand years why is it that within the next 20 years there will be no ice in the artic in the summer go back in the earths history tell me when that has ever happened you will not find any ininstance when it has

if its a cycle should an ice free artic in the summers have happened before

[SColbert]

HILARIOUS!

[shockmagog]

You self-aggrandizer, you.

[RTIII]

Well, he is just beside himself on this one.
.

[SFPD]

As Al Gore stands poised to make mega millions from cap-n-trade, he is laughing at all you gullible wormers all the way to the bank.

[DocSkull]

If I understand you correctly, the danger is that Al Gore MIGHT laugh at us, but the energy companies who make billions pumping oil and stripping out coal from beneath public lands using capital provided by the government aren't laughing at us now?

[SFPD]

The energy companies are using capital provided by the government? Please explain.
Thanks: SFPD

[Anym]

Now if only we could do that to Inhofe and the rest of the flat earthers who refuse to listen to science.

[RomeoMD25]

It’s about making cash, not cutting gas

The world’s carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another “sub-prime” style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today.

In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date “cap and trade” carbon markets have done almost nothing to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption that render them unfit for purpose…

The carbon market, mainly based in Europe, was worth $126bn in 2008 and is predicted to mushroom to $3.1tn by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.

However, FoE fears that the area has been hijacked by speculators on the financial markets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/05/friends-of-the-earth-attacks-carbon-trading

[DocSkull]

Who are FoE and why should we care what they report?

[Please-Play-Fair]

I think they are Friends of the Earth.

http://www.foe.co.uk/

[Balzac]

Funny. Good performance.

Ingrid Newkirk can go eat some corn.