A Big Day for Al Gore and the Climate Change Fight
Today's announcement by the Nobel committee is a well-deserved benchmark in Al Gore's remarkable record of public service. Congratulations to Al and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a heartfelt thank you for your work.
In fact, I would argue Gore's work on bringing attention to the global warming crisis is the most critical of his distinguished career. He has been on the fore front, and has dragged our attention to the crisis when we still have a little time to change course. His Nobel Prize is fitting.
Today's Peace Prize announcement is noteworthy not only because it recognizes Al Gore's extraordinary achievement. It is noteworthy because it signals a new world recognition that the fight for global climate change and the work to revolutionize our energy production as essential to peaceful co-existence.
We must confront the global warming threat head on and we must act now. The continued battle between and within nations for scarce resources is fueling tragic unrest. Our dependence on foreign oil threatens our national security. Global warming threatens our environment, and its catastrophic effects threaten the basic stability of the world and its people. With Al Gore's win, the Nobel Committee has recognized that the fight against global warming truly is about peace.
We need bold change. We need a new energy revolution, and a renewed commitment to diplomacy as an integral part of fighting the global climate crisis. I have seen first hand in my negotiations in Darfur the consequences when we don't attend these issues before they boil over into tragedy. I have also seen first hand that remarkable progress is possible when we set our minds to it. I know what we can do to revolutionize our energy system, because I've done it in New Mexico.
In New Mexico we follow the Kyoto Protocols, even if Bush won't. We have created incentives for alternative energy technologies to spur innovation. And we've created a regional transmission authority to enable more effective integration of new energy production into our energy grid.
I've made New Mexico the Clean Energy State. And as President, I would make this the Clean Energy Nation. The Sierra Club has called my plan for a new energy revolution the most aggressive of any candidates' plans. Some believe that my proposals go too far - in my plan, we would cut oil demand by 50% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2050. But I believe we must act boldly and act now. The world is looking to us for bold leadership on climate change, and our next President must be prepared for the challenge.
Al Gore's work on global warming have been a turning point in this battle, and his award today is a fitting recognition. But solving this problem will take more than the heroic efforts of one man. It will require sacrifice from every American. It will require the resolve of the citizens of the world. And it will require bold Presidential leadership.
You can read more about my plan to create a New Energy Revolution at http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/issues/energy.
Joseph Romm: The Politico Pimps Global Cooling for Congressional Deniers
In a piece that wins the 2008 prize for a press release masquerading as journalism, Politico treats those who understand the actual state of climate science as if they are the ones in the dwindling minority.
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You don't need sacrifice, you need SCIENCE.
I don't care what it is, if it has wheels on
it, and you drive it down the road, it can
be improved. I think they should take a '66
Chevy station wagon and use it as a test case,
and figure out how to make that car get 26MPG.
Why do something so crazy? Because once you
do that the first time, you can replicate
the effort. HOW do you take a standard 350 V-8
and set it up for ethanol, how do you make your
own ethanol without causing a bunch of pollution
and defeating your efforts, that kind of stuff.
Break it down to the science, and get lots and
lots of people involved. We don't need
government programs for this, we need the local
car hobbyists' club. Tell Al to work on his
presentations some more, meanwhile they should
show how to build an ethanol still on Home Again or something. Once you've got sugar, you're in business, just ask Brazil...
"Great comment Mr. Richardson. I used to live in NM, and now live in Az......th
I'm not so sure. Albuquerque has a really bad case of urban sprawl. And Movie Stars and other Beautiful People are establishing residences in Santa Fe and Taos, using water and driving up land prices so much that the native New Mexicans can't afford to live there.
I just see this attempt to piggyback onto Gore's achievement in a "me too" sort of way is kind of lame and self-serving, as is the notion of moving water from the Great Lakes to help with Albuquerque's urban sprawl problem.
Governor Richardson, maybe you should establish a state tax that ultimately makes higher income people (like Val Kilmer or Julia whats-her-name) pay more for water (which they can afford), and lets lower-income people have a tax break so that they can afford to pay for water.
Nixon suffered the delusion that if the President does it: it is legal.
Bush is cheerful in his delusion that if he says it: it is true. And, his job as he sees it is to make decisions, and to sell his bags of death and decay as if they are glory.
There is no other explanation for Bush. He offered 3 direct lies in his veto statement canceling the expansion of health care for children. And, there is his lie trail for his war with Iraq – which as we all know attacked us on 9/11.
According the White House: the man who beat Al Gore in 2000, President Bush, had no plans to call to congratulate him. What would he say?
It is important to me because we have one man who holds no public office who has won the Nobel Prize for telling a difficult truth and prevailing. And another man, George Bush who tells difficult lies and prevails because we cannot get him OUT of office.
And we have our woolly headed once upon a time in 2000 when every pundits meal ticket was: ‘there was no difference between the two men’.
Well, hats off to Bill Richardson and of course Al Gore.
And for all of us who would like to see Al Gore run for President, let’s accept once and for all that is not going to happen. And instead let’s put our energies into voter rights and election finance reform.
If America matters, even a little more democracy for us all should matter a great deal.
Great post Governor Bill ( Gee, that has a familiar ring to it! ).
I do wonder if so many paid right wing trolls heads exploding adds to pollution/global warming?
Or would that be addition by subtraction?
Seriously, If we could convert the roughly 30% of the American population of greedy, stupid, over-consumers into something marginally beneficial like say...vege
That would save alot of energy!
Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and much more down to your local US City level...
http://www
The space race changed the American economy and American education. The need for energy independence could do the same. I don't understand why this hasn't been framed as a national security issue. Americans are too dependent on others for everything. As for the sacrifices we will be required to make to get from here to there: When did we become a country unwilling to make sacrifices for the greater good? Most of the neocons I know complain about entitlement mentality and yet they reinforce that mentality everytime they mention the hardships we would endure if we actually went to work recreating a truly independent America.
Thank you very much for the post Mr. Richardson. NM is leading where America needs to go.
I would only disagree that was need to get past 'attention' and get on to placing power into strong and deserving hands. I belive that you, like Al Gore, are among the few who are both and I wish you well in your campaign.
If there is really going to be any significant
help to different areas of the global atmospheric system, 50% of all plane traffic will need to be eliminated meaning 50% of all flights using jet fuel will need to be canceled.
The human population is now over 6 billion.
Only 10% of that population even have the fiances to use the airlines system as a means of transport.
If only 70% of all "Military" flights were canceled the effects would be noticeable.
Though to ask the worlds air forces to give up their expensive toys payed for by each and everyone of us is like asking them to stop having sex. The word Cockpits was coined in those crotch rockets.
The answer is magnetic levitation, but nobody talks about that.
Your a good man, Bill Richardson. I hope you kick Hillary's ass in Iowa.
This site kinda sucks in the way it censors comments, especially if they are in any way challenging to the author of the post. What exactly are they afraid of?
Amen to that. That's precisely what happened to me. It really bothers me that something I have to say gets censored. I wasn't talking about Cheney's heart, I was talking about Richardson's approach to politics.
Cut our use of oil down to 10 million barrels per day by 2050? That would be a very wise thing to do, but would certainly require a lot of sacrifices. Especially when you consider that population will grow during that time, at least doubling if current immigration and new births vs deaths continue as they have been. Double population and half the energy, that would leave each of us with only one quarter the energy that we have today. Do you think that will be enough and how will you get people to go along with that?
Small-minded CONs hate science.
Gee, I wonder why ?
The real risk is that the left will continue to get us to do things that harm the poor and harm the climate in the name of protecting it.
Along with the fuel standards which are good and should have been tougher... the Senate passed a disaster of an ethanol add on bill that will massively increase the use of corn for Ethanol.
Now studies have come out indicating that ethanol from corn makes global warming WORSE THAN USING GASOLINE! apparently the corn adds a global warming chemical that was not being taken into account by other studies and it makes things worse not better. And this bill will also push our food costs for the poor and all of us much higher. 8 dollar a gallon milk anyone?
This rush to junk science solutions and stupidity makes the problem worse, our economy worse, and the poor will suffer most of all from such "solutions".
Someone please tell the house not to pass the senates junk science corn/ethanol bill. It's bad for the planet, its' bad for all of us. God, have they passed it already.
We shouldn't feel better about the environment when we are doing things to make it worse and pretending we are "fixing" it.
Check the article out, corn based ethanol is just stupid and we must stop the left from continuing to damage the environment and the poor with it.
http://www
I might add that AL Gore also opposed Corn for fuel....as do any THINKING environmentalists. But the politicians are in a PANDERING mood and reality doesn't matter.
Ethanol's lousy for mileage too.
What ever happened with Bush's statement about procuring more technology towards hydrogen fuel? Did that turn out to be a boner of an idea, or what?
25 billion dollars have been spent between 1990 and 2005 on global warming research. Ya think anybody might want to keep that going? The world sure has heated up- a whole 0.6 degrees in the last 100 years....W
Gore is against the use of corn for ethanol + has been for a very very long time.
Bush America puts a tariff of 55cents on each gallon of ethanol from Brazil where highly efficient sugarcane is the source product.
This prevents our increased use of affordable ethanol, and it keeps Bush America steady on petroleum.
Don't worry about it, sleepyheads. Brazil is doing fine without us.
The currency is strong, there is no longer any foreign debt, and the rest of the Americas are buying.
And there are other markets. China.
Bill Richardson is somewhat of a hypocrite. Recently he said he wants to take water from the great lakes and give it to the American southwest so those states can continue to have green lawns and golf courses. I agree we need to stop wasting energy but I think Bill Richardson needs to think about how the southwest need to stop wasting water. Just take a look at the once mighty Colorado River. Great Lake states are not going to stand by and watch our lake levels go down so New Mexico can pretend that it isn't a desert. Sierra Club that Bill!
http://www
That's no reason to call him a hypocrite; he can't control all the water use in every way possible.
In today's modern day civilization it takes a LOT OF WATER just to have indoor plumbing. Communities are growing everywhere, but the pressure of not having sufficient water becomes absolutely intense. People literally die without it.
Ideas are important. Not all succeed, but it's important to bring as many as can be brought to the table, discussing all that can be mentioned, leaving no stone unturned.
Gore as the Secretary of Energy in a Clinton/Obama administration and you as the Senator from New Mexico could work out very nicely. Peace
If any American had earned the right to say, "I've done enough; draft someone else to run this problem-laden circus -- I like my current life as a Gentleman Farmer," it was George Washington.
Post Revolutionary War (-1783). Pre-Presidency (1789 -).
Washington had six years off to smell the roses. Gore has had seven.
~~~~~~~~~
Cogito, ErGO GORE!!!
Re-elect Al Gore in 2008
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