Kerry, Gingrich shed light, not heat, on climate debate

WASHINGTON — If the United States could harness the energy expended on global warming by once-high-flying politicians fighting for relevance, our reliance on fossil fuels might well be overcome.

John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and possible 2008 presidential candidate, met Tuesday in a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate to discuss the best way to respond to global climate change.

That — thanks to another former presidential candidate-turned-eco-warrior, Al Gore — has become one of Washington's hottest issues.

Like Gore, Kerry and Gingrich are touting books on the subject.

Kerry just released "This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future," co-authored with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Gingrich's "Contract With the Earth," a play on the wording of his last big hit, the 1994 Republican platform Contract with America, is out next fall.

It would be easy to mock Gingrich and Kerry for all the reasons they're usually mocked: Gingrich's near-limitless self-regard — on Tuesday he compared himself twice to Theodore Roosevelt — and Kerry's long-windedness.

"I'll try to wrap this up very quickly," Kerry said after a lengthy lecture on carbon emissions and then rambled on for several more minutes, prompting a gentle interruption from the moderator, to which Kerry responded, "I will wind up," then talked some more.

But in fairness, both brought to the nearly two-hour debate — sponsored by New York University's nonpartisan John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress — attributes typically not seen in party-sponsored talking points that generally pass for debate in Washington:

• Ideas buttressed by facts.

• A willingness to recognize the limitations of rigid ideologies.

• An interest in listening as well as speaking.

• Quick wits.

They interrupted each other frequently, not to shout the other down but to question and illuminate.

Gingrich, going further than many Republicans, conceded that climate change is due at least in part to human behavior. He even said he agreed with "60 percent" of Kerry's book, "which is more than most of my conservative friends would expect."

He called for market-oriented solutions led by entrepreneurs lassoing the possibilities of science and technology.

Kerry, saying more urgent action is needed, endorsed setting government standards for carbon emissions that free markets could find ways to meet.

Gingrich called Kerry's approach "regulation and litigation ... the least effective method of getting to solutions."

Kerry suggested Gingrich's approach was "like saying, 'Barry Bonds, go investigate steroids.' "

At one point, Gingrich said, "We're not arguing over whether it [a plan to fight global warming] should be urgent. We're arguing over whether bureaucracy and litigation is a better way to be urgent or whether science and technology translated by entrepreneurs into products is a better way to be urgent."

Kerry said that scientists, along with a recent United Nations study, have convinced him global warming is such an immediate threat that the nation and the world have no time to waste. By contrast, he said Gingrich's market-based plan would move too slowly to counter warming of the planet.

Once they finished, the pair took questions. One listener said he thought both had offered good ideas and wondered whether, given the issue's seriousness, their dialogue couldn't lay the ground for compromise.

"I'll lay you odds, if Newt Gingrich and I were responsible for making this happen, we could get in a room and in a week we'd come up with a program and make it happen," Kerry said.

Material from the Chicago Tribune is included in this report.