The Assault on Reason

The Assault on Reason

In the months following the release of An Inconvenient Truth, I began to focus on why our democracy has been so slow to deal with the climate crisis. The unwillingness to solve this problem is not only the result of a lack of political will, but it has also been caused by the emergence of a new political environment dangerously hostile to reason, knowledge, and facts. In the long-term, this poses a threat to the very basis of American democracy: the ability of a well-informed citizenry to use the rule of reason to hold government accountable.

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Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason:

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You can purchase The Assault on Reason by visiting:

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In the months following the release of An Inconvenient Truth, I began to focus on why our democracy has been so slow to deal with the climate crisis. The unwillingness to solve this problem is not only the result of a lack of political will, but it has also been caused by the emergence of a new political environment dangerously hostile to reason, knowledge, and facts. In the long-term, this poses a threat to the very basis of American democracy.

~ Al Gore

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Edited By WestTexasBliss

IPCC report upbeat on climate change Published

BANGKOK: After two grim warnings on the impact of climate change, the world’s top experts were unusually upbeat in assessing ways to protect the Earth, but said that national leaders have no time to waste.
The report delivered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s top authority on the subject which met in Bangkok last week, said humanity could at least slow global warming with existing, affordable technology.
But the experts warned that time was of the essence to ward off the most destructive effects of climate change.
“We believe that human beings are capable of reducing the problems that we may get on climate change,” Ogunlade Davidson, the co-chair of the meeting, said.

“The only difficulty is to get the political will to do that,” he said.

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My fear is this whole global warming crisis will bring out the worst of us, not the best. Can anyone realistically see humankind working together to kick this thing, or does the crisis have the propensity to bring out the Hitler like traits in us all? Idealistically I would like us all to work this out but realistically I see a horror that I will not spare any words on. May God have mercy on us all.

~ Paul M

Science triumphs over politics at UN climate change meeting

SCIENCE had a rare victory over politics at this week's UN climate change conference, after a united call for action emerged despite fierce debate over how to best tackle global warming.

The UN's top body on climate change last Friday released a report approved by delegates from 120 nations, laying out how the world could avoid the worst impacts of global warming with minimal economic damage.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting began in Bangkok last Monday, delegates warned that it was fanciful to believe all the players had the interests of the planet at the top of their agenda.

They said nations would inevitably fight to protect their own economic and political interests, and as the meeting got under way, reports crept out from behind the closed doors that some delegations were indeed playing politics.

But after all the battles, wrangling and interventions, most agreed that science had triumphed, with politics sometimes playing a helping hand.

"You could argue that some of the delegates that are most critical and difficult towards the text are the most important to the text," said Michael Williams, spokesman for the UN's Environment Programme.

"By challenging and nitpicking and asking questions, that just increases the chances of us getting a better text rather than just being polite about it."

The United States, usually fingered as a key culprit in protecting economic interests over climate change concerns, escaped largely unscathed from the conference, with most delegates pleasantly surprised by its performance.

"I was relieved to see the Americans behaving, that makes such a difference," said Stephan Singer, of the conservation group WWF.

Shouldering most of the blame for trying to stick a political oar in the proceedings was China, which was said to be trying to play up the costs of taking immediate action to battle global warming.

Michael Mueller, a German environment ministry official who attended the talks, accused China of impeding progress towards cutting greenhouse gases, and said its delegates had been "masters of deception and the art of interpretation".
BANGKOK 06-May-07