Bloomberg: Global Warming Worse Than Global Jihad
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 (AFP) Feb 11, 2008
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon here Monday in galvanizing world action to roll back climate change, an issue he described as “just as important” as nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
“We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good,” Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on the impact of global warming.
“We have to do something about it and we have to do it now,” he added.
Calling climate change “perhaps one of the most important issues facing us,” Bloomberg said: “This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism.”
“Terrorists kill people, weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous numbers of people. Global warming long-term has the potential to kill everybody,” the New York mayor said.
At the opening of a two-day meeting, Ban underscored the need to “encourage new kinds of cleaner technologies, industries and jobs and integrate climate change risks into national policies and practices.”
He reminded participants of the achievements made at last December’s Bali conference in Indonesia, where agreement was reached on setting a 2009 deadline for a landmark new treaty to cut global-warming greenhouse gases once the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
“Developed countries need to take a clear lead, but success is possible only if all countries act,” the UN chief said.
“The more ambitious the commitments by developed countries, the more actions we can expect from developing countries,” he said. “The more developing countries engage, the more ambitiously the developed countries will commit.”
British tycoon Richard Branson, president of the Virgin Atlantic airline called for “a powerful partnership that helps to scale up the best innovation by bringing together business leaders, economists, environmental groups and other expert organizations to tackle the war against global warming.”
He insisted that this was indeed “a war … the first war that truly threatens almost all human life — a war that to win we must all fight together.”
And he said that Virgin was doing its part by putting up a 25 million-dollar (17.25 million-euro) prize to “encourage scientists and inventors to put their mind to it.
“Today, we would like to urge the 20 wealthiest governments to match us in this endeavor so we can make the largest scientific price ever: a half a billion-dollar prize,” Branson told the meeting.
Bloomberg said that in the United States, “cities and states have stepped up to the plate where the government has been unwilling to do so.”
In New York City, he cited a campaign to “reduce our carbon footprint,” for instance by converting taxis to fuel-saving hybrids over the next five years, a move which he said would reduce the city’s entire carbon footprint by half of one percent.
He also cited a drive to plant one million trees throughout the city over the next 10 years, a move which “will not only capture carbon dioxide, but also clean the air, cool our streets, reduce street flooding and raise property values.”
Bloomberg also highlighted efforts to make the city’s buildings environmentally friendly — “not just to cut carbon emissions, but also because it will allow us to redirect billions of dollars a year it now takes to heat and cool these buildings, often inefficiently, to better purposes.”
And he unveiled a long-term initiative to reduce consumption of tropical hardwoods by city agencies.
In the short-term, the plan aims to cut tropical hardwood use by 20 percent by eliminating these woods from construction and maintenance of park benches, and piloting alternative materials for existing boardwalks.
“Setting serious carbon targets will not hamper growth,” Bloomberg said.
“If the US and the developing nations make such commitments, then the prospects for a new international global warming accord improve greatly.”
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Yeah i take this article about as seriously as i ever took Bloomberg being a Republican
February 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pmrecord low this morning in northerm min.-40..we had a high of -5 yesterday here,and maybe a high of +5 today… it has been below normal temps most of the winter.. record snow fall in the madison-milwaukee area.. my son in calif went skiing and got 7′ of snow one day…so where in the hell is this global warmning… please hurry and get here,, i am freezing to death//
February 11th, 2008 at 2:36 pmIf somebody doesn’t go up there and flip the on switch on the sun, we are going to be up to our collective arses in glaciers. These alarmist people are dumb beyond belief, they think you are too stupid to know what is really going on.
They use a faked up computer model to try and get the world to salute global warming fascism. Isn’t going to work.
Two places to get your own data, direct from the satellites, for sun data and pretty pictures http://spaceweather.com and http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/ for sea ice. No better data known to mankind. Stay abreast of the latest at http://icecap.us/
February 11th, 2008 at 2:49 pm“We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good,”
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Huh? Is that English?
February 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pmThat’s funny. I was just reading last week an article that claimed that scientists who study Sun spot activity are worried about (drum roll please…) global COOLING.
Oh c’mon. who the fuck takes Bloombutt seriously? That’d be like actually believing that Al Gore has a brain.
Here’s your brain, and here’s your brain on Al Gore.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:02 pmWhat a friggin idiot!
@bill I was involved in Pielke’s blog for about a year then he suspended activity it for a while. There is so much data that defrocks the church of global warming it is unreal that anyone could believe in it unless that person is a total dumbass.
Unless like I have been asked to be involved in a process that will produce carbon credits for trading. That could translate into quite a few dollars in my pocket. I am very tempted whore out for a year.
Doesn’t anyone know what company did a lot oflobbying for Kyoto? ENRON! Imagine the credibility of Clinton/Gore that Enron was a huge buddy of theirs.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:17 pm@Dan(TheInfidel) I read the same article. They claimed that it may offset “manmade global warming”. Even with the evidence staring them in the face they have to stick to the green line.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:29 pmDon’t drink the Kool-Aid!
Solar Activity Diminishes; Researchers Predict Another Ice Age
February 11th, 2008 at 6:55 pmhttp://www.dailytech.com/Solar%20Activity%20Diminishes%20Researchers%20Predict%20Another%20Ice%20Age/article10630.htm
I hope this idiot runs for president so he can squander some of his millions.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:18 pmEver notice that people with money are often stupid shits?
@Gary in Midwest
Yeah, I’m waiting for the Gorites to try and weasel their way out of that one. In 10 years the Global Man-made Warming scam will be the new Flat Earth joke.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:55 pm