Oprah Sees Manhattan Under Water, Pleads for People to See Al Gore Film on DVD

October 27th, 2006 8:19 AM

On Monday's edition of Oprah, devoted to "Moms Around the World," Oprah Winfrey talked to an Eskimo mom, Mary Swisher, about the challenging life in Kotzebue, Alaska, but Winfrey turned the conversation to how global warming is ruining an Alaskan town, and then pleaded for everyone in the audience to see Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, "coming out on DVD November 21st," because it warns that "millions of people are going to have to move" when the glaciers melt, "including Manhattan, where the water's gonna rise."

After talking to Swisher about the high cost of groceries in isolated Kotzebue, where the food is flown in daily, and exotic Eskimo cuisine, which Oprah refused to try on camera, she asked "So do you see evidence of global warming where you live?" Swisher said yes, that the residents of the town of Kivalina are going to have to move in the next year oir two since waves crash at their door and global warming has "eaten away their beach."

Oprah then unreeled the speech: "If everybody has not seen [An] Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s documentary, which is coming out on DVD November 21st, you should because that’s what he describes in the documentary, that that is what is going to happen all over the world as the glaciers melt, the water’s gonna rise, and people in communities where they’re located next to the ocean, next to the shore, all of these millions of people are going to have to move at some point, if something isn’t done, including Manhattan, where the waters’s gonna rise. So thank you very much for being here to share."

Swisher replied: "Thank you for having me."

Oprah concluded over applause on the way to a commercial break: "It’s happening, global warming."

By the way, Oprah also cheered on new Chinese billionaire Cheung Yan as a mom doing it for herself, and interview Norwegian radio host Trine Grung, who went into elaborate detail about how generous the government benefits are in Norway, with a year of maternity leave, and roughly $100-a-month benefits to parents of young children, and "free health care" for the young children, and 20 days a year of sick leave to take care of children. It’s a "very liberal country," she boasted. She also noted all the moms breast-feed in public without a problem and people are very slow to marry – Grung has a male companion of 11 years, but their kids keeping asking when they’re going to get married. It’s not completely liberal there, however. You can't name your child "Oprah" without government permission, and Grung touted how she was strict, and American moms were too lax, since she rules: "No peanut butter ever in the house."

(Hat tip to Mrs. Graham, who just found all this husband-infuriating stuff on the TiVo.)