Gore: U.S. Blocking Progress On Climate

White House "Principally Responsible" For Obstruction; Europeans May Boycott U.S.-Led Talks

(CBS/AP)  Al Gore said Thursday the United States is "principally responsible" for blocking progress in battling climate change at the U.N. climate conference.

Anger toward the Bush administration for resisting measures that would create mandatory targets for reductions in greenhouse gases was rife at the conference, where one official described the U.S. delegation as a "wrecking ball."

European nations are even threatening a boycott of U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.

The United Nations warned that time was running out for an agreement aimed at launching negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and the talks in Bali were in danger of "falling to pieces."

Concurrent with the conference was an announcement by NASA scientists that the rate of melting of Arctic ice, both in the sea and land-bound, was proceeding at a faster pace than expected. "The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.

In urging delegates to take immediate action to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, Gore laid the blame for the lack of action so far squarely on the current U.S. administration.

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.

He asked delegates Thursday not to get angry, but to work toward a world which will soon have a new American president.

"Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now," said Gore, who flew to the Bali meeting after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on Monday.

"One year and 40 days from today, there will be a new inauguration in the United States," he said, speaking in a conference hall and by video to delegates throughout the conference site.

"I must tell you candidly that I cannot promise that the person who is elected will have the position I expect they will have, but I can tell you I believe it is quite likely."

He noted that the U.S. Congress is moving legislation forward to impose binding emissions caps in the United States for the first time - legislation that, if passed, would likely be vetoed by Mr. Bush.

Gore told the delegates, from almost 190 nations, they have two choices here.

"You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the United States of America, or you can make a second choice. You can decide to move forward and do all of the difficult work that needs to be done."

Gore, who helped in the final negotiation of the Kyoto pact in 1997, also called for implementing a successor agreement to Kyoto two years early, in 2010. The first implementation period of the Kyoto pact expires at the end of 2012.

"We can't afford to wait another five years," he said.

This morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino rejected comments by Gore who blamed the Bush administration for blocking progress, saying that the U.S. is not the only country that has concerns about setting a specific emission reduction target, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.

Nations Threaten Boycott Over U.S. Position

As U.N. talks entered their final hours, European nations on Thursday threatened to boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington agrees to a deal mentioning numerical targets for deep reductions in global warming gases.

The United States, Japan, Russia and several other governments refuse to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks.

The European Union and others say the figures reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species.

"No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in September.

"This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target."

Brazil's Climate Change Ambassador Sergio Barbosa Serra said his government was not threatening a boycott, but would take any omission of numerical targets "into account" when it decides whether to attend the Major Economies Meeting.

The U.S. invited 16 other major economies to that Washington meeting, including European countries, Japan, China and India, to discuss a program of what it expects would be nationally determined, voluntary cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions.

Those meetings were criticized for shunning mandatory reductions in favor of each nation setting voluntary goals towards a still-to-be-defined future goal.

The White House said European threats to boycott next month's U.S.-led climate change meeting are "not constructive," reports Maer. Press Secretary Dana Perino also noted that a boycott is not the "official position" of the European Union.

Environmentalists accuse the U.S. of trying to undermine the U.N. process, which since Kyoto has focused on internationally binding targets. Many delegates here believe no such international action is possible until the Bush administration leaves the White House.

But U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said he was worried the U.S.-EU deadlock could derail the process and that a final "Bali roadmap" would contain an agreement to negotiate a new climate deal by 2009, but may not include specific targets for emission reductions.

"I'm very concerned about the pace of things," he said. "If we don't get wording on the future, then the whole house of cards falls to pieces."

The United States delegation said while it continues to reject inclusion of specific emission cut targets, it hopes eventually to reach an agreement that is "environmentally effective" and "economically sustainable."

The United States is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto, which expires in 2012. It has been on the defensive since the conference kicked off on Dec. 3.

un. uneducated.

I wish the deniers would wake up and smell the coffee. Doesn''t it tell you anything that every environmental science textbook on the planet says that anthropogenic warming is real? If there was really such a big debate going on - the textbooks would reflect that. They don''t. The universities are teaching the reality of global warming, so it appears those individuals who deny its existence are actually educated.

[samsel3]

The Bush administration has rejected reduction of fossile fuel burning citing severe economic impacts.The Cheney energy policy expands US interests in The Caspian Sea region where one third of the world''s oil remains untapped. Big Oil does not want alternative energy because they are profit motivated. Big Oil & Corporate America dictate US policy not the people. We are just pawns in their game.

[co2max]

If you are a disciple of Al Gore, then you accept the idea that the planet has a fever (cough, cough), which is absolutely absurd. But if you follow this reasoning, you cannot call carbon dioxide a pollutant (which it certainly is not). Instead, refer to carbon dioxide as an infection. This way, you can adhere to the line of logic that tries to support this ridiculous claim that humans cause climate to change and the rest of us intelligent, thinking members of the world will recognize the global warming zealots for what they are: uneducated, politically motivated control freaks.

[gordon.couger]

If this is to work we need the whole of the world behind it. Not just govemntes passing treaties. You need every business and person in the world working on a way to use less energy and ways to use less them selves.

More important it needs to make a profit in the process. We can''t just stop what were doing we must find a way to keep our economy and your and my job bringing in a living wages.

Stopping co2 is easy. Reducing it and feeding a world hungry for food growing pollution and keeping an economy alive to pay the bills with out falling apart isn''t as simple as Al Gore.

I think the faction that is driving this believes in population control at any price. I believe They see the four horseman of Starvation, Famine, War and pestilence as their minions to carry out there dreams.

Gc

[harp1963]

When the earth is on fire, the lovers of money will be wishing for more than money and power.

