Glenn Beck’s ‘Climate of Fear’ Attacks Global Warming Alarmists and Kyoto Fallacies

Photo of Noel Sheppard.
By Noel Sheppard | May 3, 2007 - 18:03 ET

If you missed it last night, Glenn Beck’s skeptical program about anthropogenic global warming, “Exposed: The Climate of Fear,” aired on CNN Headline News.

In it, Beck skewered many of the misnomers advanced by global warming alarmists, especially soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore (full transcript available here).

Video (3:05): Real (2.28 MB) or Windows (1.90 MB), plus MP3 (2.83 MB).

One particularly delicious segment occurred early in the program as Beck presented the facts about the Kyoto Protocol that few on the left care to recall, especially former Vice President Gore:

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GLENN BECK, HOST: They crafted what`s called the Kyoto Protocol. This is, according to many environmentalists, the gold standard of worldwide efforts to limit emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide by industrialized nations that most blame for global warming. That`s us.

Why didn’t the United States agree to this?

BECK: Because, quite simply the Kyoto Protocol is a joke, a really unfunny and expensive joke.

MARLO LEWIS, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Three-quarters of the total expense would fall upon the United States.

TIM BALL, NATURAL RESOURCES STEWARDSHIP PROJECT: I think there`s only two countries that are even coming close to meeting their targets.

PATRICK MICHAELS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA STATE CLIMATOLOGIST: The amount of warming that would be prevented, perhaps, is 7/100 Celsius.

PATRICK MOORE, FORMER DIRECTOR, GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL: It does not include China, India, Brazil, and these countries are all industrializing rapidly.

CHRIS HORNER, AUTHOR, "POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO GLOBAL WARMING": Kyoto encourages people to run the hell away from it.

BUSH: We didn`t feel like the Kyoto treaty was well-balanced. It didn`t include developing nations.

Talk about your inconvenient truths, guess who also didn’t agree with it:

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not submit this for ratification until there`s meaningful participation by key developing nations.

BECK: Yes, you heard right. Back in 1997, Al Gore set the standard that the U.S. Will not comply with Kyoto as long as big polluters like China don`t have to.

HORNER: That`s the Gore standard. That standard still has not been met. That was the standard George Bush articulated, too, but he`s mean.

Why isn’t that in Gore's schlockumentary?

But that’s just the beginning, for lots of folks didn’t buy into this nonsense. In fact, how about the entire Senate at the time:

BECK: Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol, announced his commitment to it, but never sent it to Congress to be ratified.

HORNER: Just like George Bush has never undertaken the purely protocol step of asking the Senate to vote on Kyoto, neither did Bill Clinton, for 801 days of his presidency.

BECK: Why? Because they knew the Senate had already voted down a Kyoto type deal by the razor-thin margin of 95-0.

Why do folks like Al Gore and his sycophant devotees such as Laurie David and Sheryl Crow seem to forget this little detail?

Maybe more importantly, why don’t the media continually remind them?

What follows is a partial transcript of this segment.

GLENN BECK, HOST: They crafted what`s called the Kyoto Protocol. This is, according to many environmentalists, the gold standard of worldwide efforts to limit emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide by industrialized nations that most blame for global warming. That`s us.

So what is the legacy of Kyoto? Well, once you realize how many holes there are in the consensus solution, you may begin to open up your mind to the other side of the global warming debate as a whole.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK (voice-over): Who knew climate could be so volatile?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Bush is breaking the international agreement.

BECK: Anger, protests, scorn against America and President Bush for refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was not a popular position in parts of the world.

BECK: Yes. It really wasn`t. One hundred and seventy countries have ratified Kyoto, many promising to reduce their greenhouse gases to below 1990 levels.

KOFI ANNAN, FORMER U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: There`s no time to lose.

BECK: Amidst international pressure, the U.S. and Australia have refused to participate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re going to go on and implement the Kyoto treaty. Do not wait for Bush.

BECK: Why, when the U.S. is responsible for 20 percent of all manmade greenhouse gases? Why refuse to join the rest of the world? I mean, other than the purely annoyed, these people.

Because, quite simply the Kyoto Protocol is a joke, a really unfunny and expensive joke.

MARLO LEWIS, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Three-quarters of the total expense would fall upon the United States.

