Vice-Presidential Debate: Palin vs. Biden On Global Warming
In the Vice Presidential debate earlier this evening, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden each had a strong point of view on global warming. Gwen Ifill, the moderator, specifically questioned Palin about her views on carbon emissions and Biden about his view on clean coal technology.
Here are some key excerpts from the debate:
Sarah Palin
- She confirmed that John McCain wants to put a cap on carbon emissions.
- She said that the nation had to become “energy independent,” conserving fuel and clean up the planet.
- She talked of America’s cry for tapping into domestic energy sources, saying they support a “drill, baby, drill” attitude as a measure for becoming energy independent
- She criticized Biden for an overheard comment he made on a rope line that appeared to contradict Barack Obama’s support of building clean coal plants.
Joe Biden
- He said that the problem of climate change was “man-made.”
- He attacked Palin, saying if you don’t know what the cause is, how can you solve the problem?
- He confirmed that we need to invest in renewable energy and clean coal. Also that we need to export technology to countries like China to help them clean up their coal plants.
- He said that drilling is not the immediate answer.
I thought that the argument about clean coal was particularly interesting. Biden’s comment on the rope line was in response to a young voter, who had asked him why he and Obama support clean coal.
“We’re not supporting clean coal,” Biden responded, “China’s going to burn 300 years of bad coal unless we figure out how to clean their coal up, because it’s going to ruin your lungs, and there’s nothing we can do about it. No coal plants here in America. Build ’em, if they’re gonna build ’em, over there and make ’em clean because they’re killing you.”
The Obama campaign, attacked for Biden’s comments, reiterated Obama’s and Biden’s support of clean coal technology, however the contradiction between that position and Biden’s remarks to the voter on the rope line remained unresolved. In tonight’s debate, Biden defended himself by asking Gwen Ifill to examine his record on clean coal and stating that his comment made at a rope line was taken out of context: . “I was talking about exporting that technology to China so when they burn their dirty coal it won’t be as dirty, it will be clean.”
What do you think? Will a McCain-Palin or a Obama-Biden government really make a difference when it comes to global warming?
Photo credit: www.wsj.com
Come on. Is that question really even debatable? Of course Obama-Biden will make a bigger difference on global warming than McCain-Palin. They’ve shown a much more aggressive approach to alternative energy and getting off dirty fossil fuels. Biden talks a lot about trains and public transportation. How can Palin have a solution to the problem, when she doesn’t believe in the cause?
The photo used for this post is kind of grossing me out. It looks like Biden and Palin are about to start kissing.
I never realized that Joe was a climate scientist. He said there is not a doubt that global warming is a result of human activity. He is lucky that he can stay in the Congress when he loses. He has no future in climate science since now there is little evidence that the climate is warming and absolutely no evidence that humans have any influence on the climate. The science is final!! Global warming is a myth.
the VP debate was stunning. Palin did a decent job faking about 20% of the questions and didn’t even bother answering the other 80%. she might as well have been singing the ABC’s whenever it was her turn to respond … did anyone else notice this?
I love how skeptics like Bob can say that global warming absolutely is not man-made, when most reputable scientific organizations say it is. How can you be so certain? I’m not absolutely certain that it is man-made, but contrary to your claim, there is A LOT of evidence that suggests it is.
And science is never final.
Jeff, The only proof that the UN and the politicians have are the climate models. These climate models when given 1969 dada have predicted 2005 temperature increases far beyond the actual. They make excuses and tell us that these modeled predictions will be very accurate 50 yrs out. The real climate science being done at UAL and MIT throw COLD water on all of the “the science is final” crowd.
Joe biden was right when he said if you don’t know the cause you can’t fix the problem! What if oil is the insulator between the earths inner heat engine and the earth’s surface? What if the earth’s magnetic field is vibrating at such a high frequency that the polar caps are subliming going from a solid to a gas, and the jet stream is picking up the atmospheric moisture and dumping it in the form of el nino? What if all the holes in the ionisphere are being caused by radio frequencies way beyond known safe limits? Who ever controls the highest radio frequencies controls all space. All of our modern civilization depends on all of these and other factors. To make a difference there must be found different ways for energy distribution, transportation, and communications.