Citizen Power

“We as human beings have a tendency to confuse the unprecedented with the impossible.
The exceptions can kill you.”

Al Gore spoke today to the Senate committee on foreign relations. He had a more receptive audience than in the past, and he again called for swift action. This testimony was tied to the Obama administration stimulus package appeal, and Al Gore emphasized the need to pass it. If you care about climate change and taking the first steps in dealing with it, please call your Senators and get them to support the new stimulus package! This is not a bank bailout, this is a job creation bill that will be our first step in dealing with the problems of the near future, including climate change. There were some surprises at the hearing. Republican Senator Corker even agrees with a carbon tax versus a cap and trade system because he feels it is less of a “transfer of wealth” from taxpayers to business. And it is.

Below are Al Gore’s opening remarks as prepared. From listening to it, he deviated from these remarks somewhat and talked a lot more after them, which you can watch here. It’s about 3 hours long, which I am recording and will make available as a podcast by tomorrow, because it is very much worth hearing. Senator John Kerry said he is going to have the entire testimony printed and distributed among the senators, and I hope I can get a copy of that because it will include Gore’s new graphics. They are much more frightening than the graphics in his original slide show/movie. As Gore states, this is a planetary emergency. We have never dealt with anything like this before. Issues with climate change have moved along quite a bit since Gore’s move came out, but there is still a lot of work to do to convince the public of the enormity of this problem. For a good start, watch this congressional testimony, or listen to it when I provide the link to the podcast. This is not a regular issue where we have a lot of time to debate.

Statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

The Hon. Al Gore

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

We are here today to talk about how we as Americans and how the United States of

America as part of the global community should address the dangerous and growing

threat of the climate crisis.

We have arrived at a moment of decision. Our home – Earth – is in grave danger. What is

at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have

made it hospitable for human beings.

Moreover, we must face up to this urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our

civilization at a time when our country must simultaneously solve two other worsening

crises. Our economy is in its deepest recession since the 1930s. And our national

security is endangered by a vicious terrorist network and the complex challenge of ending

the war in Iraq honorably while winning the military and political struggle in

Afghanistan.

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