Tom Friedman Slams Climate Skeptics at COP15
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FORA.tv’s Stuart Schulzke interviews author and New York Times Op-Ed columnist Thomas Friedman at the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Friedman discusses the motives of climate change skeptics, speculates on the impact of the COP15 conference, and presses the US to take a stronger leadership position on climate issues.
FORA.tv’s complete coverage of the COP15 Climate Change Conference: http://fora.tv/partner/COP15
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FORA.tv’s own Stuart Schulzke interviews New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman at the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Friedman was bureau chief for The Times in Beirut and Jerusalem before writing, From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award for non-fiction. His book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy.
His latest work, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, won the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. He has a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University and a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford.
Stuart Schulzke is FORA.tv’s Director of Content Development. He earned two graduate degrees at the University of Oxford and his research has ranged from conflict resolution in Palestine to anti-corruption strategies in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Schulzke previously worked for the United States House of Representatives, primarily in framing media strategies for the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Duration : 0:4:44
@2:10 you can see …
@2:10 you can see in his eyes he’s lying.
obey ALGORE and TOM …
obey ALGORE and TOM FRIEDMAN or its AUSCHWITZ for you.
When did I talk …
When did I talk about his intentions? I simply stated what he had done. That’s it. He uses scare tactics. He grossly exaggerates what we know scientifically. He spreads propaganda. He’s enabling governments that are inherently corrupt to forcefully intervene in the lives of billions of people & the people that will suffer the most as a result are the poor. His intentions & passions don’t matter. This is the reality of what he’s done whether he knows it or not & he’s making a fortune doing it.
Whether ‘passion’ …
Whether ‘passion’ is virtue in this context is moot. I’m countering your assumption that Gore has bad intentions. I could easily ask you- ‘How do you know his intentions?’ ‘Maybe you should set-up in Vegas.’ etc.
His virtue is his cause. His cause is based on the obvious problems humans are creating within the biosphere. (Some chose to think otherwise.) That’s fine.
I don’t think his cause is disingenuous at all, irrespective of ‘passion’. But ‘passion’ IS fuel. & He’s got it.
Passion is not a …
Passion is not a virtue. It does not justify one’s actions.
Intentions are overrated. The road to is paved with good intentions. I don’t believe in hell, but you get the point. Stop judging politicians by their intentions. Their good intentions are making our lives much worse.
You can call that overt cynicism. I call it facing reality. One day you’ll wake up like a Christian realizing God doesn’t exist. Politicians are not the admirable leaders they pretend to be. They’re con men in suits
‘The vast majority …
‘The vast majority of politicians are corrupt.’ I disagree. I’m not naive about politicians and their intentions, but I think your overt cynicism is an impediment to clarity.
It’s all to easy to sit back in the intellectual hi-chair and smugly declare ‘The vast majority is corrupt.’ (That’s the fashion of an unbalanced crank.)
There are some who would say- ‘Martin Luther King’ had bad intentions and that his passion wasn’t real.
I don’t accept such simple and lazy arguments.
If you can detect …
If you can detect whether someone is genuine or not, you should be playing poker in Vegas or working for the FBI as a human lie detector.
Politicians are trained to appear genuine & knowledgeable. To look like a genius, you just need to know what questions you’ll be asked.
Pointing out Cheney’s sneaky deals is like pointing out a single Star Trek convention attendee for being a nerd. They’re all nerds! The vast majority of politicians are corrupt.
Gore doesn’t just invest. He uses coercion.
Being influenced by …
Being influenced by ‘incentives’ can also include passion for a cause. In Gore’s case, all the facts support this.
Yes, he’s made some money, but from investments in alternative energy sources. (Isn’t that a good thing? As opposed to sneaky Cheney handing out No-Bid Contracts in Iraq to his fellow Haliburton board members?)
I don’t assume anything about Gore but I have seen him in interviews and I see him as genuine and knowledgeable.
His rhetoric matches the science. (For some)
It doesn’t take a …
It doesn’t take a far fetched conspiracy to understand that a person’s behavior is influenced by incentives. I think many politicians start out in college with a genuine desire to make a difference. But once they run for an election they quickly learn that in politics it’s very profitable to lie if you want to win.
Do not assume Gore is highly knowledgeable or trustworthy. He got a D in natural science & a C minus in economics. After college he went to divinity school. Plus he’s a politician.
@VoteLib3rty: You …
@VoteLib3rty: You certainly did miss it. The internet is awash with people who deny the climate is warming due to anthropogenic carbon emissions. Of those best able to evaluate the evidence – working and publishing climatologists – 97% think “human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures”.
tigger. uic. edu /~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf
Perhaps if they took more interest in banking they’d see things as clearly as you do. But alas they’re scientists.
