Ellee Seymour

How long will it be before Al Gore is leading Barack Obama’s climate change programme?

The Nobel Peace Prize winner described his frustrations at being unable to persuade the Bush administration to take climate change seriously when I heard him speak in Cambridge.

Treehugger has a report of Obama saying he wants Gore as part of his team to address global warming:

“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will  be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He’s somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I’m already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now.”

Who better to lead on this than Gore? He will be inspirational.

Here is what Obama plans to do to combate climate change. He will move the U.S. away from petroleum as its primary energy source and towards renewable energy, advanced biofuels and efficiency and low greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies.

He plans to cap emissions such as carbon dioxide and auction greenhouse gas credits to encourage a fundamental transition away from high emitting industries to low-carbon alternatives. He believes such a policy would be more aggressive than any other cap-and-trade system proposed.

As part of that policy shift, renewable energy, natural gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and advanced electricity transmission are forecast to receive a major boost. Obama has proposed using $150 billion from the emissions auction to fund such low-carbon alternatives over the next decade.

I plan to be writing much more on climate change from now on. We need to understand and debate this very important topic.

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A thousands thanks to Iain Dale for his spectacular plug of my blog on Woman’s Hour today.

He was taking part in a discussion on political blogs after Hazel Blears accused political bloggers of undermining democracy.

The ill informed Communities Minister made a speech to the Hansard Society saying:

“Mostly, political blogs are written by people with disdain for  the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy.

“Until political blogging ‘adds value’ to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.”

While I don’t match her description (maybe one day I will scoop a scandal) it’s clear that some bloggers have got under her skin, particularly the gossipy Guido Fawkes. But she should not insult the intelligence of readers. Anyone can make up their own mind up about what they read on a blog. Instead of becoming hysterical, Blears should try engaging in a dialogue with those who criticise her and her government.

Just like a puppy is not just for Christmas, neither should politicians only write blogs in the run up to an election, which Hazel did – very badly – during the Labour Party deputy leadership in 2007. At the time, I described it as thus: “Hazel Blears’ blog was quite dreary and did not allow comments to  be posted.”

Why not give it another try Hazel? Try and win people round rather than criticise them.

What Blears has done is highlighted the fear Labour has of right wing blogs and how influential they might be. The Labour Party has no Iain Dale to fight its corner, it has been poorly represented by left wing bloggers.

Bloggers will always hold government and politicians to account. And Blears had better get used to the idea. According to Wikipedia, she has never voted on a transparent Parliament. Need I say more?

Back to my mention on the radio today. Iain was asked to plug a blog and, because he was on Woman’s Hour, he chose mine, describing it as “very engaging” with “tremendously moving” posts about social issues and my personal life. You can listen to the radio discussion here. This all came as a complete surprise to me, so thanks again Iain.

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