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Subscribe to RSSGore was the surprise guest to introduce New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spoke about the city's response to Sandy, which slammed into the city on October 29, killing 43 people, destroying homes, and knocking out power, mass transit and telephone service in huge swaths of the city.
Much of Lower Manhattan flooded from the storm surge, a danger many climate scientists warn will become more acute as the burning of fossil fuels contributes to higher global temperatures that speed the melting of polar ice, raising sea levels.
Bloomberg has long sounded alarm bells about climate change and the city's vulnerability to major storms. His blueprint for infrastructure needs, called PlaNYC, aims to cut the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030 and he has pushed to limit dependence on coal, a leading source of carbon emissions.
Bloomberg showed a picture of Gore and himself painting a city roof with white paint, a technique that keeps temperatures down and helps cut energy consumption.
The mayor also echoed some of Gore's sentiments about leadership in Washington, saying cities were "not waiting for national governments to act on climate change."
But Bloomberg added: "We had help from every part of the federal government. Everything we asked for we had. Now we've got to get some money out of them, but that's another issue."
The city has asked Washington for $9.8 billion to pay for costs from Sandy not covered by insurance or other federal funds.
Much of Gore's remarks centered on leaders in Washington, who he said had abdicated responsibility on carbon as humans treat the atmosphere as an "open sewer."
Gore, a long-time environmental advocate who served under President Bill Clinton, helped raise awareness on climate change by narrating the hit documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which won two Academy Awards in 2007.
"Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said. "And when the large part of polluters and their ideological allies tell the members of Congress to jump, they do say, 'how high?' And we need leadership in the executive branch as well."
While saying New York must be more prepared for storms, Bloomberg was defiant that the city will not flee from its 520 miles of shoreline.
"Let me be clear: We are not going to abandon the waterfront ... But we can't just rebuild what was there and hope for the best. We have to build smarter and stronger and more sustainably," Bloomberg said.
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked for $41.9 billion in federal disaster assistance, including $9.1 billion for projects to prevent and mitigate damage from future storms.
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I wish my third cousin would STFU. Our side of the family in Smith County never talked about the Gores much. Now I understand why. Al is a hypocrite of the first order. He spends more on spewing C02 into the air that 2 dozen average families. His zinc mining interest is the biggest water polluter in the county and has been for YEARS. He then makes up this fake carbon credit scam and sets up a vast infrastructure to benefit himself when it gets going. He doesn't give two flying ape asses about the environment unless there is a paycheck in it for himself. Shutdown that menagerie in Nashville you call home and be conservative with your energy requirements for once. Hell buy a KIA or a hybrid and drive somewhere instead of sporting around in Leer jets you putz.
Most of us see through it cousin. You almost went away for a while, just finish going away.
Tell us about his daddy's best friend, Dr. Armmand Hammer, founder of Occidental Petroleum and one of Vladimir Lennin's closest personal friends, while you're at it. You probably know the story even better than I do. I really love the part about how Hammer gave dear old dad the presidency of the Island Creek Coal Co., which he owned, the day after he lost for a fourth term in the Senate. It's a great background for "Mr. Environment", just like their raising tobacco gives him more credibility as part of the anti-smoking facist thought police.
Lies, all lies.
If there was one environmental advocate that most of us would like to see backing up rhetoric with action, well, that would be old Al for sure and certain!
He's like looking to Rush Limbaugh for advice on women's issues and gentlemanly behavior.
I wonder if he mentioned stopping with the chem trails and the HARP program? But then Gore was the one who has been setting the stage!
Al Gore is a bore with no real understanding of his subject matter.
Calling Sandy a "superstorm" is just the sky-is-falling propaganda from the "climate change" crowd. Sandy was only "super" in size. When it made landfall, it was not even a hurricane, it was a "post-tropical depression." Its winds were not high, it did not produce that much rain. The damage came from the fact that its barometric pressure was a record low and because it came ashore exactly at a high (spring) tide. The storm surge caused by this coincidence was responsible for nearly all the damage.
Positively speaking, former President Gore should say that now since they need to re-build, then they can build in a eco-enviro-friendly manner, as to support the green, clean environment. To criticize our President is not going to help to solve the problems. The environmental problems are not started from President Obama, but it is from the former President Bush, and he has changed the scientists recommendations to yield to the industrialists/ oil giants/big business owners, and please go back and check what former president has signed regarding to the environmental, in which it has already filmed in the "11 hour".
Gore is absolutely correct. The first big step we can take is for president Obama to step up to the plate and state that there will never be another coal plant built in the United States and the existing ones will be phased out as they convert to natural gas. Mining and exporting of coal must be stopped....completely.
Obama is a doosh, but that storm had nothing to do with global warming.
Al Gore is a hero and will likely be remembered as one if the human race has a future. It's all the deniers and status quo-ers and those who can't stand the idea that the "greens" might be right about something to the point where it blinds them that I am dissapointed in.
