Well, Al Gore is scaring the pants off me

[housewolf]

Watching is new climate special on Current. He's showing maps of areas of extreme climate events in the past year or two, droughts, floods, the Amazon drying up, what the projections are for the next few years.

He says it's not hopeless, but it sure feels that way to me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Same presentation I saw last night

and yes, it is scary.

Temps in Central Asia were fun...

[housewolf]

8. Yeah, record-high temps in the 120's

I lived in Phoenix for a while where temps were often in the low 100's - can't imagine the 120's, especially with no air conditioning

[glinda]

16. We will have to when the repubs force the poor there.

[Denninmi]

2. Is any of this information online?

I don't have cable.

If the legitimately ELECTED President Gore says it, I tend to believe its going to happen.

[bananas]

10. www.algore.com

www.algore.com

[YvonneCa]

19. ...

http://climaterealityproject.org/

[Faygo Kid]

3. He's right. And I give him credit for standing up to the ridicule.

And it is hopeless. I can't imagine 50 years from now, let alone a thousand.

This is it, folks. And tax cuts for the Koch brothers won't save us. I won't be around more than 20-30 years. But even by then, it will be obvious to all.

[supraTruth]

5. Amazing he was ridiculed by much of the Internet for helping invent the Internet.

[lunatica]

12. He never claimed to 'invent' the internet

What he did was help scientists who invented it through funding. He became interested in it in the 1980s and he worked so the US would be the vanguard of electronic communication. He and Clinton made a commitment for everyone to have their own computer and to make sure schools got computers. He was instrumental in the growth of the personal computers we take for granted today.

[supraTruth]

24. I know; I did say he helped. I think we agree.

[DrunkenBoat]

25. ? How did he 'help invent' the internet?

[Bandit]

41. It is one thing to come up with a good idea and quite another to

promote that idea with funding and drive.. The internet in our modern day was created for the military through an act of Congress which Gore was a driving force in. He worked hard to expand that into the private domain. I suppose you realize there was no internet in 1962 even though someone had an idea for it...It wasn't unitl the 1980s that development began..

[DrunkenBoat]

44. Why are you telling ME? I'm not the one who claimed gore 'helped invent' the internet.

I'm the one challenging that claim.

[DrunkenBoat]

26. The internet was "invented" before gore got to congress.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DrunkenBoat]

33. ARPAnet - The First Internet: 1969.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa091598.htm


The earliest ideas for a computer network intended to allow general communications among computer users were formulated by computer scientist J. C. R. Licklider, of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), in August 1962, in memoranda discussing his concept for an “Intergalactic Computer Network”. Those ideas contained almost everything that composes the contemporary Internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET


Not to mention that your namecalling is a rules violation. And completely unprovoked.

[bananas]

42. Snopes, Robert Parry - Gore never claimed to invent the internet

"Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet,
nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way."

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.

Status: False.

Origins: Despite the derisive references that continue even today, Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs were misleading, out-of-context distortions of something he said during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

Clearly, although Gore's phrasing might have been a bit clumsy (and perhaps self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible, in an economic and legislative sense, for fostering the development the technology that we now know as the Internet. To claim that Gore was seriously trying to take credit for the "invention" of the Internet is, frankly, just silly political posturing that arose out of a close presidential campaign. Gore never used the word "invent," and the words "create" and "invent" have distinctly different meanings — the former is used in the sense of "to bring about" or "to bring into existence" while the latter is generally used to signify the first instance of someone's thinking up or implementing an idea. (To those who say the words "create" and "invent" mean exactly the same thing, we have to ask why, then, the media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he "invented" the Internet, even though he never used that word, and transcripts of what he actually said were readily available.)

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while president, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0004.parry.html

April 2000
He's No Pinocchio
How the press has exaggerated Al Gore's exaggerations.

By Robert Parry

<snip>

The media's treatment of the Internet comment followed a similar course. Gore's statement may have been poorly phrased, but its intent was clear: He was trying to say that he worked in Congress to help develop the Internet. Gore wasn't claiming to have "invented" the Internet or to have been the "father of the Internet," as many journalists have asserted.

Gore's actual comment, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that aired on March 9, 1999, was as follows: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Republicans quickly went to work on Gore's statement. In press releases, they noted that the precursor of the Internet, called ARPANET, existed in 1971, a half dozen years before Gore entered Congress. But ARPANET was a tiny networking of about 30 universities, a far cry from today's "information superhighway," ironically a phrase widely credited to Gore.

As the media clamor arose about Gore's supposed claim that he had invented the Internet, Gore's spokesman Chris Lehane tried to explain. He noted that Gore "was the leader in Congress on the connections between data transmission and computing power, what we call information technology. And those efforts helped to create the Internet that we know today."

There was no disputing Lehane's description of Gore's lead congressional role in developing today's Internet. But the media was off and running.

Routinely, the reporters lopped off the introductory clause "during my service in the United States Congress" or simply jumped to word substitutions, asserting that Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet, which carried the notion of a hands-on computer engineer.

Whatever imprecision may have existed in Gore's original comment, it paled beside the distortions of what Gore clearly meant. While excoriating Gore's phrasing as an exaggeration, the media engaged in its own exaggeration.

