An Inconvenient Truth
When asked whether he would watch "An Inconvenient Truth" President Bush said he had no intention to do so because there was a "fundamental debate" about whether global warming was "manmade or natural." It was a willfully ignorant statement in contradiction of scientific consensus. Now the White says, "President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." The White House revisionism is a reaction to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said that there is a 90 percent certainty that greenhouse gases are heating up the planet.
We should have started years ago working to stabilize carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is certainly progress to have the Administration's head out of the sand. The difficulty is now with climate-change legislation. Only toothless bills have much of a chance getting past a republican filibuster in the Senate. The best bill right now is sponsored by McCain, Lieberman, and Obama. It has no chance of passing, but Congress should embrace truly meaningful action and force a White House to veto or a Senate filibuster as a way to raise public awareness for 2008 elections.
We should have started years ago working to stabilize carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is certainly progress to have the Administration's head out of the sand. The difficulty is now with climate-change legislation. Only toothless bills have much of a chance getting past a republican filibuster in the Senate. The best bill right now is sponsored by McCain, Lieberman, and Obama. It has no chance of passing, but Congress should embrace truly meaningful action and force a White House to veto or a Senate filibuster as a way to raise public awareness for 2008 elections.
Labels: Bush, carbon, environment, global warming, Lieberman, McCain, Obama, policy
posted by Richard Stanislaw at
1:48 PM
39 Comments:
It may be progress for the administration to have their head out of the sand but I am not sure it will do much good. Between the congress and the WH I have trouble believing that anything truly productive will get done in the way of preventing the damages of greenhouse gases. The time for half measures is long over. There is no reason that anyone needs to drive an H2. And no it is not against your civil right to ban the use of cars that don’t meet a certain emissions requirement. Also we should be spending billions more on finding ways of reducing our dependence on oil and coal. Anything is possible. Oh how the tables would turn if the US were the first nation to develop technology for abundant, cheep, renewable energy. –Matt De Pompei
I believe that the administration should pay more attention to the environmental issues that face our country today. It is difficult to find out which is fact and which is just plain politics when it comes to global warming. I agree the administration needs to do more for the environment however I believe we as individuals have a responsibility to do our part of taking care of the environment. If we all made a few sacrifices I think the environment would be better off. We as citizen need to stop always looking toward the government for engineering change but we should look at ourselves as well. -Mike Phillips
It’s not surprising the Republican Party and George W. Bush will not place improving the environment as a top agenda priority. After all, the GOP represents big business and the affluent in the United States. And big business relies on factories and manufacturing plants which pollute our skies and rivers.
So, why would President Bush even care about “An Inconvenient Truth”? To be fair, George W. Bush is ignorant on many issues including foreign relations and effective policy, so his ignorance is demonstrated across the board. His ignorance concerning environmental issues has great company within his scope of ignorance on many domestic issues which are probably just too complicated for George W. Bush.
This administration’s head is still in the sand in warranting more recognition of the environment’s problems. Keep in mind, this government is more reactive than proactive in many respects (for example, the 9/11 warning, Hurricane Katrina, Education, and so on…).
The environment will never be a high priority for Bush, Cheney et al because they all have deep investments and connections within the oil industry. Bush has his head in the Iraqi sand concerning his failure there and we’re still waiting for Cheney to shoot someone else in the face.
Now that the Democrats have taken control (Thank goodness), the responsibility rests with them to reverse Bush’s environment policy (or rather lack of environment policy).
Bush has recognized climate change is occurring at the hands of humans, but he does not realize that this is a bad thing (to put it in easy to understand, Bush words/terms). And we need to fix the problem now- not later.
It has been ingrained in the American mentality since the dot com bust that the economy is bad. When people say that climate change legislation will hurt jobs, people squirm. The individualism of the US in this regard of global warming also disregards the fate of the rest of the planet. This negligence on the part of the US leads to a European/German mentality that , "As long as China, India and the United States continue the way they have been, what we Germans do is more or less irrelevant." (http://www.spiegel.de
/international/spiegel
/0,1518,472200,00.html)
This was a top German scientist.
