Friday, January 05, 2007

Al Gore's Right About Global Warming


If anyone doubts that global warming is a grave threat to our planet, just take a look at what's been happening here in New York. It's January 5th, and it'll be in the 60's today. Tomorrow, 70, high 40's and 50's the rest of the week. And let's not forget the unseasonably high tempts for virtually the entire months of November, December as well as the start of January. And not one single, solitary snowflake has been spotted to-date. Coincidence, you say? Not the result of trapped greenhouse gases? No fears of melting ice caps for you? Well, I for one think at some future point we're all going to be living in boat houses.

Al Gore's site www.climatecrisis.net summarizes global warming this way: "By burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere - trapping solar energy close to the earth instead of releasing it into space - and as a result, temperatures are rising." On Gore's site you can find loads of facts and evidence that supports his warnings: glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and category 4 and 5 hurricanes have almost doubled in the last 30 years.

The kind of weather we're experiencing is abnormal and suspect, and should not be shrugged off as some freakish anomaly. What we're seeing is the result of years of abuses from man-made pollutants. We can all enjoy the warm weather all we like here in NY and elsewhere, but it's not without consequence. For example, it's wreaking havoc on the retail industry, where manufacturers' unsold inventories of coats and other winter garments is staggering; in the travel industry, where ski resorts are suffering; on vegetation, where flowers are prematurely blooming and might not naturally bloom again in the Spring.

In his film "An Inconvenient Truth" last year Gore laid out a doomsday scenario that's downright chilling. The polar ice caps will melt, he says, with warmer water temperatures causing more intense, longer hurricanes resulting in greater greater property damage. We'll continue to see hotter Summers, warmer and shorter Winters. We'll see unprecedented droughts, famines and flooding. Greenland will melt. The global sea level would then rise 20 feet and much of the world flood.

Sounds like a great campaign speech to me.....

On another subject......we could use your help at The Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated in my wife's honor to help carry out her spirit and passion, with the goal of providing film school scholarships and grants to women filmmakers. As many of you know, Adrienne was brutally killed here in NYC on November 1st. Please visit our website to learn more about our mission and to make a donation. Every little contribution helps preserve Adrienne's legacy, and to help create something positive out of this horrible tragedy. Thank you.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michigan is going through the same thing temperature wise. It is depressing. If it's going to be winter in Michigan I want snow!!! Otherwise I feel like I moved south and no one told me.

Rick said...

This is not to say thet globakl warming isn't real or serious - it is both, to be sure - but don't mistake weather for climate. To blame an unusually mild winter on climate change is to say that if next year's winter is colder, it means we've reversed global warming. It hust ain't so. You have to look at long-term trends.

Remember how last year it was the unusual number of strong hurricanes that were the "proof" of global warming? 'Nuff said.

Look at GLOBAL average temperatures, ten-year averages of local weather, and other large-scale, long-term phenomena for valid proof of global warming. I have no doubt that it's happening, but we need to avoid straw-man arguments that Exxon and friends can easily knock down.

Charlotte said...

I agree with every word you say about the Gore candidacy and have been touting it for over a year. And since there will never be a woman president before we elect a woman vice-president, why not a Gore/Clinton 08 ticket?
Charlotte

Unknown said...

Duncan Hunter plans to run for Prez on the "No global warming is taking place" ticket.
I am sure you are familiar with the charismatic Mr. Hunter, a man who has been cheering Washington with his breezy manner and positive attitude!

Anonymous said...

Our children were born in the early 90's and I remember we would marvel about the mild winter and how lucky we were that year to get into December without any significant snow cover to contend with. Each year this period seemed to extend longer and longer, we kept talking to our children about what NORMAL winters were like and eventually we'd return to normal winters. We had one extreme winter in 2000 - 2001 and we thought this maybe is it, we are shifting back to "normal" well, since then it is warmer and warmer each year, we hardly see any snow or use our snowplow. This year we conceded that what we have now is now "normal". I'm not sure what we can do about it short term other than be aware that things are changing and try to adapt to change. And do what little we can to conserve energy. this looks like the warmest year yet and I expect them to continue to get warmer.

Anonymous said...

There's no question a monumental climate change is underway.

Here in Rochester, NY, the vast Lake Ontario (one of the Great Lakes) no longers freezes each winter.

This is significant because the freezing keeps it from evaporating. Lake Ontario's level has fallen by nearly a foot over the past decade.

Yesterday, we hit 58' degrees on January 4th. Our backyard was humming with moths, bees and horse flys. Something we would normally encounter in April. We slept with the bedroom window open an inch.

Mind you, these weeks are the dog days of winter, when temperatures shouldn't rise above 30'F and we should have several feet of snow on the ground.

Buds on the trees are sprouting and the grass is green. While it's great not to have to deal with snow, there's a sense that something is out-of-balance.

Our weather is more like Seattle, WA and not Upstate New York.

Anonymous said...

Al Gore was right? I'd give that a big duh, but right now I'm too hot.

Kevin Schmidt, Sterling VA

Anonymous said...

Hello Al, Andy and All...

Ck This Out... THEN DO IT...

TO CHANGE OUR EARTH - END POLUTION

CHANGE WHAT WE LIVE IN...

see how at...

http://www.EarthBall.org

Help Create 14 foot

Earth Ball Abodes

4 All Earth Citizens

Low Low Cost, Fun 2 Live In

And they... FLOAT

Will B Great In New Orleans, Dafur and All Over OUR Earth
.

