Bill: "We Just Have to Slow Down Our Economy" to Fight Global Warming
January 31, 2008 9:26 AM
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/bill-we-just-ha.html
Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for
his wife yesterday.
In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what the U.S. and
other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this
way: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our
greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our
grandchildren."
At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really
the characterization his wife would want him making? "Slow down our
economy"?
I don't really think there's much debate that, at least initially, a
full commitment to reduce greenhouse gases would slow down the
economy….So was this a moment of candor?
He went on to say that his the U.S. -- and those countries that have
committed to reducing greenhouse gases -- could ultimately increase
jobs and raise wages with a good energy plan..
So there was something of a contradiction there.
Or perhaps he mis-spoke.
Or perhaps this characterization was a description of what would
happen if there isn't a worldwide effort…I'm not quite certain.
You can watch that one clip HERE or you can watch the whole speech at
the website of ABC News' great Denver affiliate KMGH by clicking HERE.
It's worth watching -- he also pushed back against a 9/11 conspiracy
theorist heckling him.
"Everybody knows that global warming is real," Mr. Clinton said,
giving a shout-out to Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, "but we cannot
solve it alone."
"And maybe America, and Europe, and Japan, and Canada -- the rich
counties -- would say, 'OK, we just have to slow down our economy and
cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the
planet for our grandchildren.' We could do that.
"But if we did that, you know as well as I do, China and India and
Indonesia and Vietnam and Mexico and Brazil and the Ukraine, and all
the other countries will never agree to stay poor to save the planet
for our grandchildren. The only way we can do this is if we get back
in the world's fight against global warming and prove it is good
economics that we will create more jobs to build a sustainable economy
that saves the planet for our children and grandchildren. It is the
only way it will work.
"And guess what? The only places in the world today in rich countries
where you have rising wages and declining inequality are places that
have generated more jobs than rich countries because they made a
commitment we didn't. They got serious about a clean, efficient,
green, independent energy future… If you want that in America, if you
want the millions of jobs that will come from it, if you would like to
see a new energy trust fund to finance solar energy and wind energy
and biomass and responsible bio-fuels and electric hybrid plug-in
vehicles that will soon get 100 miles a gallon, if you want every
facility in this country to be made maximally energy efficient that
will create millions and millions and millions of jobs, vote for her.
She'll give it to you. She's got the right energy plan."
In other Bubba News, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, told the spectacular
Kate Snow yesterday that this is her campaign, not Bill's, and told
Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden last night that she can control him.
(Which begs the question -- does she want to slow down the economy?)
--
If you disagree with the theories and dogmas of Marxism or Scientific Socialism
then you are a tool of Capitalist interests. If you disagree with the theories
or dogmas of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming then you are a tool of
Capitalistic interests. Notice a pattern here? -- Captain Compassion
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
"...the whole world, including the United States, including all that
we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark
Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights
of perverted science." -- Sir Winston Churchill
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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