@cristop5: I may …
@cristop5: I may have missed it, but I don’t think anyone doubts climate change. As I said in an earlier post, I live where there were once glaciers: in the middle of the United States.
Paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories? I’m amazed by your power to deny the obvious. You clearly lack an fundamental understanding of the fraud behind our fractional reserve lending system, fiat currencies and our central banking oligarchs. Start there before you tackle “climate change”.
@XxxxxAvatarxxxxX
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@XxxxxAvatarxxxxX
There is a lot of genuine debate about climate models, and whether or not their predictions are justified. But there are also a stack of canards that get mindlessly and endlessly repeated for political reasons.
If you get specific about evidence that doesn’t support anthropogenic GW I will do my best to respond.
@abirdnamedcat
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@abirdnamedcat
Well atm there is snow blocking my car in the driveway. First time in a long while it’s snowed this much, does that prove anything? No.
@cristop5
I …
@cristop5
I believe it’s the science that is in dispute. A theory using only the evidence that supports the theory will always be “proved”. What about all the evidence that doesn’t support the theory?
Al Gore has been …
Al Gore has been involved with this issue since he was in college and is highly knowledgeable and therefore motivated by his passionate concerns to do something about it. No matter how you may feel about him or his environmental stance – to imply he is involved with this issue only for money in some kind of conspiratorial manner is ludicrous.
Also, most ‘energy corporations’ have everything to LOSE in the man made debate. Lobbying from them has been AGAINST the science of climate change.
I used to think Tom …
I used to think Tom Friedman was a level headed guy but I have lost all respect for him.
@truthadvocate
The …
@truthadvocate
The bottom line is that anthropogenic climate change is happening. This conclusion is based on evidence going back to the 1950s, not Al Gore’s film. If people make money from addressing climate change, as a champion of the free market you should be pleased.
Your focus on politics rather than science will gain you NO insight into the changes that are happening to our planet. And they are happening.
It is appalling how readily politics trumps science in America.
BTW, Merry Xmas!
Strawmans. Please …
Strawmans. Please stop.
Al Gore set up Generation Investment Management which invests in green technologies & thus benefits from global warming alarmism. His Hollywood groupies fund & produce movie to scare the public. He travels the world pushing his agenda while leftist media back him up. People worldwide feel guilty & terrified enough to invest heavily in green technologies. His stocks go through the roof. His net worth goes from around 1 million to well over 100 million in 7 years.
@VoteLib3rty.
The …
@VoteLib3rty.
The way to form an opinion on climate change is to look at the scientific evidence.
The way to encourage paranoid delusions is to follow conspiracy theories.
@truthadvocate …
@truthadvocate There is no question that Exxon has funded deniers. The Royal Society took the unprecedented step of asking Exxon to stop funding groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence”. Google it.
You have no evidence of climate science being funded by solar panel manufacturers. Earlier you seemed to think GW and an ice age were equally probable!!
If ever there are two possibilities, you seem to think they must deserve equal credibility!
What I said: A …
What I said: A Trojan horse for ‘Corporate Neo-Monarchy’ .
If I was Exxon …
If I was Exxon Mobile I’d spend some money to defend myself from big government zealots like you too. So you admit that a corporation can create bias in the debate through funding. Not to mention lobbying. Why is it so hard for you to consider that these studies are also influenced by corporations and investors with millions to gain from a pro-man-made-climate-change conclusion? How many hundreds of millions of dollars is Al Gore worth today? I can’t keep track.
@abirdnamedcat: I …
@abirdnamedcat: I don’t think anyone doubts that the climate is changing. I live where there were once glaciers and I’m fairly confident man had nothing to do with it. We all want to pollute less and take care of the earth. The opposition is to climate profiteers and radical political exploitation. The same people that own the most environmentally damaging corporations are the central banking elite that are also fund the environmental movements. Confusing? Not if you know their agenda.
Yes, it is also …
Yes, it is also obvious that the ‘crisis’ is a Trojan horse for corporate neo-monarchy. But really, there was a time not so long ago that we could ice skate from one end of Holland to the other in winter. Now,, the puddles hardly ever freeze. The Ski slopes need snow making machines and even then its slush by noon and ice in the mornings.. sigh. Open your eyes. Where is the snow?
@cristop5: The …
@cristop5: The environment aside, given that fractional reserve banking is a fraud and that the governments of the world are now almost completely dominated by the central banking interests who have aims at world government; don’t you think that it is fairly obvious that the climate is being used to create a central taxing body controlled by these same interests?