Are you really convinced that the environment is an invention of Al Gore?

Question

Hi!! I'm italian and i don't want to insult you and your country (italians have enough to do with their problems)but, i read in some questions and answers, that some Americans think that the global warming is a fable told by Gore, that the pollution isn't important and that the environmentalists are stupid. Is this the real idea that Americans have about pollution? Is it possible?

Answer 1

Global Warming has been happening since the end of the last Ice Age, about 18,000 years ago.  In that time, the glaciers melted back by about 2,000 miles and the oceans have risen hundreds of feet.  People used to be able to walk from England to France because it was dry land.  No longer.

Al Gore created the fiction that WE CAUSED THIS.

Why?  Because he created an investment group to receive 'carbon offset' payments, to make himself and his buddies filthy rich.  They tricked us into allowing Government to force businesses to make these payments and Gore and his buddies get to play with the money.

Yes, environmentalists are stupid for allowing him to get away with this scheme.  If d**k Cheney did that, they would scream hatred at him every day.

Pollution is important - but that has nothing to do with global warming.  The Sun and volcanic activity cause our warming and cooling cycles.

Answer 2

Some (and they seem to use this forum) *do* seem to think that Al Gore invented this problem, so he could make money off carbon credits.  They may be aided in their beleif system by people in government who may be downplaying the problem to avoid panic, economic collapse, or whatever.  

Answer 3

Actually I used to live in CA and have family from Oregon, lots of hippys up there and they have been talking about our environment for years.  I think Al Gore brought it to the forefront and he was almost in perfect unison with a lot of crappy things that happened and were balmed on the environment.  Although it is still a nebulous connection between us and global warming I do think we should try to keep it clean.

Answer 4

Some of the answers posted are very embarrassing. The people that actually believe that Al Gore invented Global Warming are once again the reinforcing the stereotype of the ugly American. These people are fools,have a political agenda, and are scientifically inept.  I'd like to apologize on their behalf - they are not very grown-up about the issue and just prefer to remain ignorant.  I'm sorry you are subjected to their nonsense.  Most Americans know to just ignore them.

The issue started in the Reagen administration.  Ronald Reagen though it was important enough to support a global effort by the UN to research the issue (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).  I think this got off the ground as Regen's term ended in 1988 .  His successor GHW Bush (the current presidents father), looking at the results he had then, decided to adopt a policy of "do no harm" to keep the problem manageable so that further actions could be taken as more information became available.   By 1992, a lot of evidence suggested that Global Warming was a problem and that human activity was a significant contributing factor.  However, there was still a lot of uncertainty in the roles of aerosols, clouds, oceans.  

The scientific community debated the issue a lot then and worked furiously to reduce the uncertainties as much as possible.  The Clinton administration, although the uncertainty was huge compared to what is is today, worked with the world to finally produce the Kyoto Protocol. I think Al Gore lead the US team.   The US never ratified the treaty because some of the developing countries were not on board, but it was a start.  

This president has only worked to gut the protocol, and denied the entire problem of global warming at first.  His administration has attempted to biased public opinion by censoring facts, results, and conclusions that did not support his view.  Since then, he has admitted that a AGW is a problem and that something should be done, but has worked hard to make sure it would not be done while he was in office by calling for more research and recommending solutions that are pretty much already ongoing in most places in the world. He has ignored research and results that have be performed since his father was in office ad wants to throw it all out and start again, which is ridiculous, of course.  Research builds on knowledge, it isn't controlled by political agendas.  He can't restart it with an objective of proving AGW doesn't exist.  You can't prove the negative - we already assume that is the case.

The questions that the IPCC has been working to answer for the past 20 years is are does global warming exist?  If it does, what are the causes? How much is natural, and how much is man-made.  Will there be any significant effects on Earth's climates?  What are they likely to be?  Will this have any impact on our ecosystems and if so, what are they likely to be? Will this affect adversely people ? How can we best reduce the impacts if it does?  

The climate models do suggest that global warming is a problem and that human activity has caused a significant acceleration.  The models are not perfect (no model is) but enough scientist have reviewed these models and the potential danger is great enough that a majority of the scientist on Earth think it is a problem and that a reasonable response in needed. This is a fact and every scientific organization seems to come to this conclusion.  The US National Academy of Sciences, skeptical of some of the findings in 1992, now agrees that this is a problem that should be addressed.  Even this president can no longer deny the problem in light of the overwhelming consensus and mounting evidence show the early predictions of the impacts of warming are just like predicted in 1992. There is still a lot of uncertainty, but it has been substantially reduced compared to 1992 and the is observable evidence now that was not present then - right in line with the early predictions (warming of the correct magnitude, sea ice disappearing, glaciers retreating globally, greening earlier in the high latitudes).

However, there are still a few ignorant, conspiracy theorist, oil industry parrots, and neocon fools on YA that will never look at the evidence, evaluate work that has been done in the past, look at conclusions of prestigious scientific organizations, and think for themselves.  There are some reasonable dissenting voices out there that should be answered, but not on YA.  

Answer 5

Yes, I'm sad to say that many conservative Americans really are that ignorant.  They seem to believe that the whole world is listening to Al Gore, and they're utterly oblivious to the fact that other countries are doing their own research and arriving at the same conclusions.

Answer 6

No, Al Gore didn't invent the environment; only the Internet and the Global Warming hoax.