[erasmus6]

"Have you lost your f*cking mind? We''''ve been a plague ever since we evolved into the a-holes we are today. Go take a swim the next time a tanker loses it''''s cargo. We''''re nothing more than a virus as we rape this planet for all we can get. " posted by matvei1107

See, here is a person that sees things for the way they are. This person isn''t living in lala land. When a person can stand back and take a good look at themselves and see things for the way they are, I believe they are then half way to solving the problem. Of course this is only one of the very few people in the U.S. that actually isn''t living in denial so I am afraid the U.S. has a long way to go before there is any hope of them fixing any problems they have.


How embarrassing for the American people to have such a loser as president. I don''t know how he can sleep at night knowing that he is going to go down in history as being the worst president of the United States that there ever was.

[erasmus6]

"Can''''t you Global Warming Sheep see how insane this is?????" posted by hawksprings

There is nothing insane about it. You can expect in the beginning that they are going to have to get together to form some kind of plan to get things going. Eventually once everyone knows what that plan is then they will not need to get together anymore. So in the beginning, sure they will be contributing to the problem, but that won''t be forever.

[hawksprings]

OK, let me get this straight...

All these delegates and Algore flew from all over the world, spewing the CO2 of 20,000 freakin'' cars, to attend a conference in Bali where some of them had to watch Algore''s drivel ON VIDEO??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Global Warming is sooo dire, sooo urgent, sooo deadly, soooo in need of immediate action RIGHT NOW, why in the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks didn''t they ALL STAY HOME AND DO THE WHOLE THING ON VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instead they do a feel-good conference in a remote corner of the Earth where some of them have to watch it on video because the place couldn''t accomodate them all, so they can bash the US while they created more CO2 than 20,000 cars???????

Can''t you Global Warming Sheep see how insane this is?????

[ubrew12]

jowand said: "ZERO factual evidence that C02 is causing global warming, its actually getting colder at the poles, check out the links: http://www.iceagenow.com/Growin"

Didn''t I kick your a*s on this the other night? So many deniers, so little time...

Read it (again) and weep, Bushie. Its from NASA, so if you don''t believe they took us to the moon, you may just get a laugh out of it:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/greenland_slide.html

[ubrew12]

arj4031 said: "several studies have indicated that [warming] can still be tackled relatively inexpensively compared to the costs and consequences of allowing it to accelerate further."
For example, just planting more trees in the tropics and dumping crop wastes into the oceans would do wonders. But you won''t hear the denyers crowd talking solutions. They''re more into whining about ''liberal conspiracies''.

[arj4031]

Correction - My previous comment is to MCVet, not Steve:

[arj4031]

Steve, you might want to at least learn the difference between the separate but related issues of global climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion. See #24 at Understandit.org

As for cost, several studies have indicated that this thing can still be tacked relatively inexpensively compared to the costs and consequences of allowing it to accelerate further.

[mcvet]

More America bashing from a Democrat is expected. In the end, the hole in the earth''''s atmosphere is shrinking and that proves global warming is declining. Gore is an overblowing blowhard.


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Posted by denn034 at 04:49 PM : Dec 13, 2007
+ report abuse

ROFLMAO Well SURE folks.. Bush and the Fascist have been so right on this and so much for so long!! ROFLMAO It only took Sir Lies-A-Lot 7 YEARS to finally admit that Gobal Warming ACTUALLY existed and YOU want people to listen to you clowns?? ROFLMAO I hardly think a fascist is someone to be listening to about anything these days... Sieg Heil Bush!!

[stevex47]

How goes the spin tonite right wingers?

You know we''re going to raise your taxes a billion percent to cover these costs right? ha

[ibzjem]

You two have got to be kidding us. Have you read the links you provide to the Daily Green? Of course ice is growing be cause it''s becoming winter! Duh!! But it is less this year than last. If you read the article you would have seen it say "but has yet to recover fully from a record summer melt"

The other site is questionable. Ice might be thickening in spots, but it has been shown that it is shrinking in overall size and it''s moving. I would not trust a fly-by-night site such as this. Not one reference to any other article or report.

Come back when you understand the global warming or climate change process.

[ibzjem]

You two have got to be kidding us. Have you read the links you provide to the Daily Green? Of course ice is growing be cause it''s becoming winter! Duh!! But it is less this year than last. If you read the article you would have seen it say "but has yet to recover fully from a record summer melt"

The other site is questionable. Ice might be thickening in spots, but it has been shown that it is shrinking in overall size and it''s moving. I would not trust a fly-by-night site such as this. Not one reference to any other article or report.

Come back when you understand the global warming or climate change process.

[oscarez]

You don''t have to worry about how high the sea levels rise if you live at or above 500 feet MSL, That is as long as the central part of the United States does not become a desert.

[walt1944-2009]

The Great Emperor Bush II is unconcerned about Al Gore''s claims that the government of the USSA is blocking attempts to clean up the air we all breathe.

The Great Emperor could care less about ice caps melting, polar bears and penguins drowning, and sea levels rising, just so long as those things do not affect the profit levels of big business companies and his own personal stock portfolio. After all, greed and profit are what drive the Fascist neocon agenda and those items must be protected at all times.

Besides, armed with the advice of such great "scientists" as Professor Micheal Savage, Doctor Bill O''Reilly, and Professor Rush Limbaugh, together with the "inspired" words of the Reverand Anne Coulter, the Great Emperor is convinced there is nothing to worry about, that the planet is in great shape, and is setting his sights on the Red Planet so he can screw Mars up!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!

[co2max]

jowand - That''s quite interesting. The view of the lift crane and the power pole becoming engulfed in thickening ice over the past 20+ years is quite astonishing. Not bad for a frozen desert.