January 29, 2009
Gore Implores Action on Climate
BY: Anna G
The ice-covered streets and sidewalks were an unlikely backdrop for the Senate’s hearing on global climate change Wednesday morning. Despite the elements, it was standing-room only yesterday as former Vice President Al Gore testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. With the Copenhagen climate conference just 10 months away, Gore urged the Senate to “embrace what science is telling us” and pass Obama’s green stimulus plan, and to move quickly toward establishing a cap-and-trade carbon emissions program.Gore warned that carbon emissions are “killing our oceans,” estimating that 25 million tons of pollution per day are absorbed by the oceans, causing acidification and dead-zones, where there is too little oxygen to support life. Furthermore, the oceans have become saturated, retaining enough CO2 pollution that if released, could cause a rise in atmospheric temperature of between 0.7 and 0.8°C!Read Al Gore’s testimony or learn more about climate change and the oceans.