Post by KNOWTHIS on Apr 21, 2006 15:18:10 GMT -5
This guy is a total right-winger and even he agrees that if anything we should at least get ourselves off of our dependence on foreign oil. You can tell though that he tried to make it seem as if Bush is actually environmentally aware. Robert Kennedy Jr. & Laurie David brought up some great points in the interview.
Kennedy has a great radio show if you haven‘t heard it:
www.ringoffireradio.com
David has a global warming documentary “Too Hot Not To Handle” premiering Saturday (tomorrow) on HBO:
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'Scarborough Country' Transcript for April 20
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12421073/
Clip Inside
SCARBOROUGH: Now, the first Earth Day was celebrated 36 years ago this week when college students, hippies, high school students, hippies, peace activists, politicians, and hippies jammed their dirty bodies onto the Washington mall to celebrate the dawning of a cleaner, greener age of Aquarius.
The event was a smashing success, leading that well-known fan of hippies, Richard Millhouse Nixon to support the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The event also pressured politicians of all stripes to pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Acts, and scores of bills aimed at protecting endangered animals, the wilderness where they live, and the ocean.
There have been bumps along the way. Earth Day‘s leadership fractured. During Earth Day 2000, it was revealed that the event spokesman, Hollywood star, Leonardo DiCaprio, drove an SUV. Shocking. And they‘d filmed some environmentally sensitive national parks.
But Hollywood has taken the lead on educating America when it comes to the environment. Actors, directors, rock stars have taken center stage of late. But music also played an important part of the movement even on the first Earth Day.
(VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: With me now, we‘ve got environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. He‘s the author of the book “Crimes Against Nature,”; and Laurie David. She‘s the executive producer of the new HBO documentary called “Too Hot Not to Handle.”
Bobby Kennedy, let me begin with you. Is the environment cleaner today than it was in 1970?
BOBBY KENNEDY, ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER: Well, Earth Day was a huge success, and it wasn‘t just hippies, Joe. It was 20 million Americans. It was the largest public demonstration in United States history.
I remember 10 percent of our population came out on the street. I remember what it was like before Earth Day. The Coyote River was burning. Lake Erie was declared dead. We couldn‘t swim in the Hudson, the Potomac, the Charles growing up. There were tens of thousands of Americans dying every year during bad air events, and we had really bad lead poisoning in almost all American children.
Today IQ levels are actually higher in the United States because of the abolishment of leaded gasoline and many—and Lake Erie has returned.
Earth day was a huge success story. We passed 28 major environmental laws, republicans and democrats, as you said. Richard Nixon led the way.
But today, we have an administration that is dismantling 30 years of environmental laws in an attack designed to eviscerate those protections that have been so successful.
SCARBOROUGH: Laurie David, if you look at a lot of areas in the environment, it certainly has. I remember, I lived in upstate New York in the mid-‘70s, and Lake Erie was unswimmable. A lot of rivers, a lot of streams, a lot of creeks, you just wouldn‘t stick your foot in, let alone let your children swim in.
A lot of things have gotten better. Air quality has gotten better in a lot of ways. But there are, especially if you want to talk about a subject that matters a lot to you, there are some areas where things have gotten much worse. Talk about global warming.
LAURIE DAVID, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, HBO: Well, I think this is the most momentous Earth Day we‘ve had in 30 years, because we‘re finally at a point where we are putting the debate about global warming, whether the globe is warming and humans are causing it, behind us. And I think we‘re starting to get ready to seriously talk about meaningful solutions to solving it.
SCARBOROUGH: Talk about the HBO documentary you‘ve worked on.
DAVID: Well, this is going to air Saturday night on Earth Day, appropriately enough, at 7:00. And it‘s about the effects of global warming in the United States.
And we focus on the United States because basically we‘re the biggest contributor to global warming pollution, and this country is doing the least about it.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, hold on, Laurie. You say that we are doing the least about it. China, the pollution in China is despicable. Much worse than ours, right? They don‘t have the environmental protections we have.
And when you look at China and you look at India and you look how quickly those industrialized nations are going to be growing over the next 30 years, that presents a real challenge, doesn‘t it?
DAVID: Yes, it‘s a serious problem. But we need some leadership from this country. We are the biggest global warming polluters in the world right now. And we‘re doing nothing about it.
You can‘t even sell our cars, American cars, in China because Chinas fuel economy standards are better. They just put a tax on gas-guzzling SUVs and chopsticks.
So we have to show leadership here in the United States before we expect the rest of the world to follow suit.
SCARBOROUGH: Bobby, a professor from MIT, Richard Lineser (ph), said this to the “Wall Street Journal.” He said, “Lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of science.”