This mentality needs to stop.
This comment has been removed by the author.
There are still a ton of Republicans that will not accept Global Warming..it drives me crazy, how can someone blatently deny fact. It is like they think the Liberals just make shit up toget things started...you know..World War Two, Global Warming, The lack of WMDS in Iraq....How can people be so ignorant?! Though.... there is one thing that my Republican friend points out...he keeps saying that if the world is warming..why is it so damn cold in Ohio....and the other day when the temperature dropped and I was freezing I couldnt' help thinking that a little global warming would do Ohio a little good. i am joking of course...but really how can anyone doubt there is climate changing...there is empirical evidence.
- Rebecca Alexander
While the inconvenient truth was an enlightening film for me. American public=bored. To actually effect the legislation about climate change there need to be a grass roots operation. If the administration is going to ignore the situation then something needs to be done to make them listen. Kent State green initiative is a start. Havent heard of it? that because you just went to walmart and bought the non energy efficient light bulbs because they were "cheaper". Get out then and join up to make a difference. Make it a public policy priority, change doesnt happen because the almost dead white guys say so...it happens because people like you and me make an attempt to change.
It is good to see that the administration has "their head out of the sand" but I believe the president's initial response shows his intentional ignorance with regards to these environmental issues. Obviously the reason the Republican's will filibuster any environmental issue with "teeth" is becuase big business is a major supporter of republican campaigns and it will be expensive to make the appropriate changes. I think it would have been interesting to see if President Bush would be labeled a so called "flip-flopper" if he was able to run for president again.
-Brendan Mewhinney
Something does need to be done dealing with the growing concern of global warming. It is far from a debate anymore as whether or not it is actually a reality. The scientific fact found in "An Inconvenient Truth" is hard for any Republican to deny that this exists. President Bush did do the right thing and acknowledge that the world is warming, but now action has to be done. Global warming will not have a large affect on you and me, but looking down the road something has to be done sooner rather than later to prevent issues in the future. If America was to make a move I believe other countries would follow
I have one name for you:
Chris Horner
The spin zone is being set-up by the oil companies!
Are you ready for
GLOBALWARMINGDENIAL2007?
Cause it's in full swing. ExxonMobile is hiring people like Horner to create a debate on scientifically legitimate evidence proving global warming. They're also paying money to scientists who will publish documents contrary to the beliefs of environmentalists.
So what are you gonna do, brother?
When Hornermaniacs run wild over you?
I am truly thankful to Al Gore for making "An Inconvenient Truth" and I am happy to hear that Bush has finally accepted fact. It was about time. I know he won't put this environmental disaster on the top of his list of priorities but maybe just maybe it will make the list. I agree with you that something must be done. Gore has heightened the public's attention to the subject and now is the time to do something about global warming. Even if the legislation doesn't pass during this administration perhaps it could in the future.
~Danielle Hurley
I am green…very green. Yet, I still find this subject hard to debate. Global warming is a scientific fact. The globe is warming! The debate lies in whether humans are the main cause and if humans can actually reverse the effects. Looking back in history this is not the first time this has happened and in fact the last time co2 levels were on the rise the globe warmed to unlivable temperatures. Large amounts of the environmental community have begun to warn us about the possible consequences. If proven false, who cares, for a short amount of time the worlds population believed in something false. (Not the first time that has happened!) If proven true our lives change, our children’s lives change. Why debate a topic that may have severe environmental issues. Global warming is a fact; the debate is whether humans are the cause. Personally I think we should all stop trying to figure out who caused the warming and start dealing with the potential effects it may have on lives to come. I have changed all my light bulbs, what have you done?
