Kerry promises action on global warming
On the eve of going to a major conference on global climate change, Senator John F. Kerry said today that he will make the issue a priority as the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
And that, he said, is a sea change from the Bush administration.
"It's a moment we've been waiting for, many of us, for some period of time -- for eight years, to be blunt," Kerry said. "And we intend to pick up the baton and really run with it here."
"I have both the chairmanship of the committee as well as a president to work with," he added in a conference call with reporters. "And I'm very excited about where the United States is going to be. I think President-elect Obama, in his remarks to the climate change summit that Governor Schwarzenegger held least week, made it very, very clear that after eight years of obstruction and delay and denial, the United States is going to rejoin the world community in tackling this global challenge."
Kerry acknowledged that some leaders are skittish about aggressive action on climate change as most of the world heads into recession.
But, he said, "you can't back off what the science tells us must be done as a matter of global survival. And so you have to turn this challenge into the economic resurgence -- into the economic rebound. And I think that President Obama is poised to show America how a green economy and a transformational economy away from this dependency on fossil fuel is, in fact, part of the plan of restoring our economy and strengthening our economy."
Obama is not attending the gathering, which starts Monday in Poland, but he has said he expects detailed briefings from Kerry and other members of Congress who do attend.
"You can't be half pregnant on this issue," the Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential nominee said. "You can't accept the science and say yes global climate change is manmade and yes global climate change is happening faster than the scientists, in fact, thought it was going to and then not accept the same scientific conclusions with respect to what that impact is and what we're already witnessing; i.e., the melting of the ice cap, the rising of the ocean levels, the change in weather patterns, the change and migration of forests, the change in agriculture, the droughts. All of the impacts that are going to have a profound impact on people which could create larger numbers of refugees, other food crises, other kinds of dislocations all of which lend themselves to -- to -- you know, increased conflict in various parts of the world. The bottom line is that we have a huge responsibility here."
Kerry also said he expects to work closely on the issue with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and with Senator Hillary Clinton, expected to be named secretary of state.
"She's, you know, committed on this issue," he told reporters. "And I think it's going to be a very powerful team. I mean, I think we're going to get as strong a focus on this issue as we could possibly have hoped for. And that excites me. I mean, I really see the capacity for us to get this done."
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The title has a misprint - "Global Warming" should be "Global Climate Change". It has been realized the earth isn't warming so to further the agenda, over the last year "Warming" has been replaced by "Climate Change". This will prevent any negative scientific arguments against new Global Warming, um, I mean Climate Change taxes.
Is he serious?
The temperatures haven't warmed since 1998, and we're presently having the earliest cold weather in years!
I know Kerry wants to do something for attention, but this is a ridiculous way to get it. He needs to learn more about environmental science - obviously, he's just bought into the Al Gore/Chicken Little scenario.
Tell the blowhard to release "ALL" his military records to other than the Globe, New York Times and LA times and maybe I will take him serious....until he does, he's just another liar!!
oh my God! -hey Massachusetts , Boston? anyone home?- who among you elected this pompous twit for the rest of us to suffer his idiocy? Folks seriously, this is a huge hoax designed to lift even more money from our wallets and impose counterproductive regulations - stop the madness.
Another rejected liberal casting his net to finally retrieve and define the "meaning of his life". Geeze how shallow these folks really are.
Here is a man with significant (potential) power and influence by reason of his position and name recognition, while the world is in very serious economic crisis,
with men of ill will rattleing sabers from Venezuala to Moscow to Tehran and he ( Kerry) wants to outlaw moonbeams. Not only does he not give a big rat's rectum about the subject, he probably knows it's mostly BS anyway,(as does it's chief protagonist and previous rejected liberal.
It is very difficult to understand why these presumably gifted and powerful people
scurry about looking for these elitist issues rather than lending their weight to a
problem that is not only proven real but that has a actual chance of having a solution.....multiple sclerosis, certainly a real malady, a nice esoteric name for future historical implications and Al Gore hasn' t 'jumped on it '. Heck Senator, if you are interested I supply you with dozens of equally prestigious problems and
human blights to which you can afix your name and proceed to travel the world as it;s only proponent.....ahhm ..Bush(elder)and Clinton(stud) already have the tidal wave,,,,did you see how fast they jumped on that one? Polio? nah,, it's taken..but you get the idea...for God's sake DO SOMETHING!!!!
