Gore's climate impact felt in presidential race

All candidates have action plans, plus he's a Democratic superdelegate

Former Vice President Al Gore — seen here on April 5 in Montreal speaking to a training session with activists on how to give global warming presentations — is having an impact on the White House race.

Global Warming Or Global Governance?

WASHINGTON - Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak often about green jobs, emissions cuts and renewable energy. But they have more than global warming on their minds when they talk of environmental policy.

The long-term goal may be saving the planet, but the short-term one is winning the backing of former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore, who shared a Nobel prize for his work to combat rising temperatures, is also a superdelegate, one of the influential Democratic Party leaders likely to determine whether Obama, an Illinois senator, or Clinton, a New York senator, wins the party's presidential nomination.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign stops, offer up the prospect of roles for him in future administrations, and — most of all — they stay in touch.

"They both call. And I appreciate that fact," Gore said on the CBS television program "60 Minutes" earlier this month.

Obama says he keeps in regular contact with Gore and has pledged to make him a major player on global warming in an Obama administration.

"I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem," Obama said.

Clinton told reporters she did not know whether Gore wanted to get back into government but was sure the American people would welcome it.

"I am very dependent upon the work that Al Gore has done for so many years on behalf of climate change," she said.

McCain cited by Gore team
Gore's spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, declined to comment on the Obama offer and was complimentary about the presidential candidates, including Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"Former Vice President Gore thinks that both candidates are very strong. Both of them have offered plans to address the climate crisis ... as has Senator McCain," she said.

"It's a real turnaround to have candidates on both sides of the aisle offering, you know, solutions and plans to the climate crisis."

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, has dedicated most of his professional life since then to fighting climate change. Although he may not be eager to get back into the political fray, he has an agenda: to put fighting global warming on the top of the next president's to-do list.

That shouldn't be too hard. All three candidates have made climate proposals that go far beyond Bush's policies, including a cap on industrial carbon dioxide pollution and an emissions trading system similar to the European Union's.

"The most important role that Vice President Gore plays for all candidates is to raise the bar very high on what needs to be done to solve this critical problem," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

Keeping the issue prominent on the campaign trail will give the next U.S. president a mandate to put new policies into place, he said.

The candidates discuss the issue regularly at rallies and town hall meetings, where lines about global warming often draw applause, especially from Democratic audiences.

Presence on world stage?
Environmentalists say a new president, armed with the right policies and a cooperative Congress, could make Washington an influential leader in talks to form an international climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which goes through 2012 and which the United States has not ratified.

But for any new U.S. policies to succeed, American citizens will have to be engaged, a problem Gore aimed to address with a newly launched $300 million climate campaign.

Obama talks about the need for an attitude adjustment among Americans and boasts of a trip he made to Detroit, where he admonished car makers to make more fuel efficient vehicles.

Clinton says she would promote "green-collar" employment to replace lost manufacturing jobs around the country.

McCain says working to stop warming will have beneficial effects.

The talk has attracted the attention of environmentalists and policy makers around the world who see a chance for a significant shift in U.S. climate policy starting in 2009.

"Everybody in Europe is watching the election very closely," said Mahi Sideridou of the environmental group Greenpeace in Brussels. "No matter which party wins ... we're pretty sure that we're going to see a huge shift in policy making in climate change."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24098682/

    Though, in my opinion, the book is still out on whether global warming is man made or natural, the tremendous influence of former Vice President Al Gore on the two Democrat candidates Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama in regard to global warming issues is quite obvious. Whether the United States should ratify and join other developed nations in the Kyoto Treaty is a central issue to Al Gore and presumably should Obama or Clinton become President a central issue in their administration. The Kyoto Treaty will put very high demands upon American industries and businesses to limit CO2 emissions with very significant economic ramifications. An issue raised by the You Tube video, is the Kyoto Treaty about global warming or global governance? As I see it , doing things necessary to have clean air is one thing and doing things to stop global warming is something else. The next President should not blindly follow Al Gore and his 300 million dollar global warming indoctrination campaign but rather cautiously and prudently consider what really needs to be done, if any thing needs to be done, in fighting global warming. Perhaps money would be better spent in adjusting to the changes global warming is causing than in trying to supposedly stop the phenomena itself.

tags: al gore  global warming  climate change  us  government  kyoto treaty  power  president  takebackamerica  politics  

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