In his first Congressional appearance since releasing his Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, former US vice-president Al Gore urged legislators to immediately 鈥渇reeze鈥� carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to combat global warming.
Testifying before members of the US House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, Gore called for 10 separate measures. These included an immediate cap on the nation鈥檚 CO2 emissions at current levels, and reductions of 90% or more by 2050.
鈥淥ur world faces a true planetary emergency,鈥� Gore said. 鈥淲e do not have the luxury of exercising 鈥榩olitics as usual鈥�.鈥�
Advertisement
Backed by the findings of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, Gore urged Republicans and Democrats to lay down partisan differences and work together on what he considers to be 鈥渢he most serious crisis we have ever faced鈥�.
鈥淭here are times when a small group has to make difficult decisions that will affect the future of everybody,鈥� Gore said. 鈥淭his House and Senate faces such a challenge.鈥�
Power sellers
Gore鈥檚 other proposals included taxing carbon emissions, raising vehicle fuel-efficiency requirements, and banning incandescent light bulbs and new coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester CO2.
He also called for changes in the national energy grid that would allow individuals to sell back excess power at competitive market rates, and for the creation of a national mortgage programme to help cover the costs of home-based energy-saving technologies.
Standing-room-only crowds in the House and Senate committee rooms clamoured to catch a glimpse of the former legislator and his wife, Tipper, through a ring of photographers.
Big hoax
Gore鈥檚 sharpest criticisms of the day came from Republican senator James Inhofe, who in 2003 called global warming 鈥渢he greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people鈥�. Inhofe took issue both with the science of climate change and the cost of emission reductions.
鈥淚 consider this the largest tax increase in history,鈥� Inhofe said of the costs of carbon reduction plans like those outlined in the Kyoto protocol, which he estimated at more than $300 billion. 鈥淎nd the science isn鈥檛 there. We just can鈥檛 do that to America, Mr Vice-President, and we鈥檙e not going to.鈥�
Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said an immediate CO2 freeze is not possible. 鈥淚f you take that literally, we can add no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the street, and apparently no new people,鈥� Barton said.
Serious questions
Bj酶rn Lomborg, a Danish statistician and author of the controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, provided written testimony at the request of House Republicans. Though dismissed by many in the scientific community, Lomborg stated that even if the Kyoto protocol had been ratified by the US and others, it would not have made much difference to warming. 鈥淓ven if it had been adhered to throughout the century, [it] would have postponed warming by just 5 years in 2100 at a cost of $180 billion annually,鈥� Lomborg said.
Sceptics aside, Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climatologist and co-founder of the climate scientist blog was buoyed by the response Gore received.
鈥淓xcept for a couple of holdouts, the vast majority of people were asking serious questions about what steps need to be taken, what will the cost be, what are the benefits, and how do you spread the economic pain, if any,鈥� Schmidt said.
Movie star status
The majority of questions coming from Congress on both sides of the political split assumed that action is necessary and focused on how best to proceed.
鈥淚 believe the debate over global warming is over,鈥� said former speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Hastert, who ribbed Gore about his newfound movie star status.
Hastert said the only solution he sees for clean energy is nuclear power and expressed grave concerns about the loss of jobs to China if the US initiates carbon caps without a similar commitment from the Asian powerhouse.
Gore said he was not opposed to increasing nuclear power but thought that renewable energies such as wind and solar were more likely play a leading role in future energy solutions. He also said that he was hopeful that China would join future treaties on climate change if the US were involved.
Gazing across at the members of Congress gathered before him, Gore implored US legislators: 鈥淚 promise you, the day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back on 2007 and they will ask one of two questions,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ither they will ask 聭what in God鈥檚 name were they doing?鈥� or 聭How did they find the uncommon moral courage to rise above politics and say we鈥檙e going to do what鈥檚 right?鈥�
