Global warming debate at MSU heats up climate change question

Despite the world’s scientific community agreeing that climate change and global warming are occurring, there are still people who claim climate change is not happening. That will be the subject of a debate set for Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Students for a Free Economy will host the debate set for 7 p.m. Feb. 6 in Room 105 of South Kedzie Hall at Michigan State University. The event is free and open to the public.

The featured speakers are Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. and attorney who has represented members of Congress on environmental issues before the U.S. Supreme Court. Horner is a frequent guest on national conservative talk shows speaking about global warming, and he is also the author of the book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism.”

On the other side is Peter Sinclair, creative director of Greenman Studio, a multimedia production company in Midland and presenter for former Vice-President Al Gore's Climate Project. The former Vice-President personally trained some 1,000 presenters in 2006 in Nashville who traveled across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in based on his Academy Award wining film "Inconvenient Truth." The unpaid volunteers set up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

The event will begin with the two speakers' opening statements, followed by questions from the audience, and then the two speakers will give closing remarks.

Students for a Free Economy is a “nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to promoting the benefits of free markets, civil society and individual liberty” sponsored by the conservative Michigan think tank, The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, also located in Midland.

Al Gore’s new book gets good review by panelists

Enthusiasm is building for former Vice-President Al Gore to enter the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and there was plenty of that enthusiasm at a panel discussion of Gore’s latest book – “Assault on Reason” – on Thursday put together by mid-Michigan draft Al Gore proponents at Schuler Books in Okemos.

The panel, consisting of Beryl Schwartz, editor and publisher of the Lansing City Pulse; Tracy Dobson, a professor at Michigan State University’s Fisheries and Wildlife Department; and Doug Kelley, the retired director of Extension and Continuing Education at the University of Michigan in Flint.

The panel had differing opinions on latest book. Schwartz said he was disappointed the book had no new ideas from Gore, but he said it served as a good reference for all of Gore’s previous positions and good ideas.

“This book, to a large extent represents, both what is good and bad about Al Gore,” he said. “He is brilliant, but as a campaigner he is a little wooden.”

Kelley disagreed with that assessment, and he said Gore’s positions are what the former U.S. Senator and Vice-President are passionate about.

“I found this a very passionate book,” he said. “He says George Bush violated the law – not that that he just lied to people – that he violated the law for the past six years.”

Dobson said there were good and bad things in the book, but she really enjoyed Gore’s take on the history of democracy and communications in the United States.

“TV has done more to damage our democracy than anything else,” she said. “Political debate has been diluted down to 30 second advocacy spots.”

The talk naturally drifted away from the book to politics and other subjects, and the panelists also talked about their personal experiences with Gore. Schwartz said he first met Gore in the early ‘80s when Gore was a Senator and Schwartz was a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C. Schwartz was offered a job as publisher of the Knoxville News Sentential in Gore’s home state, and shortly after that he accepted the job got a call from “Al’ – a former reporter himself - inviting him to lunch.

“We had a lot to talk about,” he said “He has a great sense of humor.”

Schwartz said even then he was developing a respect for Gore, but that respect was cemented when Gore appeared at a journalism panel celebrating the newspaper’s 100th anniversary that Gore had to fly to from a conference in Bermuda and back just to be there because he had made a promise to Schwartz to attend.

“I think there are a lot of people from liberals to conservatives who wish he was president today,” he said. “We would be better off today, but this book will not get him there.”

Kelley, very active in the Washtenaw Democratic Party, said he saw Gore at all six of his Michigan appearances, and he was one of the 1,000 presenters Gore personally trained last year in Nashville to present the slide show based on Gore’s Academy Award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Kelley said he saw a man that was far from wooden and lacking in emotions, and he saw a man who cared about people and was at ease with people from al walks of life.

Kelley has one of the largest collections of Democratic Presidential campaign memorabilia in a garage-like structure at his Ann Arbor home he calls the “archive” that he welcomes people to visit. Kelley once worked as an aide to late Democratic U. S. Senator Phil Hart, and he compares Gore favorably to Hart. Hart was a former Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, and he served in the Senate from 1959 until his untimely death in office in 1976. The Senator Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. is named for him.

“He (Hart) was as close to a saint as a politician can get,” Kelley said. “Al Gore has some of those same qualities.”

Bob Alexander, a former Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the 8th Congressional District, is one of the organizers of the mid-Michigan Draft Al Gore movement. The group meets every month at 7 p.m. at the Gone Wired Cafe, 2021 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing.

For more information contract Alexander at Alexjuliea@aol.com.

