Opinion: Dr. Gore’s Magnificent Weather Theatrickes

Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : 26 Mar 2007 14:36

by Dann A. Maurno, Editor in Chief
Al Gore spared no tricks in his testimony before congress last Wednesday, wherein he called for raidcal environmental reforms to combat global warming (which he sees as both an inconvenient truth, and an inarguable fact).
He invoked children, telling the lawmakers they could expect angry questions from their grandchildren, if they don’t act now.
He invoked God, whom he expects to be equally furious for us “heaping contempt upon his Creation.”
He invoked both Nazism and Communism, comparing the need for environmental commitment to those epic battles.

Purportedly a few members of congress dabbed their eyes, while a few more simply scowled, and Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo) invoked children in reposte, a picture of a cold-looking little girl, “cold because her family could not afford to pay their heating bill” which Gore’s proposed reforms would drive higher. Bond appeared more ironic than emotional.

Gore is a failed presidential candidate, acting presidential. He has the world’s ear, and the environmental lobby is making the best use of him, as well they ought. But Gore is more an entertainer on policy, or a pundit—a leftward Limbaugh, unencumbered by fact or an ability to change his mind. His “Inconvenient Truth” film famously showed a polar bear on a breaking iceflow, as if the polar bears were drowning, thanks largely to SUV drivers.

Yes, he served in the White House, but in an administration that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Clinton’s initial reaction was, “Of course we’ll sign on,” until his advisors did the math, realizing he’d have to pare automobile production, and industry growth, considerably. It made far more sense for a nation like Japan where industrial growth had leveled off, but would be suicide for the US. If Gore disagreed with his boss, he said nothing.

Gore’s proposals call for radical, and frankly unrealistic reforms. He’s a wild-eyed idealist. The most fantasy-land is a switch from an income tax to a pollution tax. Companies that pollute more pay more. People who drive SUVs pay more than people who drive Mini Coopers.

“About time!” is the initial and emotional reaction, and that’s the problem. Likely, any house more than 25 years old would have to be leveled, rather than retrofitted with efficiency measures. Maybe a price worth paying in a young country, but that would decimate Europe. Amsterdam would have to bulldoze itself.

Also radical, freezing carbon dioxide emission levels, NOW. As The Economist describes it, that would mean no new industry, no new cars, no new people. Gore was nonplussed by those arguments in his testimony, and that is the measure of Al Gore as an environmental leader.

Figureheads burn themselves out after a while, Rudy Giuliani case in point. Who would have thought, on 9/12, that America would ever question his ability to lead? Yet a few years down the road, America is doing just that. Gore won’t last, with emotional punditry and unrealistic goals, he’ll simply become eccentric.

Likely, the real leaders will be people like Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania, whose state is far down the road of energy self sufficiency. Or even Governor Schwarzenegger of California, who sees the White House and congress itself as lumbering, and has set Kyoto-like goals for his state, with real legislation to achieve them.

This is a political matter, thusfar best handled at the state and local level, by visionaries. Gore may be calling attention to a real problem, but wild-eyed idealism rarely succeeds. Pragrmatic idealism succeeds.

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