Gore, shame on you and coming from a former Vice President of his own party, He gets it from the republicans all the time no matter what He does, but you Gore!! you are a disapointment to me.
I thought He was only capitaized in a sentence when talking about God.
Don't believe Gore?... Ok.
Don't believe 98% of the scientific community?... Ok
Blame all the liberals?... Ok
Would you consider believing the US military?
Apparently they've already been disregarding the politicians and preparing for climate change on their own for some time now. It's all about level headed risk assessment, in the name of protecting our country and our soldiers:
Or for that matter, how about the insurance industry - they make their living assessing risk with real data.
Like the military, it's all about being prepared.
Apparently their dollars-and-cents analyses are starting to change the bluster of some of our politicians:
After all... money talks.
It's pretty easy to do a google search on "military and climate change", or "insurance industry and climate change".
But hey... who ya gonna believe?... don't take my word for it...
Then again, I hear some people say: "hey, the solar industry isn't profitable... it's subsidized by da gubmint..."
Hmmmm..... weren't the Iraq and Afghan wars subsidized by da gubmint?...
Which might have cost us more: The wars? or investing in new industries around alternative energy, like, maybe, Germany, who in a very short time has become independent of Middle East Oil?
But hey... who ya gonna believe?... don't take my word for it...
Apparently the system here pulled out the links I posted... I'll try again:
Military: ""
Insurance: ""
One more time...
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-military-forges-ahead-with-plans-to-combat-climate-change
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/28/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism
ahhhhh.... that's better :-)
Yes, there are many that know the real reason why Gore is willing to usurp the platform out from under the president to toot his own horn for his CAP & TRADE ploy to line his pockets. But how many people around the world are actually willing to do the math on what it will truly take to change the habits of the global populations (much less the USA alone). I recommend this website for a mathmatical reality check. Unfortunately, that would require someone's time and a great majority won't apply themselves enough to even care to read the stats. So in the end, it will be Mother Nature continually slapping with greater forces, all the species on the planet, because of one very errogant species that will never look at the most critical math problem of all. . . over population with natural resources like H2O, food and energy fuels running out as the Ocean Planet's population continues to grow beyond its sustainability.
ishopbuz(dot)com is the website for the mathmatical reality check.
Or just read about the Miocene because that's where we are headed. Also know as "Swamp World" It'll be great if you're a reptile.
Just for posterity:
Don't believe Gore?...Ok.
Don't believe 98% of the scientific community?... Ok
Blame all the liberals?... Ok
Would you consider believing the US military?Apparently they've already been disregarding the politicians and preparing for climate change on their own for some time now. It's all about level headed risk assessment, in the name of protecting our country and our soldiers:
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-military-forges-ahead-with-plans-to-combat-climate-change
Or for that matter, how about the insurance industry - they make their living assessing risk with real data.Like the military, it's all about being prepared.Apparently their dollars-and-cents analyses are starting to change the bluster of some of our politicians:
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/28/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism
After all... money talks.
It's pretty easy to do a google search on "military and climate change", or "insurance industry and climate change".
But hey... who ya gonna believe?... don't take my word for it...
Then again, I hear some people say: "hey, the solar industry isn't profitable... it's subsidized by da gubmint..."
Hmmmm..... weren't the Iraq and Afghan wars subsidized by da gubmint?...Which might have cost us more: The wars? or investing in new industries around alternative energy, like, maybe, Germany, who in a very short time has become independent of Middle East Oil?
But hey... who ya gonna believe?... don't take my word for it...
Might as well sell them some oceanfront property since they truly believe there will not be a problem.
I wonder who the Democrats blame for doing nothing about this... oh, that's tight...they blame the Republicans.
If it weren't for the Republicans, why, they'd have this all fixed in a jiffy.
As long as we blame half the government for what"both sides" do...they don't have to do anything.
...and they won't.
Can someone explain to me how a guy with four children has any claim to be concerned about the environment? Obviously he doesn't give a @!$%#. We certainly can come up with better advocates.
Republicans who choose to assail Al Gore as a prominent messenger on global warming, see above, use argument ad hominem to escape discussing what really matters, i.e., the very real threat presented by global warming to our survival. They're like the priests in the Catholic Church during Copernicus' time--we refuse to discuss Copernicus' belief that the earth revolves around the sun because that's sheer heresy/blasphemy. Republicans,who always seem to put profits ahead of people, have already accepted cancer as the price for the poisons emitted by modern industrialization, and now choose to blind themselves to science again because the Church of Capitalism doesn't tolerate heresy/blasphemy. They prefer listening to a few climate scientist who are paid by Big Oil and Big Gas to say that it's incorrect to believe what 99% of their peers believe, i.e., that our planet is experiencing global warming, that the melting of a slab of ice the size of the United States is unprecedented, that temperatures in the United States during 2012 were the highest ever registered in history, that hurricanes are becoming more devastating with the passage of time, and that if we didn't do anything about it for the last five -ten years (which we didn't), we'll have flooded coastlines in New York, the Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, California, Oregon and Washington within a few years. It's like a great meteor is headed to earth, and earthlings are calling it fairy dust despite the vast majority of scientists' warnings to the contrary.
