U.N. Global Warming Report Puts Heat On 2008 Candidates

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put the world scientific community's stamp on the state of climate science, and the message was clear: Global warming threatens all of us, and we need to act quickly to stop pumping so much greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere.

While the leading Democratic contenders for the 2008 presidential nomination have all laid out detailed plans for transforming the nation's economy to run on low-carbon fuel, and most Republicans talk about "energy independence," it's far from clear that there will be the political support needed to pass effective global warming legislation, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Even Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has published an energy and climate plan that is among the most aggressive on the books, seemed to suggest that the politics could be thorny enough to result in compromise that won't satisfy advocates.

And several Republicans -- all, with the exception of Sen. John McCain and to a lesser extent Gov. Mike Huckabee -- mostly avoid dealing with the issue of global warming in any direct way.

Politics is politics. As Al Gore says, political will is a renewable resource. If the voters demand action, the politicians will respond.

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