Gore thinks U.S. will sign new treaty

Post Reply New Topic

TORSHAVN (AFP) - Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former US vice president Al Gore said Monday that he believes Washington will sign up to a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in 2009.



"The United States will definitely join the next treaty," Gore said at a conference on global warming and rising oceans in the Faroe Islands. "The good news is that after the next (presidential, November 2008) elections, we will have a new politics."

The United States was the only industrialised economy not to sign up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but a new deal has to be agreed in Copenhagen to cut greenhouse gas emissions when current commitments end in 2012.

Gore said everything required to make environmental progress was in place, "with a possible exception of political will".

"But we are free people," he added. "Political will is a renewable resource. Never before has our civilisation been at such risk," he told a gathering of transatlantic experts.

"A one-metre (yard) rise in sea-level worldwide would lead to one hundred million climate refugees. Six metres would mean 450 million," he added.

However, Gore said that if emissions were sufficiently cut and if enough people opt to use renewable energy sources, the world's economy would also benefit from more jobs.

Citing the need for China to play its part, he added that "the solution will come when people at the grassroots, mothers and fathers, think about their children (and) demand action".

"I think we are close to that point," he added.



I can only hope hes right and must admit I was DEEPLY ASHAMED of the U.S. that we did't sign the Kyoto Treaty in 97. No matter who our next president is I hope they choose to sign it and respond to what is happening to the enviroment.

Logically i had to vote no on this.

Individually US citizens may be in favor of this. Even more than a majority.

The problem is, that US citizens no longer have any power as exhibited by the current administration. Unless the next administration changes things radically (and I'm sorry but the candidates who would have are long gone from the race)... corporations and big business will continue to set policy for the american people.

Gore is a fraud

'man-made' global warming is the biggest crock of crap that the counter-culture has ever tried to get over on the consumer

...MANBEARPIG! It's half man and half bear and half pig. I'm super serial!

Your entitled to your opinion same as every one else.
You could be right, one never knows.
However, while I agree there are cyclical periods of climate change, I personally feel this one is being accelerated by "us." I don't seem to be alone in this thought.
I would venture a guess that there are other people in the world who are not "consumers" who whould beg to differ also. But they don't own computers so their voices won't be heard here.

reika -- you're from Alaska?

Ya know, I read something funny a little while ago. I read that the Dems in the Senate are trying to get the polar bear on the Endagered Species List.

Why are they trying to do that? I read that the polar bear population has risen from 5,000 in the 1950s, to around 25,000 today. That doesn't sound like an 'endangered species'.

Oh, great -- something else to worry ourselves sick over...


Worry over "Climate change leads to psychiatric illness: WHO"
http://sify.com/news/scienceandmedicine ... d=14640012

"Establishing a link between climate change and mental health, the World Health Organisation has said extreme weather conditions like floods, droughts and natural calamities can lead to psychiatric illnesses.

"Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director, WHO, said.

Anticipating that severe flooding may become more frequent due to global warming, a WHO report said that independent studies in cyclone-affected Orissa and a flooded town in England has shown that post-traumatic stress disorder syndromes of different severity in affected people even after a year."

Yes, I'm in Alaska this is all I could find about the Polar Bears, (I don't really "google" stuff ever)
:remember people, the alleged endangerment of polar bears and seals is so controversial because it is a PROJECTED endangerment, based on theoretical models of the FUTURE. Currently, no one has been able to show any real data on CURRENT endangerment. By all accounts, they're just fine at present.

I hope that helps answer your question.

Of greater concern is the diminishing area of arable land and the spreading of deserts. Our agriculture more than anything
else is contributing to this problem which is been going on for more than fifty years.

is this an example of what they call a push poll?

breaking news- temperature changes predicted by global warming have not materialised.

It would be foolish to commit the nation to a course of action based on questionable science.

I'm opposed to this whole doomsday climatic stuff.

Fact: For 10,000 years the level of CO2 was the same. (Up to the Industrial Revolution.)
Fact: For those 10,000 years climate varied wildly.

Why are you listening to someone who says that the puny amount of CO2 we produce is causing climate change??

FACT: One volcanic eruption can spew more CO2 into the atmosphere in 24 hours than we produce in a decade.

We're ants running on an anthill, worried that we're dooming the planet ! !

I don't know what a "push poll" is and can't fathom why people are so against changing the "status quo."
Even if Climate Change isn't "real" as has been proposed by some (usually the people who stand to make the most money by leaving things as they are)
What is the harm in changing our "Consumer Mentality" and leaving the planet a little less polluted and with a cleaner atmosphere? No matter what the reasons are there is a beneficial result.
Personally, I'd LOVE a "cleaner anthill"

Ah, we discussed that weeks ago. 'The US didn't sign because China didn't sign.' Our class deducted that wasn't any valid reason not to sign unless you're 3 years old and play 'what you do to me I'll do to you'. Somebody said this, I thought the analogy was awesome.

I feel strongly about Climate Change and prevention. I don't care much for whether it's our CO² or not - if you support and there's no truth about it, the worst that will happen is that we have a better society and were finally pushed towards more reasonable use of our resources and revolution. If Climate Change is for real however, then the worst possible outcome is that we could successfully save ourselves or have at least tried.

I like it how people suddenly care for nature if someone tells them it's not to last for an eternity if you hunt it down and kill it off bit by bit. Shows how many people have never considered their actions before, but just did what got them the best and most productive outcome. Now, at least the idea of Climate Change leads to more people being informed that there are issues. Which are not necessarily connected to Climate Change, but sure to the unnecessary murder of nature.

And... really... SAVE THE POLAR BEARS! I love polar bears!

I care for the environment. I'm presently trying to purchase a car with Compressed Natural Gas capability.

But I don't believe mankind is influencing Global Climate. We are, however, polluting the air.

And don't get me started on the whole Polar Bear THING ! !! !

They will sign a treaty, but only sign it, not respecting it, like Canada did with Kyoto.