Breaking Environmental News: U.S. Tuesday September 19, 2006
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore on Monday called for immediate action to stop global warming, calling the phenomenon a ``climate crisis'' that demands attention from American leaders.
Gore, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, decried the lack of action on global warming by politicians across the ideological spectrum.
``When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us,'' Gore said in an hour-long speech at New York University Law School. ``It also is often because too many members of both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better.''
But he implicitly criticized the Bush administration, which has been accused of editing official scientific studies to downplay the impact of global warming and asking scientists at federal agencies to refrain from speaking out on the phenomenon.
Future generations, Gore said, ``deserve better than the spectacle of censorship of the best scientific evidence about the truth of our situation and harassment of honest scientists who are trying to warn us about the looming catastrophe.''
``Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are now facing a planetary emergency, a climate crisis that demands immediate attention,'' Gore said.
While the administration has acknowledged the effects of global warming on the environment, President Bush has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief gas blamed for the phenomenon. He also has kept the country out of the Kyoto treaty, which called for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases among the signing nations. He has said the pact would harm the U.S. economy.
A White House spokesman declined Monday to comment on Gore's remarks.
Learn why global warming is happening and what the impacts could be.GET THE FACTS
