American Thinker Blog: Gore Sings Same Old Song to Sympathetic Senate

Al Gore addressed a friendly Senate Foreign Relations Committee today to help sell both Obama's cap-and-trade plans and American commitment to the pending Copenhagen emissions reduction treaty. Of course, he also retold a number of his formula apocalyptic "tipping-point" horror-stories in an effort to sell himself as still relevant while catapulting his hysterical plans to the top of the national agenda.

He's even come up with a new slogan to help him along the way:

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change."

Catchy - and only 33 1/3% pure crapola - which is not bad by Gore standards.

Here's a sample of his reasoning:

"Our home - Earth - is in grave danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings. Moreover, we must face up to this urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization at a time when our country must simultaneously solve two other worsening crises. Our economy is in its deepest recession since the 1930s. And our national security is endangered by a vicious terrorist network and the complex challenge of ending the war in Iraq honorably while winning the military and political struggle in Afghanistan."

Okay, so he hit the ground all Stephen King, but at least he then conceded the existence of a "vicious terrorist network." But of course, in Al's world, there's an elementary common thread to all of our woes and it goes by the atomic number of six. And with it, he wove a torrid tapestry in an attempt to swaddle Obama's economic stimulus package, which he called a "down payment on a new energy future," within his own agenda, opining that:

As long as we continue to send hundreds of billions of dollars for foreign oil - year after year - to the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world, our national security will continue to be at risk.
As long as we continue to allow our economy to remain shackled to the OPEC roller- coaster of rising and falling oil prices, our jobs and our way of life will remain at risk.
Moreover, as the demand for oil worldwide grows rapidly over the longer term, even as the rate of new discoveries is falling, it is increasingly obvious that the roller coaster is headed for a crash. And we're in the front car.

A little long on petro-drama, but not completely short of truth either - particularly considering Gore's trademark histrionics.

Speaking of which, it didn't take long:

"Most importantly, as long as we continue to depend on dirty fossil fuels like coal and oil to meet our energy needs, and dump 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, we move closer and closer to several dangerous tipping points which scientists have repeatedly warned - again just yesterday - will threaten to make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable destruction of the conditions that make human civilization possible on this planet."

There it was - and most importantly of course - after all, it threatens the very end of human civilization.

The "again just yesterday" referred to was, of course, a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which claimed that "changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are completely stopped." Wow - so even were alarmists' theories correct, they're asking us to make sacrifices the fruits of which won't be borne for a millennium? On the other hand, if the alarmists are wrong - after all, there's no proof that higher CO₂levels cause higher temperatures - and all of such changes are, indeed, naturally occurring, then wouldn't they still be "largely irreversible" after "emissions are completely stopped?" Either way, does this really support Gore's call for immediate action?

Anyway, were such discussions greenie-approved, the point would be subject to scientific debate. But those he made next would not:

"More and more Americans are paying attention to the new evidence and fresh warnings from scientists. There is a much broader consensus on the need for action than there was when President George H.W. Bush negotiated - and the Senate ratified - the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and much stronger support for action than when we completed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997."

On point the first - Wrong! As we analyzed on Sunday, 59% of Americans are not buying into the hype; global warming now ranks dead last as a national priority.

On the second - Also addressed on Sunday - the number of dissenting international scientists continues to grow, not shrink.

On the third - As the U.S. Senate unanimously voted against Kyoto in 1997, a single vote would represent "much stronger support."

A great quote from Max Bialystock involving a straitjacket comes to mind.

And yet -- what should have been recognized as more sensational showboating from a man desperate to keep both his message and name significant as his clarion fades into the cooling air appeared, instead, to be music to the ears of the committee.

Small wonder -- the team captain was also the top cheerleader. It was hilarious to see how John Kerry (D-MA), when recalling that day back in 1988 when both climate hysteria and its shining star were born, went into overheated imagery overdrive: [my emphasis]

"On a sweltering June day, some Senate staff opened up the windows and drove home the point for everyone sweating in their seats during Dr. James Hansen's historic and tragically prescient testimony."

Yet the committee chairman was quick to caution "the naysayers and deniers still out there" that "a little snow in Washington does nothing to diminish the reality of this crisis."

I guess that's what you'd expect from a man waxing nostalgic over Hansen's testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee over 20 years ago where he warned of "unprecedented global warming," and a potential "runaway greenhouse effect." A rant that led to the sensational NY Times headline Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate the following day, and its warning of temperature increases between 2025 and 2050 of as much as 20°F at higher latitudes "if the current pace of the buildup of [greenhouse] gases continues."

Simply amazing.

Surely, we've heard quite enough from all three of these Greenhouse Gasbags. Unfortunately, they retain the ears of the misled majority of Congress, the President, and his gaggle of greenhouse groupie advisors. And these are the people who claim to hold our economic destiny in their hands.

Is everybody enjoying the "change" so far?

Gore Sings Same Old Song to Sympathetic Senate

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