Yesterday's Republicans were highly responsible about environmentalism and stewardship of the earth in general. Today's Republicans are brainwashed imbeciles who are willfully ignorant and lack any courage even to attempt to address the most alarming threat to the survival of humankind in history. Their darlings, our plutocratic, job creating (in other countries only) rulers who put billions of dollars in campaign contributions at the disposal of Republicans, couldn't care less about the suffering or people so long as they continue to wring profits out of the resources they poison and exhaust. The unwillingness of industrialized countries to subsidize the transition from fossil fuels to reusable energy in poorer countries is yet another excuse to do nothing when something clearly must be done.
Ultimately, nature will settle this debate on its terms, and many people will die and will suffer dislocation to higher ground unless there's a radical change that doesn't appear to be forthcoming. It was nothing short of shameful and highly irresponsible that neither Obama nor Romney said even one word about global warming and the dangers it portends during the campaigns or debates. We can't seem to agree that profits and the loss of some jobs is a small price to pay for saving large swaths of humanity from the death and devastation that will be wrought by global warming.
I totally agree with you. Personally I do my part by owning very high mileage cars which are not driven much ( I bus to work) and avoiding travel. Avoiding travel is the hard one for most environmentalists but travel is the worst offender for your carbon footprint. There are many cool places in my state and I stay within it for vacation.
Al Gore is right on climate change but maybe not on much else.
No he isn't , he's only right on brainwashing you lemmings .
FACT: They will be abandoning their coastline if nothing is done. Fact: carbon held in permafrost in Canada and siberia is double what has already been released. Fact: Arctic warming is releasing methane from coastal seafloor in the artic and in the permafrost and that will cause run away global warming. Fact: geoengineering is what the world leadership will do (aerosols in the upper atmosphere, or some kind of flecks). Fact: this will not cure ocean acidification which threatens the food chain that supports the fish we eat. Fact: reduced solar radiation due to the geoengineering solution will reduce crop yeilds. Fact: Dummies and denialists like alot of people who write here are preventing viable solutions to the biggest problem the world faces today (and it's not socialism, China, gay marriage or Islam)
Sounds like a wack of bull@!$%# to me . FACT : climate has been changing since the beginning of time , and no amount of taxing the crap out of everybody is going to change a thing .
The DemocratsandRepublicans sell legislation and US policy for campaign contributions. Fundraising is the only function of government, and nothing happens unless it is about optimizing fund raising, and nothing happens that could even feasibly interfere with fundraising.
Are Republicans going to outlaw abortion? Of course not...they just mention that they might, and folks send another round of checks.
Are Democrats going to raise taxes? There's no need. They just mention that they might, and they get another round of checks.
The DemocratsandRepublicans are not political rivals. They are partners and co conspirators in the selling of whatever they can sell.
..and they have no reason to be concerned about the environment.
They might threaten to be concerned... but then industry just sends in another round of checks.. and once they get the check, the RepublicansandDemocrats' job is over.. They don't actually DO anything... unless of course, they get donations from it.
Don't blame me, I vote Green (and Independent where there are no Greens).
It appears VP Gore is runing low in cash from his Gobal Warming skim, and wants Obama to get into the act.
Yet, VP Gore, continues to run away and hide from LORD CHRISTOPHER MONCKTON, fomer Advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Tachtcher till 1980.
SIR MONCKTON has challenged the "get rich quick scheme" Al Gore, to debate him, in any forum of his choosing, where SIR MONCKTON will destroy every single argument the VP have ever invented, about Global Warning... while running all the way to the bank!
Come on Gore, have the balls to accept the challenge and stop fulling to many idiots!
JESUS....IS THE REAL REASON FOR THE SEASON. LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT!
As one undeserving Nobel laureate to another
Gore is cool people man. He is the only american politician, vice pres and almost ( and probably should have been president) that took on this up front and published a book no less in the '90's inspite of all you dullard left bashing ass'holes that can smell nothing more than the sweet gas eminating from that hole that you all have your head in !
ya ya go hotknife some more dog@!$%# ..
It's funny how gore can be a total 1 %er , but the OWS libs just think he's the greatest thing sinced sliced bread .Same with michael the hypocrit moore , mega millions but oh lets redistribute only wealthy repubs money . You liberal lemmings loogans are just too mush with your double standard party line Bull@!$%# .
Who is this Al Gore fellow?
How much was he paid to hold Bloomberg's hand?
Who is this Al Gore fellow?
Now here we have an educated post... LMAO