Politics Blog

An Arctic Tale

Can you imagine spending 15 years in the Arctic documenting the lives of polar bears and walruses as they struggle against their environment and the added challenge of the climate crisis?

That’s just what filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson did, and they turned their work into one of the most beautiful films of the year.

“Arctic Tale” follows the story of Seela — a walrus calf — and Nanu — a polar bear cub — on their journey from birth to parenthood. In addition to the day-to-day challenges they face, global warming has caused the sea ice they call their home to decline by 30% over the past half a century. Polar bears hunt on sea ice, and walruses rest on it when they come out of the sea. Without it, their survival in the desolate arctic environment is impossible.

Queen Latifah beautifully narrates the story, which my daughter Kristin helped write. While the film is both heartwarming and humorous, it truly brings to life the damage the climate crisis is doing to our planet.

Learn more about the film and find out where it’s playing near you by visiting:

http://www.arctictalemovie.com

If you are looking for a film your entire family will enjoy this weekend, “Arctic Tale” is sure to please.

Thank you,

Al Gore

Made-in-China massive air pollution ignored by global warming … - Canada Free Press

Canada Free Press

Made-in-China massive air pollution ignored by global warming … Canada Free Press,?Canada?- 2 hours ago By Judi McLeod You?ll never hear this from global warming guru Al Gore and Canadian sidekick Maurice Strong: Massive dust plumes from China fouling air …

Al Gore's plan to visit Bangkok cancelled - Nation Multimedia

60 Seconds to Save the Earth

The latest from Al Gore:

In order to ultimately force our leaders to take action to solve the climate crisis, we have to use every medium — including television, radio, and the Internet — to build public support. And that’s just what the Alliance for Climate Protection will do.

The Alliance is a three-year campaign that will push the climate crisis to the top of the nation’s agenda using a combination of paid advertising, public service announcements, and grassroots power.

Your voices have carried our movement this far. So as we begin to create our media campaigns, I didn’t want to only turn to an advertising firm — I wanted to turn to you.

If you had 60 seconds to convince all of your friends that they needed to take action to stop the climate crisis, what would you say? How would you get the attention of millions of people all over the world?

Well, now you have the chance! Current TV and the Alliance for Climate Protection have teamed up to sponsor 60 Seconds to Save the Earth.

The premise is simple: make the best 15, 30, or 60-second ad showcasing how you or someone you know is taking action to alleviate the climate crisis — or create an original, persuasive message that will open eyes, inspire change and empower your audience.

Get the details and create your ad by visiting:

http://www.current.tv/ecospotcontest

After you submit your ad, our panel of celebrity judges will narrow the field to 20 finalists. Then you will be able to help pick the winner through an online vote. The top ads will be aired internationally on Current TV, featured in the Alliance’s national campaign, and showcased on MySpace’s Impact channel.

In addition, the grand-prize winner will receive a Toyota hybrid car, while three finalists will win Sony electronic products, and 16 semi-finalists will receive T-Mobile Sidekicks.

So get started — in 60 seconds you can save the planet. Learn about this incredible contest and submit your ad today by visiting:

http://www.current.tv/ecospotcontest

Thank you,

Al Gore
 
 
 

Email From Al Gore - The Assault On Reason

I received this email in my inbox recently, and thought I’d pass it along.

Dear Andrew,

In the months following the release of An Inconvenient Truth, I began to focus on why our democracy has been so slow to deal with the climate crisis. The unwillingness to solve this problem is not only the result of a lack of political will, but it has also been caused by the emergence of a new political environment dangerously hostile to reason, knowledge, and facts. In the long-term, this poses a threat to the very basis of American democracy: the ability of a well-informed citizenry to use the rule of reason to hold government accountable.

This Assault on Reason is the focus of my new book that goes on sale today. You can purchase the book at your local bookstore or by visiting:

http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226

When George Bush launched his preemptive war in Iraq, more than 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to the terrorists who caused 9-11. After the 2004 election, when asked what stuck in their minds about the campaign, voters in Ohio named two ads playing to the fears of terrorism paid for by the Bush Campaign. One pattern that has held true since 2001 is that this White House is less interested in openness and truth than any previous administration.

We are facing so many long-term challenges, from the climate crisis and the war in Iraq to health care and social welfare. To solve these problems and move forward we need to reverse the damage done to our democracy. We have little time to waste.

My goal in The Assault on Reason is to explore why our public forum now welcomes the enemies of reason. More importantly, the book focuses on what we can do together, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason to our democracy.

You can purchase The Assault on Reason by visiting:

http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226

My team will be emailing those of you who live in the cities that I will visit for book signings. I hope that I’ll have the chance to see you in person.

I’ll be back in touch soon.

Thank You,

Al Gore

Correlate This

Our friends over at Real Climate had an interesting blog post recently about false correlations.  It’s an execellent piece on the ways in which contrarians distort the data, and why science by correlation by itself is not strong evidence, and yet it gets cited frequently by those who oppose that man has contributed global warming.  Anyways, I recommend you check this blog piece out.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/fun-with-correlations/

Setting The Record Straight On Al Gore’s Financial Stake In Global Warming

Between conservative commentators, forum debates, and online blogs, there’s been a number of accusations against Al Gore and his supposed financial stake in global warming.  Most, if not all, of the accusations are flat out false, although I have doubts if we’ll ever see a correction from them.