I totally agree with abonfigli that global warming is scientific fact but the causes are still up for debate. What I find most disturbing is President Bush’s refusal to listen to any opinion that is not the same as his. The President should surround himself with the best and the brightest and listen to a variety of points of view before he makes a decision on an issue as important as global warming. Mill talks about this in On Liberty, he states that, “he who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that.” He goes on to explain how decisions should be made, “the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this.”
I am not saying I want Socrates to be the President but it would be nice to have someone that was not afraid to hear different points of view and make rational intelligent decisions based on what is best for society.
In acknowledging global warming is in fact occurring, President Bush is actually ahead of most of his party, which, depending on who statistics you believe, have a 40-70% opposition to admitting that global warming is happening. Although this idea was not admitted without a fight; recently on NPR I heard, and I’m sure it has been released by more mainstream sources, NASA scientist have reported that the Bush administration has censored and/or manipulated scientific evidence that supports global warming theory. Not even the scientist can be unbiased in this administration!
President Bush’s refusal to see such a relevant public issue movie is characteristic of his ‘my way or the highway’ mentality and his unwillingness to enter into debate and/or discussion on any issue. Not that this administration should shoulder all the blame on this issue. As much as I respect Al Gore in this capacity to raise public awareness on environmental issues, where was his voice at in the 2000 presidential election? This ardent environmentalist was too busy distancing himself from Bill Clinton and having a “Look-I-Screw-Only-My-Wife-Look-At-Me-Kiss-Her” contest with Dubya to say anything meaningful about the environment. I appreciate his work now, but he would have won the election he would have had the bully pulpit to push for change.
But the underlying problem (and the reason Gore didn’t use it as a campaign platform) with environmental legislation is that there is little real public support. Environmental legislation might look good in theory and on paper but when it really comes down to it Americans are very reluctant to sacrifice our beloved things: gas-guzzling SUVs, air conditioning, pesticides etc. Only 30% of Americans recycle. If we can’t even been depending on to take the 2 seconds to sort our plastic and paper out of the trash are we really capable of making the really hard decisions—like turning the thermostat down from 75 and putting on a sweater? No meaningful legislation will pass until the public demands its importance. Americans much realized that blood flows through our veins -not oil.
I think that something needs to be done about global warming. I don't see how there could be a debate if it is scientific fact that the world is getting warming.
Global Warming isn't just America's problem alone but one that affects the whole world. The United States alone cannot prevent what's happening. Major world leaders need to get together and come up with a strategy to reduce green house gases. I was watching a documentary about Polar Bears and those creatures are adorable. They don't hibernate. Did you know that? They're drowning now because of us and that's just sad. So yeah I reiterate, world leaders need to get together and reduce emissions that are causing global warming.
i believe that global warming could be compared to the national debt. I say this because the national debt will be left for our generation just like global warming will be left for the generation after us. I think that it is not just an issue anymore and must be delt with as soon as possible before it is out of our control.
-David Turkovic
This is one topic that I can talk passionately about for hours, but since I don't feel like typing that much, and since I agree with most of the posts on this page, I'll just say that there is evidence that Global Warming is happening, and we need to be putting as much into fixing it as we can!
It may already be too late, but I guess an Ice Age would be a bad time for Democrats to say, "I told you!"
-Tom Banyas
I think as a nation we have a tendency to act the way our President did. We don’t realize its happening till it’s in our backyards. Most of our country does not recycle. We continue to find more places to put our trash instead of reduce the total amount of trash. We recklessly pollute our country and think nothing of it because we make everything look nice on the outside. An inconvenient truth is just the start of the realization that we need to take better care of mother earth. And I understand China is polluting uncontrollably but as a civilized nation we should simply know better.
The problem is real and physically evident to those who appreciate our environment---just a little! In the news, when they were discussing polar bears drowning and the possibility of extinction or the increased number of hurricanes and/or tsunamis that have devistated many lives. Why the introduction of hybrid vehicles, that I don't suspect Pres. Bush owns? The problem is real and by simply ignoring it, does not make our environment any better.
