With Gore as Guest, Katie's Smile Says It All

Let's imagine that instead of Al Gore, Katie Couric's guest this morning was a Republican presidential hopeful whose message on the environment was that we should not let alarmism push us into measures that would undermine our economy and way of life. Could you ever - ever! - imagine Katie flashing at him the 10,000 megawatt smile she has on display here for Al?

There's one more dead giveaway that Katie & Co. are getting aboard the Al Gore Enviro Train. When Today really wants to play up an issue, they brand it. Last week, flacking for the Da Vinci Code, Today sent Matt Lauer for a week "On The Road with the Code."

In introducing Gore, there to promote his global warming book and movie 'An Inconvenient Truth', Couric announced:

"This morning we are beginning a new series called 'Today's Climate Challenge, Tomorrow's Global Opportunity." You might call it: Al Gore - the Series! Katie introduced Gore with a bit of alarmism of her own: "With a record-setting hurricane season, the warmest April ever and rising ocean temperatures, many are saying global warming is in fact to blame. Former Vice-President Al Gore is one of them and now he's bringing his message to a theater near you."

"I think in this movie, at different turns, you are funny, vulnerable, disarming, self-effacing and someone said after watching it, 'if only he was like this before, maybe things would have turned out differently in 2000.'"

Gore speaks in absolutely apocalyptic terms: "What we are facing is a planetary emergency. It's by far the most dangerous crisis by far that our civilization has ever confronted." Really? More dangerous, 'by far', then the Mutual Assured Destruction we faced with the Soviets for decades?

Of course even Couric had to pay some lip service to balance. Noticeably reading from notes, perhaps subliminally making clear that these were not her thoughts but those of others she had to recite, she said:

"People on the other side of the debate say yes it's getting warmer but the earth's average temperature has done this before. We may have something to do with it, but it hasn't warmed that much and it's not going to have catastrophic consequences any time soon."

"There's really not a debate. The debate's over. The scientific community has reached as strong a consensus as you will ever find in science. There are a few oil companies and coal companies that spend millions of dollars a year to put these pseudo-scientists out there predending there is a debate. It's exactly the same thing that the tobacco companies did after the Surgeon General warned us about the linkage between smoking and lung cancer."

Having timidly trotted out the other side of the argument, Couric left no doubt where she stands: "Where there is disagreement among scientists is not if but when we may see drastic environmental changes across the globe. Al Gore says the clock is ticking."

She later asked: "What do you see happening in say 15 to 20 years or even 50 years if nothing changes?"

Gore: "Well, what I think is going to happen is that we're going to respond to it. But if we didn't respond, what you would find is desertification of the mid-continental areas of the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa. The melting of the polar ice cap and the beginnings of the same things in Antarctica and sea level increases of 20 feet or more worldwide. Of course Florida and Louisiana and Texas are particularly vulnerable. The San Francisco Bay area. Manila, and we have seen the impact of a couple of hundred thousand refugees from an environmental crisis [as pictures of Katrina victims flashed on the screen]. Imagine 100 million or 200 million."

Katie did observe: "Some people might say, oh boy, there is that tree-hugging Al Gore. He is at it again. Some people might dismiss you out of hand."

Gore: "Look, I've been trying to tell this story for 30 years. And I have a new ally in telling this story. Unfortunately mother nature is weighing in very powerfully and loudly. And people are listening. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue."

Gore: "Well, look, i don't plan to be a candidate. I have said that I am not at the stage of my life where I will say never the rest of my fe."

And just when you thought it might be safe to go back in the Today water, Katie closed by mentioning: "Tomorrow we will take a look at the alternative fuels that may help reduce global warming in the future

Al Gore posed for a photo paddling a canoe. But in order to make sure the canoe would float for the photo-op, 4 billion gallons of water was released from a New Hampshire dam and allowed to escape down the creek. New Hampshire was in the middle of a record drought at the time.

GLOBAL WARMING ALERT: GORE BURNS 439,500 LBS OF FUEL TO ATTEND SUMMIT

"The most vulnerable part of the Earth's environment is the very thin layer
of air clinging near to the surface of the planet, that we are now so
carelessly filling with gaseous wastes that we are actually altering the
relationship between the Earth and the Sun - by trapping more solar
radiation under this growing blanket of pollution that envelops the entire
world," Vice President Gore told the U.N. Global Warming conference of 159
nations this morning in Koyto, Japan.

In what was one the most dramatic speeches in recent memory, Gore announced
to world leaders: "Whether we recognize it or not, we are now engaged in an
epic battle to right the balance of our Earth, and the tide of this battle
will turn on when the majority of people in the world become sufficiently
aroused by shared sense of urgent danger to join an all-out effort."

Applause filed the halls of the Kyoto International Conference Center. "We
must achieve a safe overall concentration level for greenhouse gases in the
Earth's atmosphere."

carbondioxidemethanenitrousoxidehydrofluorocarbonsperfluorocarbonssulfurhexa
chloride.

The message is serious. So serious in fact, the DRUDGE REPORT has
calculated that Vice President Al Gore is burning more than 439,500 pounds
of fuel, or 65,600 gallons, at a cost of more than $131,000 on his 16,000
mile daytrip, just to deliver the warning.

Now that's commitment.

Air Force II's Global Warming Express features an itinerary that takes the
vice president from Washington to Florida to Washington to Alaska to Japan
and back -- all in just 72-hours.

Saturday, December 6, 1997

9:45 a.m. Air Force II departs Andrews AFB enroute Fort Myers, Fla.

12:05 p.m. Air Force II arrives Southwest Florida Regional Airport. Gate 69-A.

2 p.m. Vice President Gore addresses the 50th Anniversary/Rededication,
Everglades Municipal Airport, Everglades National Park.

6:40 p.m. Air Force II departs Florida en route AFB.

8:35 p.m. Air Force II arrives at Andrews Air Force Base.

9:45 p.m. -- Air Force II departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Elmendorf
Air Force Base

Sunday, Dec. 7

1:15 a.m. -- Air Force II arrives Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska

2:45 a.m. -- Air Force II departs Elmendorf Air Force Base en route Osaka, Japan

Monday, Dec. 8

5 a.m. -- Air Force II arrives Osaka International Airport, Osaka Japan

11:15 p.m. -- Air Force II departs Osaka, Japan en route Elmendorf Air Force
Base

12:35 p.m. -- Air Force II arrives Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska

2:05 p.m. -- Air Force II departs Elmendorf Air Force Base en route Andrews
Air Force Base

Tuesday, Dec. 9

12:45 a.m. -- Air Force II arrives Andrews Air Force Base

----

"The extra heat which cannot escape is beginning to change the global
patterns of climate to which we are accustomed. Our fundamental challenge
now is to find out whether and how we can change the behaviors that are
causing the problem."

Gore's plane, a Boeing 707 gas guzzler burns on average 4.1 gallons a mile.
The complete Washington to Florida to Washington to Alaska to Japan and
return to Washington trip calculated from commercial air mileage tables is
just over 16,000 miles total. Gas gallons needed for AIR FORCE II to go
16,000 miles: 65,600. Applying the average price of $2.01 per gallon of
Jet A to the 16,000 mile r/t -- the fuel cost alone passes $131,000.00.
There are 6.7 pounds per gallon of jet fuel. Total pounds of fuel burned on
Gore's Global Warming Express -- 439,500.

Unprecedented Leadership.

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