The conservative blog The Citizens Journal, ”broke” a story in March that Gore was “buying his carbon offsets from himself”.  This story quickly spread across the net in forums and blogs and even eventually made it’s way to actual real news media.  The fact of the matter, it’s false.  Al Gore buys his carbon credits through Native Energy, which according to their website, is a privately held Native American energy company. 

Gore’s investment firm, which The Citizens Journal was referring to above, does not sell carbon offsets.  The firm is basically a mutual fund, and thanks to the transparency of their website along with SEC filings, we can see what the firm is investing in (if you have a 401k, you’re probably invested in some of the same companies).  Additionaly, the firm donates 5% of their profits to charity, and as anyone can tell you, for someone who has been accused of pushing an agenda to beat the the stock market, that would be pretty damn counterproductive.

Additional claims have been made against him that he’s profitted from An Inconvenient Truth and the companion book.  The fact of the matter is Gore donated 100% of his profit to The Alliance for Climate Protection.

The internet has become a great place to discuss news items you would’ve never had the chance with people you would’ve never met, but at the same time has a major drawbrack of spreading myths and lies across the globe leaving the truths and realities far behind.  The defacing of Al Gore outlined above has been one of those times.

Debunking The IPCC 10% Myth

On my virtual trips around the internet, I’ve seen a number of unique arguments against anthropogenic global warming.  One of the arguments that keeps creeping up is the IPCC uncertainity myth.  The myth states that even if we take the IPCC at face value, they are only 90% sure that man has anything to do with global warming, and even less sure about how much. 

Or as one poster I read so eloquently put it:

I wanted to bring up the fact that even the report, which claims MMGW (man made global warming), could only say that there is a 90% chance that man has AN effect on global warming.

This is the equivalent of dog s***. Using the term “an” allows them a lot of leeway in semantics. Man could be responsible for 1% of GW. Man could be responsible for 99% of global warming. Until they can state with certainty not only does man contribute to global warming, but also HOW MUCH they can seriously kiss my skeptical **.

At best, that report says that they are 90% sure our activities have some (unknown and unmeasured) effect. BFD

This confusion has largely stemmed from the mainstream media repeatedly saying the 90% figure in their articles and reports, along the lines of ’’scientistists are 90% sure man is causing global warming.”  If you’re a skeptic reading that, it may read as though IPCC scientists believe there’s a 10% chance global warming isn’t be influenced by man.  There’s not, it’s just lazy media reporting.

The truth of the matter is, the IPCC report states with very high levels of confidence that man is causing the vast majority of the current warming of the earth.  The IPCC report in it’s entirety can be found online here, but here’s a brief breakdown of what it says in this regard.

The combined anthropogenic radiative forcing (note: radiative forcing is concept used for quantitative comparisons of the strength of different human and natural agents in causing climate change) is estimated to be +1.6 … indicating that, since 1750, (there is a greater than 95% chance) that humans have exerted a substantial warming influence on climate. This radiative forcing estimate is likely to be at least five times greater than that due to solar irradiance changes. For the period 1950 to 2005, (there is less than a 1% chance) that the combined natural radiative forcing  (solar irradiance plus volcanic aerosol) has had a warming influence comparable to that of the combined anthropogenic radiative forcing.

The bottom line is, the report states that there is a greater than 99% chance that the warming is caused more by man than by all the natural means added together.

Scientists Global Warming Consensus

It seems there’s not a day that goes by that I hear or read comments doubting the often mentioned consensus on global warming.  So what is the truth, is there or isn’t there a consensus?  This is just what Prof. Naomi Oreskes looked to answer in a study conducted in late 2004.  As reported in Science Magazine  a sample of 928 peer-reviewed papers searched under the term ‘’global climated change'’ were looked at, and a total of 0 rejected consensus position.  It’s time for us to move past the fringe right and paid skeptics and recognize scientists who have dedicated their lives to this do have a fundamental understanding, and are in agreement.  It’s time to take the next step, and begin looking for viable solutions.

Al Gore’s Post Congress Follow-Up Email

Dear Andrew,
 
Thank you!

By 10:00 AM yesterday, as I took my seat in the hearing room, an incredible 519,414 people had signed our message to Congress demanding immediate action to solve the climate crisis.

All of those boxes chock full of your messages, sitting right next to me as I testified, were a fantastic show of support and one that is already having an impact as our Representatives and Senators begin to debate solutions to the climate crisis. In fact, so many people signed our message in the 24 hours before the hearing, we are still working on printing them. But don’t worry, Congress now knows that you have spoken, and I will personally make sure every last message is delivered.

I also wanted to make sure that you had the chance to see the hearing for yourself, so I’ve posted video highlights on AlGore.com:

http://blog.algore.com

After witnessing your incredible show of activism and enthusiasm, I wanted to give something back to you. As many of you know, Live Earth will take place on July 7. The 24-hour concert marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign to raise awareness about our climate crisis. It will feature more than 100 acts, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Foo Fighters and Faith Hill.

Tickets are going to sell out fast, and I wanted to make sure that you have the chance to see the show. That’s why we will set aside a special block of tickets and let AlGore.com members purchase the first ones sold. I will let you know more details before these tickets go on sale.

If you would like to learn more about the Live Earth concerts you can visit:

http://liveearth.org

In a few short weeks we have grown into a movement of more than 500,000 strong. To ultimately win, we are going to need to grow bigger - but for now we are off to a great start.

Thank you again for what you made possible today,

 
Al Gore

Watch a highlight from yesterday’s hearing.

Watch Al Gore’s entire opening statement.