And there‘s been a big debate as to whether there is a serious debate left on global warming. How do you respond to an MIT professor who says global warming may be a hoax?
KENNEDY: Well, Richard Lineser (ph) is one of many of these, what we call, biostitutes (ph). They‘re industry-funded scientists who have denied global warming for many years. Even Lineser (ph) now is acknowledging that it does exist, and he‘s just questions the level of human contribution and what we can do about it.
Listen, Joe, the glaciers are melting on every single continent. The arctic has lost 40 percent of its sea ice in the last 20 years. It will be gone, the summer ice will be gone within 20 years. The snows are gone from Kilimanjaro. Glacier National Park, where we visited the other day, had 127 glaciers at the beginning of the century. Today, it‘s down to 27. They‘ll be gone within 10 years. Nobody really denies—there‘s no serious scientific debate about whether global warming—here‘s what...
SCARBOROUGH: What‘s the worst case scenario for New York City, for Washington, D.C., for L.A.?
KENNEDY: Well, if the west Antarctic ice sheet melts, and the Greenland ice sheet, New York City will be under 12 feet of water, two-thirds of Florida will be gone. This is serious environmental impacts.
But long before we get there, we‘re going to get storms like Katrina, which displaced 200,000 people.
The good news, Joe, is that we have the capacity to avert the most catastrophic impacts of global warming. And everything we need to do to avert global warming are things we ought to be doing anyway to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to improve our economy, our national security.
If we raised fuel economy standards by one mile per gallon, we‘d generate more oil than is in two arctic national wildlife refugees. If we raised fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon, we could eliminate 100 percent of Persian Gulf oil imports into this Country.
That means we wouldn‘t have to fight wars over there. This war‘s going to cost us a trillion dollars over the next three years.
So the investment we need to make to solve this problem is very, very
small compared to the cost of continuing along this path, this very, very
destructive path that the fossil fuel industry and its indentured servants
in the Washington, D.C. and the White House are urging us to do
SCARBOROUGH: All right, we‘re going to have to leave you there.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., thank you so much.
And Laurie David, thank you.
And make sure you‘re watching HBO Saturday night for, again, a topic that is “Too Hot Not to Handle.”
And I‘ll tell you what else. A lot of conservatives agree with Bobby and Laurie that it is time for us to stop depending on oil. What is it, $72 a gallon—a barrel now? It‘s absolutely insane. And we should have never put ourselves in this position.
It‘s time for us to get unhooked from, again, depending on these Mideast dictators for our economic future.
[Don’t forget to check out the documentary tomorrow if you have HBO!]
Kennedy has a great radio show if you haven‘t heard it:
www.ringoffireradio.com
David has a global warming documentary “Too Hot Not To Handle” premiering Saturday (tomorrow) on HBO:
Information
Schedule
Miscellaneous
'Scarborough Country' Transcript for April 20
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12421073/
Clip Inside
SCARBOROUGH: Now, the first Earth Day was celebrated 36 years ago this week when college students, hippies, high school students, hippies, peace activists, politicians, and hippies jammed their dirty bodies onto the Washington mall to celebrate the dawning of a cleaner, greener age of Aquarius.
The event was a smashing success, leading that well-known fan of hippies, Richard Millhouse Nixon to support the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The event also pressured politicians of all stripes to pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Acts, and scores of bills aimed at protecting endangered animals, the wilderness where they live, and the ocean.
There have been bumps along the way. Earth Day‘s leadership fractured. During Earth Day 2000, it was revealed that the event spokesman, Hollywood star, Leonardo DiCaprio, drove an SUV. Shocking. And they‘d filmed some environmentally sensitive national parks.
But Hollywood has taken the lead on educating America when it comes to the environment. Actors, directors, rock stars have taken center stage of late. But music also played an important part of the movement even on the first Earth Day.
(VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: With me now, we‘ve got environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. He‘s the author of the book “Crimes Against Nature,”; and Laurie David. She‘s the executive producer of the new HBO documentary called “Too Hot Not to Handle.”
Bobby Kennedy, let me begin with you. Is the environment cleaner today than it was in 1970?
BOBBY KENNEDY, ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER: Well, Earth Day was a huge success, and it wasn‘t just hippies, Joe. It was 20 million Americans. It was the largest public demonstration in United States history.
I remember 10 percent of our population came out on the street. I remember what it was like before Earth Day. The Coyote River was burning. Lake Erie was declared dead. We couldn‘t swim in the Hudson, the Potomac, the Charles growing up. There were tens of thousands of Americans dying every year during bad air events, and we had really bad lead poisoning in almost all American children.
Today IQ levels are actually higher in the United States because of the abolishment of leaded gasoline and many—and Lake Erie has returned.
