World will agree new climate deal, says Al Gore

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK


World will agree new climate deal, says Al Gore

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, delivers an upbeat assessment of the global response to climate change today, saying he believes a "political tipping point" has been reached which will enable leaders to avert environmental catastrophe.

In his first newspaper interview since the US election, the Nobel peace prize winner tells the Guardian that Barack Obama's arrival in the White House, combined with a growing realisation of the problem among business leaders, means there is now enough political momentum to tackle the world's greatest environmental threat.

He believes a global climate deal will be agreed at the UN-brokered climate talks scheduled in Copenhagen for December.

"There is a very impressive consensus now emerging around the world that the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the climate crisis," he says. "I actually think we will get an agreement at Copenhagen."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/14/al-gore-climate-change1

[YvonneCa]

1. What GREAT news to wake up to on a beautiful Saturday...

...morning! Thank you for posting this...and, Mr. Vice President, THANK YOU for your leadership.:patriot:

[sagetea]

2. yah, very good news!!!

to wake up to this morning!!! Love you Al

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. Al Gore Rocks! Though his voice could well narrate an old nature film "...behold

the volcano... in... all.. it's ..terrible... power..." Al always says the harsh medicine we have to take. Around our house we're often
saying "what would Al Gore do?"
Listen to your inner Al Gore and do the right thing through out your day - turn off lights, turn down the thermostat, drive less, recycle,
write your congress people...

[Amonester]

4. ~snip~ Gore warns business leaders who did not yet "get it"

"Gore warns business leaders who did not yet "get it" that they should look to the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market as a warning. "We now have several trillion dollars worth of sub-prime carbon assets whose value is based on the assumption that CO2 is free and there is nothing wrong with 70m tonnes of it entering into the atmosphere every 24 hours," he says. "That assumption is also in the process of collapsing and the remedy for it will include ... a change in business practices."


Acidifying Oceans Add Urgency To Carbon Dioxide Cuts
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080703140716.htm

'cuz if marine life dies... (gulp)

[rosesaylavee]

5. Thank you Mr. Gore.

How much further behind on this crisis would we all be if Gore hadn't taken action and worked so hard to get the world to notice? What a heroic gentleman - one of the greatest thinkers and activists of our time.

:patriot:

[cobalt1999]

6. It will have to include the US, China, & India this time.

Otherwise, from a global standpoint, it's useless.

[DissedByBush]

10. It did include China and India last time

But they got a free pass as "developing nations" at the expense of the US which is why Kyoto was dead in the Senate.

[cobalt1999]

12. Well, "free pass" means they weren't part of anything.

It's easy to sign up when you don't have to do anything.

If this is to work, the "developing nations" need to be held to reductions too.

[DissedByBush]

13. The free pass was on purpose

This isn't about an impending disaster due to climate change.

The free pass that China, India, Russia and others got was so they could suck money from us through carbon credit trading. The goal of this whole thing, as was stated by one Climate Change summit attendee, is to redistribute the wealth of richer nations to poorer ones, as if we weren't already generous enough to give away billions every year. Interesting though how poorer nations tend on average not to be very democratic and we'll be supporting them.

[ImOnlySleeping]

7. I have my doubts

Business leaders might say pro-environmental sound bites, but they will resist anything that could potentially limit their ability to do whatever they feel like to make a buck.
Even if a document was signed, if countries can't properly enforce very simple global agreements (say the Geneva convention), I can't see proper enforcement of something much more complicated (even just mechanisms like counting emissions).

[tomreedtoon]

8. Grammar am gone in ecological statememts, you betcha!

That should be "World will agree WITH new climate deal." Either that or the Incredible Hulk or Charlie Chan is writing for the Guardian and is dropping essential words.

[DissedByBush]

9. Political tipping point?

Global Warming, uh, Global Cooling, uh, Climate Change is supposed to be about science but all I hear lately is the political clout necessary to push an agenda based on, uh, whatever they are calling it this year. Gore doesn't even want to hear debate from scientists anymore.

[glitch]

14. uh, huh.

[MasonJar]

11. A truly great man, who has brought the attention necessary to influence

the backward leaders, especially in the USA. Our whole earth would be in such a different and improved place if Gore had not been cheated by the theft of his obvious election.

[excess_3]

15. 'solutions to the economic crisis ' ?

("There is a very impressive consensus now emerging around the world that) the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the climate crisis," he says.
.................................

c'mon folks, who believes that?