What ever you do....DON'T GIVE GORE A HEADS UP!!!
As a science teacher I am enraged that someone like Sen. Kerry would say that the science requires radical action. What science is he talking about. It certainly isn't any science that I have studied. Also for someone to claim we need to make great changes in how energy is produced knowing it will virtually bankrupt poor people is evil. I have recently built a remote energy home (solar and wind power) it is not cheap and you have to be willing to give up some comforts. When Kerry et. al. of the global climate change persuasion all convert their lifestyles to use of solar, wind, and battery only then I might believe they have an ounce of integrity. Meanwhile they need to shut the *## up.
That's right, People! Now that Obama is in, the Lieberals are going to run with AGW. I believe the "Deniers" are becoming a Majority in this Nation and have got to be heard! With the power of the Internet, this word can be sent to Washington in order to get the word across; Global Warming is a NATURAL EVENT, PERIOD!
More and more evidence is coming forth weekly!
Plus, since the Financial Collapse, which all were instituted by Democrats, are We going to allow the Govenment to finish off Our Economy too by instituting large taxes on Energy and Subsidizing Wind and Solar Power which is very inefficient!!
WwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwWake up, People!
Kerry promised to keep his mouth shut, thus preventing the release of millions of BTUs of hot air from being issued into the atmosphere.
Scientists fear that if Kerry follows through on his promise, the rapid reduction in global temperature will lead to another Ice Age in a short timeframe.
The sad fact is that we do not know enough about climate change to make any meaningful predictions. The Warm Mongers latched on to the fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas without being able to quantify its ability to cause warming. The models all spit out global warming because that is what they are programmed to do.
There are many scientists who are preeminent in the fields of meteorology, astrophysics, and earth science who state that the IPCC theories are all wrong when it comes to their specialties. Even some of the UN's IPCC reviewers state that the theory is flawed.
We need to look before we leap, or the changes we make in our energy production will make the disruptions in our corn supply (caused by a few federal mandates) seem trivial.
Are these the same scientific models that the hedge funds used to prove the safety of their portfolios? Or perhaps they are the scientific models that the rating agencies used to bestow investment grade ratings on mortgage dung? Or better still, maybe they are the scientific models that predict the daily weather incorrectly 3 days out of 7 every week of every year for all of modern history?
John Kerry is an elitist buffoon that couldn't spell global warming if you gave him the g, the l, the b, the w, the r, the m, and all the vowels. He will do what most idealogues do, ignore science, human nature, precedent and all of history and instead run with some moronic baton. Nice.
This article is very refreshing news...reading the comments however lead me into deep despair. It's very easy in America to deny climate change- the injustice is that we, as the ones who've caused it most (yes, I said that) feel the consequences of it least. Farmers in Malawi whose crops are failing because of their changing climates are not debating it as a luxury issue. Nor are the poorest and most vulnerable in Burkina Faso, where climate change is increasing their own food insecurities. I'm so thankful that America is finally taking climate change seriously rather than blocking any global attempts.
I agree, Alisha. Bravo to Senator Kerry and the others who take the science seriously.
Thank you for an intelligent post on this serious subject. There are too many hate-filled Neanderthals out there who take every opportunity to spew bile on a subject they obviously know nothing about.
As one who has studied climate change extensively and have been actively engaged in vigorous debate with the "deniers" for one and one half years, I look forward to a new era of aggressive response to the clear indication that mankind is increasingly affecting the global climate. The present decade is the warmest globally in the entire instrumental temperature record. Many politically motivated arguments are floating about attempting to discredit the science or posit alternate explanations for the warming of the past several decades in an effort to cause confusion amongst the general public. The debate is more a clash of ideology rather than science. The science is clear, man's activities are warming the Earth.
It is widely accepted that global warming STOPPED in 1988, even though the arguments continue regarding future global warming. That John Kerry does NOT know this fact is far from surprising! Even his supporters admit that John Kerry is, in a word, stupid. As a Mass. resident I apologize to the nation that the majority of voters in my state returned him to the Senate. We had an excellent alternative, but in Mass. a Republican (even one very well qualified) has no chance against the Democrat machines in the cities.