Bloomberg Deems Threat of Global Warming as Serious as Terrorism
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles 
on 02.12.08
Image courtesy of David Berkowitz via flickr
In a seeming attempt to upstage Al Gore - or at least revive talks of a stalled independent run for the White House - NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg ripped into the presidential candidates' positions on climate change, calling them too weak and unfocused. Addressing a UN summit on climate change, he deemed global warming as serious a threat to international health as nuclear proliferation and terrorism, arguing that, in the long term, it "has the potential to kill everybody."
"Unfortunately we have a system where nobody wants to say to anybody you have to stop doing something, or change something or pay for something . . . where all we want to do is say you can have something for nothing." He castigated the leading candidates for not making climate change a central component of their agenda.
Discussing his green initiatives for the city, he again reiterated his call for a carbon tax and boasted of the efforts underway to convert the city's taxi fleet to hybrid vehicles and to plant 1 million trees. He dismissed attempts to equate his proposed congestion fee with a tax, lashing out at the federal government for making the dubious connection in refusing to pay London's pricing charge.
"Congestion pricing is not a tax, it's a service charge and typically diplomats pay those. Everybody pays those. I happen to think that the United States government's policy . . . in London is a wrong one," he asserted.
He also reserved criticism for the recently enacted energy law, which calls for a fivefold increase in biofuel production by 2022, stating that its promotion of corn ethanol would lead people to "starve to death in parts of the world" as a result of rising food prices. Instead of subsidizing the production of corn ethanol, the U.S. government should subsidize that of sugar ethanol - which is taxed under the law - he argued.
Regardless of his potential presidential aspirations, Bloomberg has done all of us a great service by again elevating the topic of climate change in our current political discourse. Would it be too much to ask to see the leading candidates follow through?
Via ::Newsday: Bloomberg talks green at UN; wants diplomats to pay fees (newspaper), ::Reuters UK: Bloomberg slams US energy law over corn ethanol (news website)
See also: ::U.S. Mayors Told Cities' Future Has To Be Green, ::Bloomberg’s Traffic Plan Gets State and Federal Support
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I really, really wish that man would run for president . .
Better be careful. He's going to run Cheyney's pacemaker adrift.
terorist is a threat now, "global warming" is a threat far far in a futre if not ever. this makes my blood boil, all that statment was for was political attention.
I'd agree with the statement "Global Warming is as serious a threat as terrorism" to the economy -- possibly a greater threat. Specifically, I believe the *concept* of Global Warming is the real threat to the economy, as opposed to any hypothetical climatic disaster.
What makes it a bigger threat to the economy, is that it is, and will be, used as a facile pretext by politicians to meddle with the free market -- with inevitable disasterous effects. I fear politicians and bureaucrats far more than any terrorists or, ... the *weather*.
But I'm optimistic. Global Warming (tm), has jumped the shark. The wheels are already starting to come off of that campaign. Soon the parasite classes will come up with another imaginary panic to replace Global Warming and justify their continued existence. Whether a theoretical invasion by Klingons, or swarms of ferrocious killer bees invading from South America, remains to be seen.
'terorist is a threat now, "global warming" is a threat far far in a futre if not ever. this makes my blood boil, all that statment was for was political attention.'
---Global warming is ALREADY killing people and negatively affecting people's livelihoods throughout the world! Your statements make my blood boil. You need to get your head out of the sand and look at what is going on around the world and not just in your living room.
I hope Bloomberg runs. That way the other candidates will have no choice but to address global warming more openly and seriously and stop pandering to the Bens and the Anonymouses of the US.
'terorist is a threat now, "global warming" is a threat far far in a futre if not ever. this makes my blood boil, all that statment was for was political attention.'
---Global warming is ALREADY killing people and negatively affecting people's livelihoods throughout the world! Your statements make my blood boil. You need to get your head out of the sand and look at what is going on around the world and not just in your living room.
I hope Bloomberg runs. That way the other candidates will have no choice but to address global warming more openly and seriously and stop pandering to the Bens and the Anonymouses of the US.
It's probably just a statement to provoke... much like Sheryl Crow's one square of toilet paper stuff.
[Go Lance!! ... sorry, I'm a biker]
Whether you drink the whole Global Warming Kool Aid or take the lite stuff like I do. The technologies being derived and solutions arising are important.
No one would agree to living off terrorist oil forever.
No one likes noxious emissions.
No one wants to waste as much as possible through not recycling.
No one wants to be held hostage to big power companies until you can't afford to heat and power your house.
No one wants to sit in endless loops of traffic.
On and on.
Our leadership choices are lackluster. I hope it all works out in the end.
vsk
Thanks for the photo credit! Very kind of you.