Bill Clinton And David Asman On Global Warming
Reported by Deborah - May 21, 2006
David Asman joined Gibson to plug the FOX Special on Global Warming airing on Sunday night,5/21. Asman couldn't have been more casual about the issue soothing FOX viewers with vague possibilities of climate change in the distant future. Rest easy America, we have nothing to worry about today was the message
Bill Clinton had a more urgent message for the graduating class of the University of Texas during their commencment cermony,5/20. He told them global warming is a greater threat to the future than terrorism and that the United States and other countries must "get off our butts" and do something about it.
Asman said the global temperature has gone up 1 degree and although some ice is melting, it's growing in girth in other places. He claimed that the people who wanted an ocean view and built on the beach may not have their homes in 100 years adding that our great, great grandchildren will have have to deal with the issue as if that lessened the problem for us. He then admitted that places like New Orleans would have problems in 30 ,40 or 50 years.
Clinton had this to say about the urgency of the situation.
"Climate change is more remote than terror but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you have," Clinton said.
"It's the only thing we face today that has the power to remove the preconditions of civilized society," he said.
"I am not one of those who is pessimistic about the future of the world, assuming we get off our butts and do something about climate change in a timely fashion."
Gibson asked Asman if Al Gore was watching the segment and "gnashing his teeth?" Asman claimed that Gore and alarmist scientists were going with the worst case scenarios.
Clinton stressed the importance of international cooperation to solve the problem.
"I think we should be in the Kyoto climate change system," Clinton said. "We can't solve global warming or any other problem in the world you can mention that amounts to a hill of beans by ourselves."
"The United States is considered the largest emitter of the "greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming. President George W. Bush has said that global warming may be occurring but its cause is not clear. Generally, it is believed that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change.
Asman had a different take on Kyoto in an article on the Fox website.
"So how do we formulate national and international policies with forecast models that are at best educated guesses? That's another question that we examine in our special. Drastic policies that force cutbacks of greenhouse gas emissions, such as those outlined in the Kyoto accord, are often put forth as measures necessary to stop global warming. Forgetting for the moment that many of the signatories of Kyoto have failed to keep up with the deadlines of the accord, how helpful are the Kyoto mandates? According to some of those we interviewed, Kyoto could end up doing more harm than good, by slowing up technological progress that could lead us out of our addiction to fossil fuels. Getting locked into an accord like Kyoto could drive up the costs of innovation, which thrives in a less regulated environment. In fact, the current hike in oil prices might actually prove more effective in forcing us off of fossil fuels than any international accord ever could."
Asman claims that the Global Warming special on FOX is the other side of the issue which was expressed in their first special last November. No doubt the timing of this Special right before the release of Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth", is no accident.
