Right-wing echo chamber promotes doctored and deceptive audio clip of Al Gore.
Right-wing echo chamber promotes doctored and deceptive audio clip of Al Gore.
Earlier this week, the Business & Media Institute (BMI) – a right-wing front group founded by Brent Bozell – spliced and doctored an NPR interview of Al Gore in order to allege that Gore said something which he did not. The organization published a false headline which blared that Gore called the Myanmar cyclone a “consequence” of global warming. Drudge promoted it on his site:
But in the NPR interview, Gore asserted that melting polar ice caps — not cyclones — were a “consequence” of global warming (which is unequivocally due to global warming). BMI inverted Gore’s comments to make it seem like his remarks about the cyclones followed from his remarks about “the consequences of global warming.” Yesterday, Fox News promoted the doctored clip to make the same false allegations about what Gore actually said. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson, who broke the story, has the full details here.
EPA’s Johnson claims ‘ongoing back issues’ prevent him from testifying before Congress.
EPA’s Johnson claims ‘ongoing back issues’ prevent him from testifying before Congress.
Last month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson was unable to testify before Congress because he went on a trip to Australia. Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) Oversight and Government Reform Committee had scheduled a hearing for tomorrow with Johnson to testify on White House interference with ozone standards. Today, Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports that the hearing has been postponed because Johnson refused to appear:
EPA officials say Johnson had a “recurrence of ongoing back issues stemming from a car accident years ago.”
The Wonk Room has a chart of the many ongoing scandals Johnson should be ready to address before Congress once he recovers.
Right-wing organization paying kids for denying global warming.
Right-wing organization paying kids for denying global warming.
The right-wing organization WorldNetDaily (WND) is rewarding children for “debunking” global warming in a new video/essay contest. “The contest was launched early in 2008 and was designed to highlight the absurdities, untruths and downright lies that children are being taught daily about ‘climate change’ in public school,” the site states. “Contest winners will receive a cash prize, a copy of ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ DVD courtesy of junkscience.com, and copies of ‘The Sky’s Not Falling‘ for their local school library and their kids’ science classroom.” Watch one of the submissions:
“Kids across America are being victimized by global warming hysteria,” according to Holly Fretwell, author of The Sky’s Not Falling: Why It’s OK to Chill About Global Warming.
Judge rules against Bush Administration in polar bear protection case.
Judge rules against Bush Administration in polar bear protection case.
In a major victory against Bush’s failure to admit the threat of climate change, a “federal judge has found the Bush administration guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act and ordered the administration to issue a final listing decision for the polar bear by May 15, 2008.” The district court ruling against Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne found:
Defendants have been in violation of the law requiring them to publish the listing determination for nearly 120 days. Other than the general complexity of finalizing the rule, Defendants offer no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay. To allow Defendants more time would violate the mandated listing deadlines under the ESA and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing threatened species.
The administration has been fighting to avoid protecting the polar bear since 2005.
CNN’s Velshi: I’m not even as ‘clean’ as coal when I ‘get out of the shower.’
CNN’s Velshi: I’m not even as ‘clean’ as coal when I ‘get out of the shower.’
Previewing his interview with the CEO of Sasol, a South African company that produces coal-based liquid fuels, chief business correspondent Ali Velshi on Friday admitted that there “are issues with coal,” but minimized its problems:
There are issues with coal. It’s not the cleanest thing in the world. You see the signs for clean coal, 99 percent clean. I’m not 99 percent clean when I get out of the shower. . . I just look clean.
Watch it:
The Wonk Room explains how far Velshi is from the truth when he talks about “99 percent clean” coal.
Jeb Bush is a climate change skeptic: I’m ‘light green.’
Jeb Bush is a climate change skeptic: I’m ‘light green.’
Yesterday at a speech in Dallas, former Florida governor Jeb Bush said that he is skeptical humans are causing global warming, stating he is “light green” on the environment. According to the AP, Bush said that global warming activists “are acting out of something like religious zeal.” “I don’t think our policies should be based on emotion; they should be based on sound science,” said Bush. Recognizing that some of his remarks were controversial, Bush later remarked, “Is this open to the press?”
Gore: Climate situation ‘has not improved’ since 2006 film.
Gore: Climate situation ‘has not improved’ since 2006 film.
In a new interview with The Sun, former vice president Al Gore says that not enough has been done to combat global warming since his 2006 documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth“:
I have to say the situation has not improved since I made the movie in 2006. Sure, awareness has grown and more people are concerned since scientists said we had just ten years to take action to halt rising sea levels.
But the situation has got worse. The entire North Polar ice cap is melting and could be gone in some areas in as little as five years.
You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic. If you had told me a few years ago that we would be facing a situation where the entire North Polar ice cap was going to imminently disappear, I might have thought we’d certainly get people’s attention, and yet only to a limited degree.
Gore also criticized the Bush administration’s inaction on the issue, adding that “while it’s important to change lightbulbs, it’s far more important to change laws.”
Schwarzenegger: Bush’s New Global Warming Plan = ‘No More Glaciers’
Schwarzenegger: Bush’s New Global Warming Plan = ‘No More Glaciers’
Earlier this week, President Bush outlined a new global warming plan calling for a
“national goal” to halt the growth of U.S. carbon emissions by 2025. Essentially, this policy would allow unchecked growth in emissions until that point, at which point, Bush has the “goal” of stopping the rate of growth of those emissions.
The administration’s plan was warmly received by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the Senate’s biggest global warming skeptic, and even Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) is having none of it. Thursday, on PBS’s Charlie Rose, Schwarzenegger sharply rebuked Bush: “this administration is just not really with the program”:
We have to go and make decisions today. Time is running out there’s an urgency there. This is the important thing here. For him to say we should start really reducing greenhouse gases by the year 2025, by that time we’ll have no more glacier left. By that time, our sea level will be rising. We will be in a dangerous situation. I think it is somewhat irresponsible. I think the action is now.
Watch out:
Bush’s “new” climate change policy is really more of the same. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson explained how Bush’s plan pales in comparison to the effectiveness of programs our allies are implementing:
| EUROPE | CANADA | UNITED STATES | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Target For Greenhouse Emissions | 20% below 1990 levels | 1990 levels | No target; keep increasing until 2025 |
| Mechanism | Mandatory cap-and-trade system, performance standards, international offsets | Voluntary efficiency standards | Tax cuts for industry |
The IPCC has recommended that industrialized countries need to reduce emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Relive the White House’s seven years of climate policy failures here.
EPA defies subpoena to turn over documents.
EPA defies subpoena to turn over documents.
In a remarkable show of contempt, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has flatly refused a House Global Warming Committee subpoena. The subpoena for documents relating to the EPA’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court mandate to regulate greenhouse gases was issued by a unanimous, bipartisan vote on April 2, a year after the Supreme Court decision. On April 11, the EPA requested and received an extension to respond, but today the agency has decided not to turn over the documents:
Go to the Wonk Room to read the full letter and learn more.
Scientists are trained to be unemotional, and most are. Politicians, on the other hand, are not."