I do not consider myself an expert in the area however, I am an environmentalist that believes that if everyone cared a little more, and held themselves a little more responsible, and maybe if we educate our young minds realistically on the environment then, we could see Change.
Also, in addition to what I've already said, Global Warming is a big cause for concern for me because I come from a city called Calcutta, India, which is right by the Bay of bengal, a water body separating India and Bangladesh. Because of global warming soon bangladesh will not exist and will be somewhere under all that water and the same will happen to my city. It may not affect America as much, but some other countries will surely suffer. bigtime.
Before and effective legislation is passd on global warming the American public needs to be clear on the issue. Due to all the back and forth talk on wether global warming exists or not has caused mass confusion on this issue. There are still poeple that believe global warming doesn't exist, or if they believe it exists they don't think humans play a role in it. We need to keep trying to inform the mass public on the reality of this issue.
Anytime the administration admits they are wrong is news. However, real progress could be made if he admitted to all his blunders and deceits. Maybe now he will admit that he went into Iraq to avenge his father’s greatest nemesis; at least that would make me right. Yet, I will take an acknowledgement that people may have something to do with global warming, even though it took a 90% assurance for Bush to even consider it (I really hope it was political motivations, not his stupidity). Despite ranting about the competence and integrity of Bush is fun, this issue is truly meaningful and must be addressed for future generations. If forcing a senate filibuster or presidential veto actually works to raise public awareness, great. But awareness is one thing, we need to make sure this issue becomes more salient to people. That is why films like “An Inconvenient Truth” are important. Even more important, people need to understand the world is something to conserve. Not only do we need political support to fight global warming, but we need to understand something can be done, and it starts with individuals. Everyone needs to do their part to preserve this buetiful world, if that means driving less, not littering, or trying to force your representation into legilslation.
John Fellabaum
I think that Bush's statement is very ignorant, to not even watch the documentary. WIth so much research and debate, wouldn't he at least want to open his mind to be aware. A the president, isn't this his job. I believe thi statement jut goes to show how hardheaded Bush can be, and that he cares more about being "right" then truley caring about the possible issues of the country and of the world.
I thihnk that Bush's statement is very ignorant, to not even watch the documentary. WIth so much research and debate, wouldn't he at least want to open his mind to be aware. A the president, isn't this his job. I believe thi statement jut goes to show how hardheaded Bush can be, and that he cares more about being "right" then truley caring about the possible issues of the country and of the world.
It's bad enough that this administration is too stubborn to acknowledge global warming, I am so sick of hearing about "climate change". What's even worse is the power and control the U.S. has over this "climate change", with business and factory growth and expansion occuring all over the world. Not to mention the lack of attention that has been given to alternative energy sources throughout this administration.
I'm glad to see politics and money is yet again a higher priority.
OBAMA IN '08!
The problem of the global warming, as i see it, is that it takes alot more than just the US to fight the effects already in place. If global warming is going to be fought against, it woould take more than just the US, it would take a global cooperation. Until the world unites against it, the US can only play a small part in the whole scene.
Science has proven global warming to exist so its tough for me to see why there are so many people whom are putting the task of finding a solution off for the time being. I understand that there is a lot going on in the world during this time but if as a globe we fail to recognize problems before they occur, the future of the planet looks pretty bleak. Another examples would be our excessive usage of natural resources. What will be left for future generations to deal with?
the problem with global warming legislation is that controlling it would force much more strict regulation on industry in america, and corporate regulation is most definitely not in the best interest of the bush administration. -justin finlen
Even after the Bush administration is out of office, they are never going to admit they had the chance to attempt a solution process to this problem, but yet ignored it time and time again.
-Sam Kerns-
Oh come now, head out of the sand! The president! No never! Kidding aside we all know this is Bush just trying to save what little face he has. The democrats hate him, a good number of republicans are pretending Bush is a third party candidate or something, Bush is just saying "please love me".
-Craig Myers
I just cannot comprehend the tenacity of some folks. Steadfast rejection of scientific discovery based on some of the flimsiest premises i've ever witnessed. And it's the majority. The voting majority. The White House is like a political satire hybrid reality show.
