Gore In Michigan - Climate Now Moral, Not Scientific Policy Issue

[hatrack]

Global warming is no longer a scientific issue, but a moral issue that mankind must confront now or face devastating consequences, former Vice President Al Gore said last night. Gore compared the dangers of climate change with Nazi Germany’s threat to Europe in the 1930s, likening those who ignore the threat of global warming to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who attempted to stay Adolf Hitler’s aggression by appeasing his territorial ambitions. Quoting Winston Churchill, he said procrastination is no longer viable and that humanity is entering a “period of consequences.”

One of those consequences, he said, is the recent spate of devastating hurricanes, which he attributed to a rise in ocean temperatures caused by global warming. This year’s storm season has been one of the worst in recorded history, with a record-tying 12 hurricanes, including Wilma, the strongest Atlantic storm ever observed by one measure of storm intensity.

Speaking at the Power Center for the Performing Arts at the invitation of the School of Natural Resources, Gore conceded that there is no established link between the frequency of hurricanes and global warming but said the higher intensity of recent storms is a result of warming — and that disasters like Katrina will serve as a wakeup call. “Something happened to the way we think about global warming when Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans,” he said.

Beyond disastrous weather, Gore pointed to major changes to the Earth’s geography — changes that, as the United Kingdom’s chief scientific advisor noted last year, could redraw world maps — as the next major threat of global warming. Using photos and illustrations, as well as past examples of rapidly melting glaciers, Gore argued that the glacier covering Greenland is in real danger of melting and raising ocean levels by seven meters, which would displace dozens of millions of people by placing coastal areas like Beijing, Shanghai, the San Francisco Bay, Calcutta and much of southern Florida below sea level. Gore rebutted those who present human-induced global warming as a theory debated among scientists. He said the scientific community is in virtual unanimity on the issue and that those who argue otherwise — like tobacco executives who years ago tried to sow doubt about the negative health effects of cigarettes — are motivated by a desire to prevent government regulation of industry.

EDIT

http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/25/435dc7f41d9b2

[NNadir]

1. That's about it. The science is known. It is now the ethical issue

of ignoring knowledge.

Global Climate change has just begun to kill. What is coming will be much, much worse.

[applegrove]

2. Thank you. Dems should never have given up the "values" fight.

It is wrong to attack other humans for who they are "gay", it is wrong to force girls who have been raped to not get access to abortions. So much of their RW policies are morally wrong and humanity corrupt.

Look at Health Care? Even tribal people had access to the best health care available often...

Way to go GORE!!

[Truth__Seeker]

3. Environmental Chamberlains, excellent reframing

Perfect bumpersticker mallot...along with the political firestorm about to really explode, I think 2006 is going to be a banner year, bigger even than the elections after Watergate.

[UrbScotty]

4. If he won't run for President...

...maybe Gore should succeed Dean as DNC Chair, or be President Clark's EPA head or Energy Secretary!