Al Gore’s January 15 Speech on Bush and the Environment: Demagoguery

Amy Ridenour, president of The National Center for Public Policy Research, has released the following comment about Al Gore’s speech on the environment in New York today:

“From a scientific and environmental perspective, Al Gore’s speech today should be ignored. No serious policy person could give the speech Al Gore gave today.

The speech is full of demagoguery, misleading statements, formulations intended to deceive, unsupported allegations of wrongdoing and hypocrisy.

It is impossible to draw any conclusion other than that Gore is keeping his options open for a future presidential run, and is throwing red meat at the left-wing activist base of the Democratic Party in order to keep his presidential hopes alive.

Time constraints forbid one from commenting on all the speech’s inaccuracies.

Despite Gore’s wish, the science on global warming is not settled. Even the models and theories of those who support the theory disagree with one another. Climate science is too complex to be settled. But if Gore believes the science is settled, why didn’t the Clinton-Gore Administration submit the Kyoto global warming treaty to the Senate for ratification? Gore condemns Bush for not supporting a treaty Bush believes is harmful and unnecessary — yet Gore, holding the opposite view, didn’t fight for it where it counted.

It is impossible not to draw the conclusion that Gore is using this speech as an opportunity to troll for votes, yet he hypocritically tells his audience that those who disagree with him have been bought by industry. (Look at the log in your own eye, Mr. Gore.) Gore’s speech impugns Bush’s motives and those of non-profit organizations and many scientists and policy experts, all with a broad brush.

The “bought by industry” canard is a nice applause line for politicians to use while addressing a left-wing crowd and convenient way to undermine those who sincerely disagree without actually debating the merits of the case. For the record, there is more money available to those on Gore’s politically-correct side of the global warming issue. The money and power whores tend to be with Gore. And a serious man wouldn’t be afraid to seriously examine the scientific merits of the global warming case.

Gore didn’t quite lie when he discussed mercury in his speech, but he intentionally deceived his listeners by leaving the most important facts out. Listen to Gore and you’d suppose the Clinton-Gore administration regulated mercury emissions from power plants, while Bush eliminated or loosened the regulation. In fact, the Clinton-Gore Administration DID NOT regulate mercury emissions from power plants, despite eight years in office. It just talked about doing so. Bush is actually doing it. Gore’s actual complaint is that he would have written the rule differently. Why did he waste eight years?

Gore concludes his speech with the thought that we need ‘to deal more kindly with one another.’ A call for kindness after a speech full of deception.”

The National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan, conservative/free-market Washington think-tank established in 1982. Only two percent of its nearly $7 million budget comes from corporate support.

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The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.