<snip>

[DrunkenBoat]

43. I never said he did. I was responding to the POSTER who claimed he 'helped invent' it.

[bananas]

47. Ok thanks for clarifying

It can be hard to tell people's perspective,
especially when there are so many nuanced perspectives.

[Uncle Joe]

46. It wasn't the Internet that damaged Gore in 99-00 with the ridiculous and often repeated slander

and libel of "Gore claimed to have invented the Internet," it was the traditional top down, one way corporate media; television, radio and print that did the dirty deed and in the process brainwashed a sizable % of the people as to Gore's credibility/integrity.

The corporate media's motivation was as ancient as Greek Mythology, if not older.

They were especially motivated to betray the American People's best interests and enable Bush to the White House precisely because Gore was the leading political champion for opening the Internet to the people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore

Gore was one of the Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their "passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the environmental impact of the "greenhouse effect."<32> On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on C-SPAN.<48> During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future with Newt Gingrich.<49> In addition, he has been described as having been a "genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues."<32><50> Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn noted that, "as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship <...> the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.

Gore introduced the Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986.<51> He also sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises."<52>

As a Senator, Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet).<53><54><55> The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway."<56>

After joining the U.S. House of Representatives, Gore held the "first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor hearings on toxic waste and global warming."<57><58> He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s.<32><59><60> In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, "under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment."<61>

As the Internet grew in power and influence, the corporate media's owners and upper management, if no one else in that industry saw the writing on the wall, the empowerment of the peoples' voice and democratization of information would come at the corporate media's expense. The corporate media came to view the growing Internet as a threat to their monopoly on the distribution and dissemination of information and a subsequent erosion of their power, wealth and influence.

In short their business plan was threatened and they became embittered, their enmity of Gore was so great, they were willing to enable a corrupt incompetent to the most powerful office in the land. They played Zeus to Gore's Prometheus but instead of sending a vulture to eat his liver for all eternity, they payed pundits and "journalists" to eat away at his credibility with the American People via continuous slander and libel.

The corporate media; "Fourth estate," guardian watchdogs for democracy could never bring them selves to actually give the man credit for his vision and legislative achievements, had they done so, Gore would've won by a landslide margin too large for Bush and the Republican controlled Supreme Court to steal.

To my knowledge, the corporate media; still hasn't apologized to Gore or the American People for selling them down the river.

[bananas]

49. Great quote - I didn't know that was in wikipedia

It bears repeating:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore

Gore was one of the Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their "passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the environmental impact of the "greenhouse effect."<32> On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on C-SPAN.<48> During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future with Newt Gingrich.<49> In addition, he has been described as having been a "genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues."<32><50> Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn noted that, "as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship <...> the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.

Gore introduced the Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986.<51> He also sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises."<52>

As a Senator, Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet).<53><54><55> The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway."<56>

After joining the U.S. House of Representatives, Gore held the "first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor hearings on toxic waste and global warming."<57><58> He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s.<32><59><60> In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, "under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment."<61>

[defendandprotect]

37. It's becoming undeniable to the public now ... oil industry still trying to save their skins ....

spent tens of billions to hide Global Warming from the public --

Koch Bros. are still buying up government --

"Congress is under the control of the oil and coal industries" -- Al Gore/Rolling Stone


There's always the chance someone like Kevin Costner might find a way to suck CO2 out of

the upper atmosphere -- out of trees -- and begin releasing it back into space --


However, we have a lot to think about re nuclear weapons -- oil rigs -- nuclear reactors --

103/106 of them across the US -- may make the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- ????

[hlthe2b]

4. I know that DU parents will hate this....

but, this is what makes me glad I don't have kids... I'll work like hell to try to protect everyone elses' kids and turn this around, though. On that, I can assure you.

[housewolf]

6. What will you do?

Do you have a plan yet?

I'm curious, since I don't see much that I can do, looking for your ideas.

[Gregorian]

11. We can openly discuss world population.

But that's like trying to argue with teabaggers. It's a very important subject. The subject. I just hope we can start a broader discussion before it is too late. We really are running in emergency mode as long as we have this many billions on the planet. We're so close to losing it. My honest belief is that people are waking up. But still, this needs to be widely talked about.

[defendandprotect]

30. That's been a taboo subject since the late 1960's ... against all common sense !!

[hlthe2b]

15. One person joined by many many thousands of like-minded...

can have a voice. Lobbying for change. Informing. Educating. Countering propaganda, whether in casual discussions, editorials, political advocacy or similar. Obviously, all of us can reduce our own carbon footprint, and I've made some headway there over the years, but continue to look for other steps.

It seems hopeless, if you view it all on your own shoulders and I have no miraculous solutions... but there has to be a way to use the power of numbers...:shrug:

[Duppers]

38. Bravo for you

Most people are either in denial or are just throwing their hands up to avoid the responsibility of taking as many steps as they can.

I feel sorry for my 24 yr old son & what he'll be facing.

[defendandprotect]

29. Help get oil drilling and nuclear reactors shut down, for one ....

could make the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- !!!


