Between the Lines: President must speak from the gut on global warming
‘Denial’ is not just a river in a rapidly epxanding desert
By Patrick Callahan, senior writer
Posted on February 9, 2007

When he learned that his daughter was being shown “An Inconvenient Truth” in her science class, Frosty E. Hardison was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming.” The teacher was threatened with disciplinary action for not seeking permission to show a controversial film.

The film contains information accepted by a majority of the scientific community and its commentator who — despite being one heartbeat away from the presidency for eight years and being deprived of the presidency by a 5-4 Supreme Court vote in the subsequent election — served more than two decades as a U.S. congressman and senator. Yet his presentation of a widely known scientific theory is still being referred to as “controversial” by local school board districts across the country whose members are merely trying to save themselves from a public backlash. According to the Washington Post, the policy of this particular school was altered so that “An Inconvenient Truth” may now only be shown with written permission from the school board and an assurance that it will be balanced with opposing scientific data. The science teacher who showed the film has since been unable to find any credible scientific evidence to the contrary aside from a Newsweek article about global cooling that was written over 30 years ago.   

Such unjustified skepticism as this should come as no surprise to a nation whose commander in chief has repeatedly encouraged his administration to tone down the language on what they prefer to speak of as “climate change.” Yet even President Bush has begun to realize he cannot continue to merely discredit scientific reports in hopes that they will eventually go away. Again, according to the Washington Post, when asked a question about global warming while in Denmark in 2005, Bush acknowledged that the earth is warming and human emissions of carbon-based greenhouse gases are largely to blame. He also acknowledged global warming in his most recent State of the Union address. Bush has long been a supporter of the oil industry and received large campaign contributions from various energy corporations in his two presidential elections. He has advocated the opening of new wildlife reserves for oil drilling, the destruction of woodlands (which have the important role of filtering carbon dioxide before it can become harmful) to fund local school districts that were refused funding by a deficit-strapped federal government, while also refusing to force the automobile industry to reduce its emissions or improve fuel efficiency. But now, in the wake of the last elections, the Bush administration is finally talking about the problem — so perhaps the tide is turning. But is it too late?

A recent United Nations report stated that sea levels would continue to rise for up to a thousand years even if greenhouse gas emissions are severely reduced in the coming century. Furthermore, the report says humans are almost certainly to blame for global warming since the middle of the last century. The Washington Post also reported that a 1,255-square-mile section of ice shelf in Antarctica disappeared in 35 days in 2002, while the Greenland ice shelf is losing ice at double the rate of its 1996 losses.

This is not new data. Scientists have been warning us about global warming since the 1980s. Al Gore is one of few in the political community to openly address the problem of global warming, but the climate of Capitol Hill often silences those who would otherwise be speaking right alongside him. In his film, Al Gore talks about a problem that will endanger not only us but our children and grandchildren — and the American public was ignorant enough to elect a president based on tax cuts and gay marriage.

Patrick Callahan is a junior political science major.