Al Gore is taking his fight to the U.S. Congress. He’s testifying before two committees that he once served on, the House Science and Energy Committees. Here’s part of his opening speech. Thanks to Nancy Pelosi’s office for posting (I think…who really knows). What’s your favorite quote?
Posted on 21 March 2007
Tags: al, Congress, gore, house science and energy commitees, Pelosi
After a lifetime on the East Coast and getting stuck in the Midwestern suburbs of Chicago and northern Michigan I'm finally on the West Coast in the always cool and never hot city of San Francisco. Japhet worked for various outdoor organizations before becoming a member of Howard Dean's webteam (a lowly online organizer) in Burlington, Vermont. Afterwards, he continued his election work with America Coming Together in Madison, Wisconsin where he helped increase voter turnout to the highest in state history. Now, coming back to this environmental and corporate ethics roots, Japhet is excited to put his skills to use for Rainforest Action Network.
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This is the most boring thing I have ever tried to watch.
Having taped 6 hours or more off of C-SPAN3, I found it to hopeful, in that the House and Senate seemed to be interested in learning more and investing real efforts towards alternative fuels sources.
I find it terribly interesting that RAN, which carried out protests against the Gore Presidential run on the basis of oil investments in a blind trust of his fathers (Nader owned some too) now speaks so glowingly of Gore. RAN very well may have cost the world the 2000 election, Iraqi war and stonewalling for nearly a decade on climate change. This sort of thing happens when dedicated people act out without really being that informed. I find the depth of your analysis on rainforest logging and climate change to be shallow to dangerous.
Sammy,
As much as I appreciate the power you bestow upon RAN (that we, an organization of 25 people in San Francisco could tilt a Presidential election in either direction) I must say that I disagree with your statement that we cost Gore the 2000 election by playing supreme puppetmaster. Never, in any political analysis of that election was RAN mentioned as “player.” If anything, election fraud, broken ballot-boxes, faulty counting systems, Ralph Nader’s 4% and Al Gore’s own stiffness to voters was what caused the election to tip to Bush. And, in all actuality, we argue (as true believers still do) that Al Gore never lost the election at all.
As for your opinion on rainforest logging and climate change, you’re welcome to it. You should know that many of our statements and stances on climate change and rainforest deforestation come from allies, indigenous people who live in those forests, partner organzations and scientists who spend their lives studying the impact humans have on them. That being said, you should probably tell them that you find their professional opinions and findings “shallow to dangerous.”
Do you deny that RAN protested against Al Gore during the 2000 election on the basis of Occidental petroleum stock ownership (in a blind trust, which incidentally Nader owned as well). Yes or no will suffice. Maybe this will jog your memory:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-44%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=%22Rainforest+Action+Network%22+Gore+occidental+protest
Sam,
If you actually read my reply above you’ll notice I never said we didn’t pressure Al Gore to review his family’s Occidental Petroleum stock ownership. We did, and that was then. But this is now. And I think you’re missing the point here.
Al Gore has done more in the past two years to bring global warming and climate change into the public consciousness than anyone before him. For that we applaud him. If through Al Gore people are being introduced to rainforest issues and global climate issues (which is obvious through the growing public action around the movie “Inconvenient Truth”) then its a bonus for all of us fighting for these ecological causes. True, there are things ALL of us could do better when it comes to impacting the environment. But I’d rather see the glass as half full now rather than half empty. Progress is good. Hope is better. Hope that leads to progress is what creates change.
Sam, in all your comments to this blog you’ve been amazingly negative. I hope you will see more potential for our species in finding balance between nature and sustainable development in the future instead of all our mistakes in the past. We need people like you to help inspire people with solutions, not darken their days.
Oh, and here’s a hint on putting extremely long URLs into comment boxes for the future: checkout Urltea or tinyurl to shrink your URL to a more manageable length.
http://www.tinyurl.com
http://www.urltea.com
Thanks and good luck!
I believe that RAN’s ill-conceived protests against candidate Gore which included occupying campaign offices very likely may have made the difference in the election and subsequent events. Just as your rolling over to the logging of BC temperate forests will mean a continuation of old-growth logging rather than an end. Don’t lecture me about being negative. Face up to your organization’s record.