Also push for electric cars with solar batteries --

Nationaizing oil industry --

STOPPING THE WARS --

and overturning trade agreements --


We need local production of energy and goods --

[SpiralHawk]

39. Plant an organic garden

it's a drop in the bucket. But every drop counts. It is at least something -- and has a thousand other benefits.

[Marrah_G]

7. Its scary as hell for a parent

[lunatica]

14. My son refuses to have children and now I'm glad he never had any

[glinda]

18. I laugh when the Conservatives mention "our children's future". LOL! Why is that not the

question asked at these Tea bagger promotionals er debates.

[glinda]

17. Me too. I know now why I was not given children. It spares me the greater sorrow.

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. I have "kids" .....who, years and years ago, decided to NOT have kids.

I have no problems understanding their logic, I think they were/are very far sighted in making that decision.

[midnight]

9. My pine trees are in such bad shape between the drought and a fungus...

[defendandprotect]

32. In the late 1880's, scientists saw and understood the impact of Industrial Revolution on trees ...

and nature -- it's been a long time coming --

and now compounded by chaotic events --


It's going to end up that we'll be "burning the village to save it!" ---


My town is very busy cutting down limbs on very old trees here because they are falling

on roadways and power lines as winds and rains/storms increase.


Build up for WWII also had further negative impact on nature --

We're only now beginning to feel the impact of human activity on our planet post-1960 --

that's because we had a 50 year delay in our feeling the effects -- other than the melting

of the glaciers which began in 1940's --


We need to get the nuclear reactors shut down --

Could be the difference between "a whimper and a bang" -- !!




:(

[undeterred]

13. Well, keep your pants on.

You might need them if it gets cold.

[housewolf]

20. LOL! Good point!

Thanks for reminding me that no matter how dire the future seems, a sense of humor is vital

[FarLeftFist]

21. I believe it is hopeless at this point, all we can do is slow it, can't be reversed.

Just my opinion though. The climate has drastically changed in many places. Drastically.

[defendandprotect]

34. You never know ... the problem is in getting elites/capitalists/oil industry to stop hiding it --

they understand what it will mean for them -- 60 years of disinforming

the public -- done with tens of billions of dollars!!


Then, again, Kevin Coster may come up with a way to suck up all the CO2 from the

upper atmosphere and begin releasing the heat back into space -- ??


Meanwhile, we need to get the oil drilling shut down -- and shut down the nuclear

power plants here -- 103 of them -- about 2 in every state --

Could be the difference between "a whimper and a bang" -- !

[elocs]

22. Only the world's most optimistic optimist would say it's not hopeless.

Not only is most of the world not doing much of anything to effectively address climate change, they're not doing anything either to address its consequences.

[defendandprotect]

36. Still -- we have to get nuclear reactors shut down -- control over nuclear weapons...

get oil rigs shut down --

Too many ways for this to compound --

but there is always hope -- maybe Kevin Coster will find a way to suck CO2 out of the

upper atmosphere and release the trapped heat?

But we have to keep trying -- acknowledging the problem and what caused it however is the

first and most difficult step because there is a powerful/wealthy force which wants it

hidden -- and has been hiding it for 60 years -- at a cost of tens of billions of $$$!!


We need to nationalize the oil industry ---


"Congress is under the control of the oil and coal industries -- " -- Al Gore/Rolling Stone

[Jefferson23]

23. It was disturbing to hear that Mexico is the bullseye for the deepest impact...horrendous

activity/consequences for them over the next 20 years.

Credit to Gore and all participants, at least they keep trying.

[defendandprotect]

27. Keep this in mind ... even more so if Global Warming is "hopeless" ....

we have to begin to shut down nuclear reactors across US --

may make the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- !!


However ....

There's always the possibility that Kevin Costner may come up with a machine that separates

CO2 our of upper atmosphere and allows us to begin to radiate heat out into space again?

[defendandprotect]

28. Severe events have been going on for 15-20 years ...

very costly -- latest on IRENE in NY is $1.5 billion damage --

Those losses may have been playing a role in elites stealing pension funds?

Least of all would capitalists want Americans to understand Global Warming and what

a threat it is to us!

We might begin to insist that oil rigs and nuclear reactors be shut down!!???

Could make the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- !!

[Cleita]

35. I felt the same way.

Maybe it's time to call all the liars who poo poo the science just that, big fat liars and make them own it.

[Uncle Joe]

45. My take on Gore is the opposite, I'm comforted by his passionate, sober leadership,

it's the deniers that scare the fecal material out of me.

People in positions of great power, influence and responsibility that should know better, they're either brainwashed, sociopaths or just insane and they're merrily leading the world to Hell in a hand-basket.

Thanks for the thread, housewolf.

[MadHound]

48. Well, given the short term thinking inherent in our political and corporate structure,

It is pretty much hopeless.

Politicians think short term, thinking ahead only as far as the next election. Corporations think short term, only as far ahead as the next quarter or annual balance sheet. A few think in terms of a decade or more, but only a very few.

Given this inherent mindset in the corridors of power, little is going to be done to correct this problem. Thus, it will correct itself, in a truly horrendous manner.