TIM BALL, NATURAL RESOURCES STEWARDSHIP PROJECT: I think there`s only two countries that are even coming close to meeting their targets.

PATRICK MICHAELS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA STATE CLIMATOLOGIST: The amount of warming that would be prevented, perhaps, is 7/100 Celsius.

PATRICK MOORE, FORMER DIRECTOR, GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL: It does not include China, India, Brazil, and these countries are all industrializing rapidly.

CHRIS HORNER, AUTHOR, "POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO GLOBAL WARMING": Kyoto encourages people to run the hell away from it.

BUSH: We didn`t feel like the Kyoto treaty was well-balanced. It didn`t include developing nations.

BECK: Developing nations, like China and India, aren`t mandated to reduce their emissions under Kyoto. That`s a big problem for the U.S., especially since many developing nations are big polluters.

MICHAELS: It used to be thought that by 2020 that China was going to pass the United States in carbon dioxide emissions. New data says it`s going to happen in 2009.

BECK: Even our vice president thought it was ridiculous.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a ridiculous notion.

BECK: No, no, no, I don`t mean that vice president. I mean this one.

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not submit this for ratification until there`s meaningful participation by key developing nations.

BECK: Yes, you heard right. Back in 1997, Al Gore set the standard that the U.S. Will not comply with Kyoto as long as big polluters like China don`t have to.

HORNER: That`s the Gore standard. That standard still has not been met. That was the standard George Bush articulated, too, but he`s mean.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today I reaffirm my personal and announce our nation`s commitment to reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases.

BECK: Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol, announced his commitment to it, but never sent it to Congress to be ratified.

HORNER: Just like George Bush has never undertaken the purely protocol step of asking the Senate to vote on Kyoto, neither did Bill Clinton, for 801 days of his presidency.

BECK: Why? Because they knew the Senate had already voted down a Kyoto type deal by the razor-thin margin of 95-0.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.

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Now THAT

Is an inconvenient truth!

I watched the show...and it w

I watched the show...and it was great for the full hour.

Like you say c5...you can bet it was INCONVENIENT for the leftists, plus some others...let alone the network...

We need more, not less of this.

It was Must See TV! Whoops. W

It was Must See TV! Whoops. Wrong network.

It was fantabulous! The Church of the Klown God must have been mightily vexed after watching their "religion" taken down by a silly Mormon.

Ignore the Facts

Amazing that reporters  repeat complaints that Bush has not submitted the Kyoto Protocols to the Senate for ratification, without mentioning its 95-0 rejection.

It's as if the 1990s didn't h

It's as if the 1990s didn't happen.

All of those statements from Clinton and Gore and Rockefeller and Durbin about the need to remove Saddam, about his WMD programs are nowhere to be found today.

The statements from them about Kyoto being dead are nowhere to be found today.

Nope. Instead it's all Bush all the time. Bush created the myth of a dangerous Saddam. Bush pulled us out of Kyoto. Bush did this or that.....

I guess newsrooms and reporters just don't have access to the internet or LexisNexis.

What other explanation could there be?

What other explanation could

What other explanation could there be?

Sandy Burglar.

Joooooooooos!

Joooooooooos!

One of my coworkers blamed Bu

One of my coworkers blamed Bush for not signing Kyoto, and I told him he was full of s**t. He said he'd have to do some research and get back to me. Before he could, I sent him my arguments:

1. The 95-0 vote during the Clinton Admin. [Wikipedia called it 97-0. I have to admit I forgot that Clinton did not even bother to send it to the Senate for ratification. If I recall correctly, the vote said that the Senate would reject Kyoto if Clinton sent it to them, so he just let it go.]

2. Greenland - farming and sheep herding 700 years ago

3. Global warming on Mars.

4. Oregon Petition website, and a few more articles I've gotten from NB.

It's been 2-3 months, and I have yet to receive his rebuttal. And proof, yet again, that:

  Ignorance is bliss. It's easier to repeat a mindless slogan than to do some actual research.

Gorebal Warming

First of all, I came home sick from work yesterday, (I know boo-hoo) but got out of bed to watch this, I wasn't going to miss it no matter what. 

