Former Vice President Al Gore Criticized for Global Warming Comments

Former Vice President and possible future presidential candidate Al Gore has been criticized domestically and internationally for his comments about climate change and global warming. United States Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) Wednesday criticized Gore for recently saying global warming is a "dire emergency" that threatens mankind. Internationally, a former advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Gore "doesn't have the guts or the facts" to debate him on the subject.

Wednesday the former Vice President urged Congress to take immediate action to "save the planet" by adopting an immediate freeze on greenhouse gases. Former Vice President Gore claimed that global warming is a "planetary emergency" that threatens mankind. He told a Senate Environmental Committee hearing that debate on the topic is over because of a consensus among scientists.

At the hearing Senator Inhofe challenged the former Vice President's facts. He said the contention of Gore that global warming is responsible for an increase in the number of hurricanes and for hurricanes being of a longer duration is not believed by meteorologists. The senator said that the World Meteorological Organization "very clearly rejected this assertion."

The former vice president also has said that rising earth temperatures are caused by carbon dioxide, which is used in various ways, including heating homes and by motor vehicles. At the hearing Senator Inhofe asked former Vice President Gore to promise to consume no more energy than the average American, but Gore did not take the pledge.

Senator Inhofe called global warming the "biggest hoax ever perpetuated on Americans." He also said Gore lacks the scientific knowledge to say the earth is sick and getting sicker, scaring everyone in the process.