Anonymous said...

What amazes me in this debate is that clueless dingbats are being treated as experts on the subject.
Recently, a TV news drone asked professional blowhard Bill Bennett some question about Al Gore's movie.
Bennett snarkily replied something to the effect that folks in the northeast may have trouble driving through snowstorms to see it.
It was around 70°F in upstate NY today.
Someone should explain to Bill Bennett that it doesn't snow at 70°F.

Anonymous said...

When will Al Gore give up his private air travel and join us on the commercial airlines? He might as well say "do as I say, not as I do"

Anonymous said...

For one thing, people like Gore use private jets because, as highly public figures, the are exposed to threats and dangers that we aren't. No one wants to assassinate you pal, but I'm sure there are wackos out there waiting to do horrible things to public figures like Gore. Or maybe not, but the threat of it is always there. Furthermore, Gore has a need to be extremely efficient with his time, as he travels all over giving speeches and raising awareness of global warming. He can't do much for society if he spends 50% of his time sitting in airports like the rest of us poor shleps waiting for his Jet Blue flight.

Anonymous said...

Pardon me for not feeling inferior to those born into the political elite class in America. I for one will continue to enjoy the luxuries that come with my hard-earned salary. When the Global Warming hypocrites start modifying their own behavior, I'll consider modifying my behavior. Until then, I think I'll go test drive the new H3.

Anonymous said...

I just got done having a HEATED discussion with a fellow manager here at work on this very subject. She said all this hype about global warming was just that and she blamed it all on El Nino. I came back that El Nino was a cop-out, as it has been around for ever and yet it is being used as an excuse for what we're experiencing. Just on the news this weekend it was said that many plants in DC that were grown ONLY in the south, like here in Florida, are now being grown OUTSIDE, why, because it's warmer.

Where I was born and raised in Wisconsin there is NO ice on the rivers and no snow. I had never heard of that happening.

Here in the Tampa area we have had our AC on before Christmas and it's still on because it's in the low 80's and humid. In all the years we've lived here, 37, we've NEVER had this happen, usually have the windows open and in the evening click the heat on. The lawns are still needing cutting once a week and in "normal" years cutting grass in the winter was a once a month kind of a chore. I took the the temp of our pool yesterday and it's at 76 degrees where in years past it would be in the high 50's.

Look at all the charts and they all tell us the same thing, the CO2 levels are sky rocketing and with that comes green house effects. Look at all the cars we now have world wide, more people, more planes in the air (over 5,000 over the USA at any given time) not counting world wide, cutting of trees world wide and on and on and on. It's here all right but we better act NOW or it's going to get to the point of no return.

Drive your Hummer if you wish but I drive a 2004 Prius and getting a steady 54.2 mpg with a high of 63.6 mpg.

Gore/?? in 2008

Anonymous said...

You know the Chinese sailed across the north pole 1000 years ago. That means no ice sheet. What happened to the polar bears then? Have they only been around for short time?

What about Greenland? Erik the Red named it Greenland and people lived there for 100s of years till the permafost froze the land. This says the Earth was warmer 1000 years ago than today.

Don't get me wrong, I think that climate change is happening (as it has on the earth forever). I just have a hard time believing the same people who said we were heading for an ice age 30 years ago.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....

Captain USpace said...

Al has no chance...

absurd thought -
God of the Universe thinks
Al Gore is NOT insane
.

Anonymous said...

You are all "la-hoo-is-ers!" Most people know nothing about science, because they apply their own faulty agenda. For Politicians its controlling the people. For Scientists, they want 'grant' money from the politicians (that tax the people). As for the average citizen that believes in "Anthropogenic Globalized Warming", you are the pawns. You believe in living a both simple and satisfying life, where you can breath clean air. Well so do I. But I will never bow down to a political agenda based on BS, bad science, only to see our country go from bad to worse. The republicans may have a capitalistic agenda, but the democrats have something worse in mind. If continue to be ignorant of this it is your own fault. When this country passes its tipping point, the people that have upheld it for so long will no longer be here to help you.

Anonymous said...

I feel that this is an issue that has been overlooked and pushed to the side too frequently!!! We are supposed to stand UNITED in all things that better our country and our people. There is too much of a concentration on things that do not benefit us simply as a "Human Race." Mother Nature is fighting back against all of the damage that we have done to the earth!! What will happen to all of the Governments Power and the money hungry percentage of our population once we either go through an Ice age or have serious destruction due to a Tsunami? What will all that mean when that day comes and goes? Wouldn't you rather join together to "Ensure Our Childrens Future?" I say "When there are enough people united with the same belief, miracles can happen." Forget about Political Parties...Democrats or Republicans...We are all the same! Give back to Mother Nature, for she has been good to us.

Anonymous said...

I just want to state that perhaps what we are experiencing are normal winters--- winters with no snow. Perhaps our world is just coming out of a global cooling. No one has been alive long enough since the time of Noah to actually track weather patterns over the centuries. So how are we to know if the religion of global warming with its indulgences, carbon offsets, is actually true or false if we have no actual proof for global warming other than 50 something year old men telling us that winters were colder back when they were kids.