I wonder if there were many, on the fence, that watched this show, since it was fairly compelling. Perhaps the most compelling part of it was tearing down the rhetoric of the GW fear mongers.  Gore, of course, is the number one fear monger and, considering what he said in 1997, it sort of makes him look foolish.  Just when did he have this epiphany that he should be the guru on Global Warming?  He had the chance, when he was actually in a position of power, to make changes.  He did nothing. 

We also have to commend the Clinton News Network for allowing this special to air.  Not only did they allow it to air, but they also publicized it so you have to wonder how much control Ted Turner still has there.  They may not have done anyone any favors here, since we don't know how many people watched, but it did air and that's a plus. 

Now, if only the Alphabet networks would do something like this, we could all calm down a little and take the nasty rhetoric out of it.

Never argue with an idiot.  They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

I'm waiting for someone to

I'm waiting for someone to demand that Beck be taken off the air for hate speech by daring to challege the Church of Gore.

Don't be silly!You'll certa

Don't be silly!

You'll certainly have to get Al Sharpton to declare him a racist and terrorist first!

Protocol, man! Protocol!

and hey! that wasn't REALLY a

and hey! that wasn't REALLY algore poo pooing kyoto,,,,it was a computerized version of him, before he invented the internet!!! yeah, thats the ticket!

Of course the dirty little

Of course the dirty little secret about the Global warming movement is for some of the things they want done to work..the people of the third world have to take it on the chin because they have to be denied even the chance to progress..because you can't have new roads,cities,airports,power stations and other modern convinces to help raise their quality of life because that would "hurt the environment" and another "inconvenient truth" is population control also would have to be enforced among them in order to help the environment...now that surly is more racist than "nappy headed hoes".

GW is just another of the hun

GW is just another of the hundreds of ways leftists, socialists, and liberals are using to try to keep themselves in some form of power.  It's not much different than telling small business owners they are looking out for their best interest, then taxing them into oblivion.

Texas has a population of nearly 21 million people, all of whom are ashamed to be from the same state as the Dixie Chicks. (IMAO.com)

Gore's hypocrisy

The statement by Gore is one of the reasons I'm not a supporter of him. I don't know much about him, but the statements he issued in 1997 are not much different from what Bush is saying now.

He seems to have changed course now, what political motivations he has, I don't know. I think you can make a case of him jumping on the GW bandwagon. It's quite possible that if he had gotten the presidency, he'd have done the same thing as Bush.

I have not talked a lot about the merits/demerits of the Kyoto protocol. I'll do so when I learn a bit more about it.

Here is all you really need t

Here is all you really need to know about the Kyoto Protocol:

1) Nations such as China, India, and Brazil are exempt;

and 2) Such issues like tropical deforestation (remember: farming is the most environmentally destructive activity we engage in, but I see no calls for the reduction of the food supply!) are addressed nowhere in the said Protocol.

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

Al Gore wrote a absurd psued

Al Gore wrote a absurd psuedo-enviromentalist book called "Earth in the Balance" in 1992 before he made the 1997 statement. Trust me, he is a True Believer and if he ever takes office (God forbid) he will do his best to carry out his tryanny exactly as he has said he will. He only says the opposite when it's politcially expident for him to do so.

Gore

I'm not sure what Gore is, but he doesn't appear to be a "believer".  Someone who believes wouldn't be living in a house, like he is.  Someone who believes, wouldn't be taking all these private planes to places.

After watching Gore implode, in 2000, I don't think he knows what he believes.  If he really, really believed, he would have done more, during the 90's, when he had the opportunity.  Clinton/Gore did nothing in 8 years in office, and yet he can claim to be a believer? 

I believe Gore is actually the Gore we see, an opportunist, someone that has ulterior motives in everything he does, and someone you just can't trust to tell you the truth.  His movie, which has made him famous now, just might end up being his downfall, because of the half-truths and exaggerations.  The only thing that will save him is he's a Liberal Democrat so the scrutiny of the MSM will be the last nail in his coffin.

Never argue with an idiot.  They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

 the Gore we see, an opportu

 the Gore we see, an opportunist   didn't he promise to dedicate himself to election reform?

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmous test for President.   

