ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress - Climate Progress
ThinkProgress Logo

Climate Progress

NASA: Human Activity Causes Global Warming, Not Solar Activity

Methane Emissions Measured Over Gas Field Double Industry Claims

Study: 'The Greater the Coverage of Climate Change, the Greater the Public Concern'

More on Gore — for political junkies only

By Joe Romm on Oct 14, 2007 at 9:04 am

The politically savvy blogger Steven Clemons makes this fascinating point:

Gore’s win seals the deal that he owns the global climate change franchise. Everyone big in this game — from firms, to NGOs, to governments — will need the Al Gore seal of approval on whether some initiatives are good or bad. That’s going to be interesting. Al Gore is going to be an NGO of his very own, and he’s probably going to have to get a sticker machine so that stuff he likes can bear his seal of approval.

But there is a bigger, more complicated and admittedly cynical dimension to the Gore win.

It keeps climate change policy from being something that anyone else can take a lot of credit for, particularly the Clintons — unless they can work out a deal.

The rest of the article has some fascinating behind-the-scenes from the Clinton Global Initiative that I had wondered about when I was there — why did Gore get onto a plenary panel when he wasn’t on the agenda?

One Response to More on Gore — for political junkies only

  1. Ron says:
    October 14, 2007 at 2:25 pm

    Joe,

    You might find this a tad unbelieveable, but I actually have some sympathy for your cause; I just have a problem with your tactics and some of your underlying assumptions.

    But since I do have some sympathy, I’m actually feeling sorry for you now that Gore “owns the global climate change franchise”. He’s probably the worst possible spokesman and figurehead for the AGW movement.

    Things like honesty, integrity, principle, and common sense are traits to be encouraged in ourselves and others. Most people ‘get’ that, and most people get that Al Gore, like most career ‘public servants’, just doesn’t display good examples of those personal traits. And his propaganda campaign has already left a lot of people cold on the whole subject. His tarnished image will further tarnish the image of the whole AGW industry.

    Sorry.

    But as an amateur pundit, I’ve been saying for years Hillary Clinton was going to be president. Not that I like the idea, but the forces have been in motion a long time. Al Gore’s Nobel Prize might encourage a run, which might make election watching even more fun this time. He might even get cornered into a debate on AGW!