This comment will have little value, but I was watching a history channel special on Armegedon, and they went through the top ten things that are most likely to bring an end to the world... Among the top things were Nuclear Weapons and Biological Weapons... But to my surprise the top threat to human extinction was global warming. Many of the reasons why this was the number one reason were expressed in the movie An Inconvient Truth.
- Kevin Hogan
Global warming, whether it is a real threat or not, is not just the problem of the United States. In fact, China poses a bigger threat to the environment than we do at this point. The United States has rejected Proposals from the United Nations and other countries to regulate greenhouse gasses and other things of that nature because they do not hold other deadlier polluting countries to the same standard. I believe that as a nation we should be focused on the enivronment and ways to improve and maintan it but when other nations are let off the hook it is unfair to us. And, of course, in the end we look like the bad guys because we don't want to fall behind industrially and economically to rival nations such as China. If a fair proposal is put on the table that holds all industrialized nations' output of greenhouse gasses to the same level then we just might yet be saved. But then again if such a proposal is never offered, i guess in the end we'll all just get globally warmed.
The fact is global warming is not just a problem for the United States it is a global issue. The United States is not even the biggest threat to the environment, China has the highest pollution rate of greenhouse gasses. The United States has never signed on to the United Nations plans for environmental protection, and that is because none of them address the problem rationaly. If there were a reasoniable proposial then it may be abopted by the USA. And I believe the fact that George Bush does not want intende to watch An Inconvenient Truth is probally the biggest nonissue of the intire debate
-Sean McCarthy
yeah global warming sucks
Global warming is real. I don't care what the Republicans say. It's real, we are at the very least contributing to the problem, and its not going away. While it is good that the Bush Administration has finally realized that global warming is a real problem, I fear that their words are empty. I don't really think that Bush is serious about working to fix the problem. More people in this country need to realize that global warming is real. Congress should press for tougher legislation requiring real restriction on business. Until this happens, talking about global warming is just that - talk.
-Kevin Higham
I don't think a damn thing will be done about global warming if we keep looking to the government to pass legislation or admit that it is a problem in the first place. Legislation doesn't mean anything to businesses or Americans. MONEY is EVERYTHING. When businesses discover that it is in the best interests of their bottom line to become energy efficient, recycle, and pursue alternative energies and resources changes will happen overnight. When the cost of earth-friendly products and services declines rapidly and becomes attractive for consumers, Americans will buy green. Until then, we're just going to keep killing ourselves.
I personally accept most "mainline" reports regarding global warming and find no disconnect between political conservatism and concern for the environment. However, I am nevertheless troubled (amused?) by the typical self-righteous, pompous tone espoused by the oh-so-predictable liberals denigrating the Bush-Cheney machine.
Like most liberals, you are so "open-minded" that you can't see past your own narrow parochialism. If global warming is such a serious issue (and I share your concern and believe it is), then instead of castigating Bush et al as the promulgators of all that is evil, why don't you encourage others in your local community, family, etc. to make changes that will have global effect?
Indeed, you folks should take the energy that you expend on your self-congratulatory mental masturbation and actually do something constructive (I know that your sophomore English teacher taught you that deconstruction was cool, but that was only because "s/he" could get tenure).
I'm amazed at how much pleasure liberals receive at reminding themselves that Bush doesn't, oh, I don't know, read Foucault every night before he goes to bed. Has any president ever been the ideal philosopher-king? Bill Clinton (whom I voted for twice...ugh) was perhaps the most "scholarly" president we've had in a while, which apparently earns him a free pass from the same hairy-legged feminist elites who would accuse anyone else in his position of abusing his power over a subordinate for sexual gain. Amazing. Isn't George W. Bush a product of the same Ivory Tower Ivy League elitism that believes failure to recycle an aluminum can is a greater sin that a young woman having a living fetus sucked out of her womb?
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