I was working but I Tivo'd

I was working but I Tivo'd it. I glad Glenn Beck was given the opportunity to air this. I thought the show reflected well what kind of mindless follow-the-leader attittude this global warming hysteria has become. Congrats to Beck and his production staff. And thank you CNN for airing it.

You raise a valid point, pbth

You raise a valid point, pbthinker.  On the one hand, I agree that Gore genuinely believes in his global warming message, and even admits to exaggerating it a bit to grab the public's attention. 

But, on the other hand, he doesn't give up any of his creature comforts to adi the cause.  One would expect a true believer -- a GW jedi knight, as it were --- would live the modified lifestyle to practice what he preaches.  Ed Begley Jr. does out in California, and thus, I feel, has greater credibility on the issue; I disagree with him, but I can respect his sincerity.

Prince Albert Gore was born and raised in the wealthy political class, and really doesn't know how the middle class works and lives.   Typically, these rich kids turn out ot be poor leaders, because they understand little about leading by example and making sacrifices for others.   The contradictions never dawn on them, or the sheep that follow them.

So, I think Gore is a believer, but he ain't ready for the GW monastery, and never will be.   

The show was good and Gore

The show was good and Gore was demonstrated to be the pompous self-defeating hypocrite he's been since forever. The 19,000 letters from scientists and climatologists disavowing the IPCC and the 2600 "scientists" behind the UN Funhouse Mirror Exercise was new to me. A lot of Beck's presentation glanced over strong counter-evidence like melting icecaps on Mars that demonstrate that it may be solar variations.

The FoxNEWS people are lying low on AGW for reasons beyond me. The political agenda of the IPCC backers is anti-capitalistic and hostile to private industry on every level. Also the AGW crowd is itching for massive funding derived from taxing rich nations. And the omission of mega-polluters like China, India, and other "developing nations" makes the IPCC a politicized joke, not science by any means.

Beck is relentlessly middle-brow and should let his excellent skeptics do more talking. The dishonesty of Gore is breathtaking, but follows his usual lyin' Al paradigm.

Glenn Beck - The only CNN guy I WANT to watch

I TiVoed this one! (Is "Tivoed" a word?)  I've been looking forward to this special since I stirred the pot as a 'Warming' skeptic in my local paper's Letter to the Editor section.

Anyway, I noticed that most of the cast of experts Beck used was from 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'.  Very good!

Come to the altar of Gore and "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"  Libs and their movies... I don't know... :)

Al Gore is the self-proclaime

Al Gore is the self-proclaimed Global Warming messiah.

If you want a good look (and a good laugh) at the essence of his Warming campaign check out South Park's "Manbearpig" episode ...

Here : http://mrtwig.net/ep/1006.html

Or here (if you want to stream the episode) : http://www.southparkx.net/episodes/1006-manbearpig

You can get a bit torrent client here : http://www.bittorrent.com/download.html

And the Real Player here (to play the .ram files) : http://www.real.com/

Be sure to download the (.RM) torrent and not the (.AVI) torrent ... it can take 30 minutes or more to get the .avi file (even though it will play in Windows Media Player).

Note : The VLC media player can play .rm files, too : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Does the Smoke have CO2?

I caught this the other night as well.  Probably the longest I've ever watched CNN in my life.  Also becoming a big Glen Beck fan!  I got my wife to watch and she is now totally on the non AGW side - I need to get her to watch the "Great Global Warming Swindle" and the CBC program "Doomsday Called Off".

The more I read about this (AGW) the loonier it seems - all smoke and mirrors and nothing of substance to support the A in AGW....

I'd agree with the majority o

I'd agree with the majority of what's said here... if Beck didn't use oil industry lobbyists/apologists and outright liars to make his point.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200705040001

(And please, read the link before bashing me.)

Uzumaki/Ayanami '08. Because a ninja and an Eva pilot can govern the nation better that what we have now...

I am curious about something:

I am curious about something:

(Note: I changed my oil last night myself, so my opinions might be invalidated,l since I clearly supported Hyper-Evil Big Oil.)

Why is it that even if one who questions man-made GW as much as filled up his vehicle with gasoline on his/her way to work, his opinions are invalidated as he obviously has connections to Hyper-Evil Big Oil...

...but we CANNOT at ANY COST whatsoever question the sources for funding of scientists who back the theory of man-made GW? 

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)