Earth day was a huge success story. We passed 28 major environmental laws, republicans and democrats, as you said. Richard Nixon led the way.
But today, we have an administration that is dismantling 30 years of environmental laws in an attack designed to eviscerate those protections that have been so successful.
SCARBOROUGH: Laurie David, if you look at a lot of areas in the environment, it certainly has. I remember, I lived in upstate New York in the mid-‘70s, and Lake Erie was unswimmable. A lot of rivers, a lot of streams, a lot of creeks, you just wouldn‘t stick your foot in, let alone let your children swim in.
A lot of things have gotten better. Air quality has gotten better in a lot of ways. But there are, especially if you want to talk about a subject that matters a lot to you, there are some areas where things have gotten much worse. Talk about global warming.
LAURIE DAVID, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, HBO: Well, I think this is the most momentous Earth Day we‘ve had in 30 years, because we‘re finally at a point where we are putting the debate about global warming, whether the globe is warming and humans are causing it, behind us. And I think we‘re starting to get ready to seriously talk about meaningful solutions to solving it.
SCARBOROUGH: Talk about the HBO documentary you‘ve worked on.
DAVID: Well, this is going to air Saturday night on Earth Day, appropriately enough, at 7:00. And it‘s about the effects of global warming in the United States.
And we focus on the United States because basically we‘re the biggest contributor to global warming pollution, and this country is doing the least about it.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, hold on, Laurie. You say that we are doing the least about it. China, the pollution in China is despicable. Much worse than ours, right? They don‘t have the environmental protections we have.
And when you look at China and you look at India and you look how quickly those industrialized nations are going to be growing over the next 30 years, that presents a real challenge, doesn‘t it?
DAVID: Yes, it‘s a serious problem. But we need some leadership from this country. We are the biggest global warming polluters in the world right now. And we‘re doing nothing about it.
You can‘t even sell our cars, American cars, in China because Chinas fuel economy standards are better. They just put a tax on gas-guzzling SUVs and chopsticks.
So we have to show leadership here in the United States before we expect the rest of the world to follow suit.
SCARBOROUGH: Bobby, a professor from MIT, Richard Lineser (ph), said this to the “Wall Street Journal.” He said, “Lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of science.”
And there‘s been a big debate as to whether there is a serious debate left on global warming. How do you respond to an MIT professor who says global warming may be a hoax?
KENNEDY: Well, Richard Lineser (ph) is one of many of these, what we call, biostitutes (ph). They‘re industry-funded scientists who have denied global warming for many years. Even Lineser (ph) now is acknowledging that it does exist, and he‘s just questions the level of human contribution and what we can do about it.
Listen, Joe, the glaciers are melting on every single continent. The arctic has lost 40 percent of its sea ice in the last 20 years. It will be gone, the summer ice will be gone within 20 years. The snows are gone from Kilimanjaro. Glacier National Park, where we visited the other day, had 127 glaciers at the beginning of the century. Today, it‘s down to 27. They‘ll be gone within 10 years. Nobody really denies—there‘s no serious scientific debate about whether global warming—here‘s what...
SCARBOROUGH: What‘s the worst case scenario for New York City, for Washington, D.C., for L.A.?
KENNEDY: Well, if the west Antarctic ice sheet melts, and the Greenland ice sheet, New York City will be under 12 feet of water, two-thirds of Florida will be gone. This is serious environmental impacts.
But long before we get there, we‘re going to get storms like Katrina, which displaced 200,000 people.
The good news, Joe, is that we have the capacity to avert the most catastrophic impacts of global warming. And everything we need to do to avert global warming are things we ought to be doing anyway to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to improve our economy, our national security.
If we raised fuel economy standards by one mile per gallon, we‘d generate more oil than is in two arctic national wildlife refugees. If we raised fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon, we could eliminate 100 percent of Persian Gulf oil imports into this Country.
That means we wouldn‘t have to fight wars over there. This war‘s going to cost us a trillion dollars over the next three years.
So the investment we need to make to solve this problem is very, very
small compared to the cost of continuing along this path, this very, very
destructive path that the fossil fuel industry and its indentured servants
in the Washington, D.C. and the White House are urging us to do
SCARBOROUGH: All right, we‘re going to have to leave you there.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., thank you so much.
And Laurie David, thank you.
And make sure you‘re watching HBO Saturday night for, again, a topic that is “Too Hot Not to Handle.”
And I‘ll tell you what else. A lot of conservatives agree with Bobby and Laurie that it is time for us to stop depending on oil. What is it, $72 a gallon—a barrel now? It‘s absolutely insane. And we should have never put ourselves in this position.
It‘s time for us to get unhooked from, again, depending on these Mideast dictators for our economic future.
[Don’t forget to check out the documentary tomorrow if you have HBO!]