Climate Change: The Time Is Now

It's as politically inconvenient as ever, but Senate must pass true cap
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2010 6:30 AM CST
Climate Change: The Time Is Now
Former Vice President Al Gore delivers a speech about global warming in Panama City, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009.   (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Wouldn't it be great if you woke up this morning, opened the newspaper, and read all about how climate-change deniers were right all along? Al Gore thinks so, but instead, you'll find his op-ed piece in the Times, warning that while climate deniers might've gotten a chuckle over leaked emails, the overwhelming majority of science supports the fact that global warming is more perilous than ever—and just as inconvenient.

Political gridlock in that vaunted institution called the US Senate forced "the president to go to Copenhagen without a new law in hand," meaning the Chinese, which had signaled they might be open to serious legislation, instead backed away—meaning Copenhagen amounted to nothing. But that door re-opens a bit with Sens. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman ready to rumba on cap-and-trade legislation this week. If it was Churchill who said "sometimes we must do what is required," then "Now is that time," Gore writes. "Public officials must rise to this challenge by doing what is required; and the public must demand that they do so—or must replace them."
(More Al Gore climategate stories.)

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