Come out and enjoy dinner and a movie and better your world

Come out Saturday night and enjoy good people, good food, good friends, watch one of the best and most eye-opening movies ever made and help the Livingston County Democratic Party increase their toe-hold in Republican-dominated Livingston County.

The LCDP is launching a new film series Saturday with the Academy-Award winning film "An Inconvenient Truth” at its headquarters, 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600 in Brighton. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a potluck dinner. I have been to some of these potluck dinners, and you cannot buy food that good. The cost is just a $10 donation per person, $15 per couple and bring a dish to pass. Children under 16 are free, and organizers encourage you to bring your entire family to watch what many critics are calling the most important movie of our time.

There will be a special late night showing at 9:30 p.m. for a $3 per person donation, and popcorn will be provided.

Space is limited, so people who plan to attend are encouraged to RSVP by calling 810-229-4212. Also call the number if you need directions.

LCDP Chair Matt Evans said more socially relevant films for the entire family will be offered in the future, and the price will allow the entire family to enjoy dinner and a movie and at the same time make our community, out state and our country a better place to live and raise that family.

We look forward to meeting and greeting our many out of town visitors and show off our digs, and you certainly do not have to be a member of the party to attend. However, we can also sign you up if you want to join. We are located in the Fonda Place office park, just east of US 23.

Rogers decides pollution is bad but there is no such thing as global warming

Apparently Mike Rogers has added scientist to his long and growing list of expertise and subject matter expert.

In a story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on the special slide show on Al Gore’s Academy Award winning movie "Inconvenient Truth" making an appearance in Republican-Livingston County on March 10 in Brighton, Rogers said pollution is bad, but the 400 scientists from 113 nations who say humans are causing global warming do not know what they are talking about. If pollution is bad, then how is it bad, Professor Rogers?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released an authoritative and disturbingly scientific report in Paris a few weeks ago that said global warming is “very likely” caused by mankind and that climate change will continue for centuries even if heat-trapping gases are reduced. It was the strongest language ever used by the panel. The document was a collaboration of hundreds of scientists and government officials, and it was approved by 113 nations, including the United States.

Evidence is mounting every day, and more and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that humans are causing climate change. The words “very likely" means they agree that there is a 90 percent chance that global warming is caused by humans. The report issued in 2001, said global warming was "likely" caused by human activity. What will it take to convince Mike Rogers; the disappearance the Alpine glaciers?

Just a few days after the IPCC report came out, 45 nations answered France's call for a new environmental body to slow inevitable global warming and protect the planet. However, the world's heavyweight polluter, the United States, and booming nations on the same path as the U.S. — China and India - declined. Even though the U.S. agrees humans are causing global warming, they do not want to do anything to address it.

To show you the level of misinformation, lies and the political pressure that is trying to force scientists to alter their findings that global warming is occurring the article offers up one fountain of right wing propaganda: Dan Wholihan, who runs the Republican Michigander blog. Anyone who has ever read this guy’s misinformation knows he would not believe man landed on the moon if a Republican told him it never happened. He says Gore “…has an agenda and he wants to implement his agenda.” Of course he does, and so do the millions of other concerned people all across the world that care about the planet and do not want to see it disappear or be fouled.

Gore personally trained some 1,000 presenters last year in Nashville who are traveling across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in. The unpaid volunteers are setting up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

Dr. Kathryn Savoie, environmental program director with the Dearborn-based Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), will present the slide show at 2 p.m. March 10 at the Brighton Education Center, 125 S. Church St., located just a couple of blocks south of downtown Brighton and about a quarter mile from the I-96 Spencer Road Exit.

Special presentation of "Inconvenient Truth" coming to Brighton

A special slide show on Al Gore’s movie "Inconvenient Truth" is making an appearance in Republican controlled Livingston County next month in Brighton.

According to the Detroit Free Press, a dozen Michiganders are helping Al Gore carry the message of his movie "Inconvenient Truth," preaching the gospel of global warming with his slides and their words.

Gore personally trained some 1,000 presenters last year in Nashville who are traveling across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in. The unpaid volunteers are setting up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

The steep rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere is trapping more of the sun's energy and heating up the earth. The changes are most dramatic at the poles, where glaciers and sheets of ice are melting. Expected results in Michigan include hotter summers, and the levels of the Great Lakes are expected to fall by at least 5-feet.

The Brighton presentation is set for 2 p.m. March 10 at the Brighton Education Center, 125 S. Church St., located just a couple of blocks south of downtown Brighton and about a quarter mile from the I-96 Spencer Road Exit.

I hope to see a lot of people there. Also, "Inconvenient Truth" is also up for an Academy Award for best documentary this Sunday.