http://www.thelocal.se/9383/20071212/Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore praised Sweden for taking the lead in the battle to save the environment during a visit to Stockholm on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference in the Swedish parliament, Gore highlighted the importance of a positive outcome at the ongoing UN climate conference in Bali.
"I hope there will be a change on the part of some countries, including most importantly my own, the United States," he said.
Gore was joined in Stockholm by fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, UN environmental scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared Gore's concerns about the Bali conference.
"We really haven't made new progress. I wish very much that in the next two or three days we get a real breakthrough," Pachauri told reporters.
end.
And we all should be concerned, because if there is little to no progress here it does not bode well for us or this planet for the next few years because progress will only be pushed back as we reach the tipping point. Before this started I had written a post about how I hoped that political biases and greed could be pushed aside this one time to see the moral imperative. I am absolutely ashamed as an American to see that this country's socalled leaders cannot or will not spur change in that light. And anyone who thinks it will get better in 2008 needs to then understand that with this Congress that can't even get a climate bill through even when Democrats have a socalled majority, that it isn't going to change much as long as the same military industrial complex rules in Washington DC.
However, I, like Mr. Gore and Mr. Pachauri can still hope that in the final hours some countries may grow a conscience and see that moral imperative. But I have conditioned myself not to get too optimistic as I am tired of being disappointed. Should this all fall through without the largest emitters agreeing to any caps whatsoever, we as a species can then claim another failure in our quest to actually show we have evolved in any way spiritually or morally, and as usual I suspect the people of this country on the whole save the few groups and those actually giving a damn will just talk about it and then do nothing, just as we have allowed Bush to stay in power all these years stripping our Constitution as they now strip our planet. So yes, Mr. Gore is right to be concerned. I know I am.