Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," raises the issue of global warming in a way that scares the bejeezus out of viewers, as it should since the consequences of global climate change are truly earth-shaking. The former Vice-President does a good job of presenting the graphic evidence, exquisite and terrifying pictures that document the melting of the polar ice caps and the effects on other species, new diseases, and rising ocean levels.

But, typically, the solutions Gore offers are standard Democratic Party fare. You'd never know by watching this film that Gore and Clinton ran this country for 8 years and that their policies -- as much as those of the Bush regime -- helped pave the way for the crisis we face today.

Gore never critiques the system causing the global ecological crisis. At one point, he even mourns the negative impact of global warming on U.S. oil pipelines. Oh, the horror! What it all comes down to, for Gore and the Democrats, is that we need to shift away from reliance on fossil fuels and tweak existing consumption patterns.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is due to release a report in Paris on Friday entitled Climate Change 2007 in which 2,500 scientists from 130 countries unequivocally state that the current trend towards potentially catastrophic global warming has been induced by human activity, which began with the dramatic increase in fossil fuel use during the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century.

A draft of the report, the fourth climate change assessment conducted by the IPCC, has been circulated among major news organizations over the past week.

"As we add to [greenhouse] gases, we are just doing the same thing as putting another blanket on our bed at night," said Sir David King, British chief government scientific adviser, in an interview with CBS News. "The consequences are that you get warmer, and that is as simple as it is."

Open this article for blogging, beginning at 10:15 a.m. ET.

10:13 a.m. I'm in the room, but you can view a live webcast here. I've just been handed hardcopies of the upcoming witness statements. If you can find them online anywhere, please post a link beneath this article.

10:15 a.m. Witness list: John Elwood, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Dept. of Justice

Hon. Mickey Edwards, former member of Congress, Aspen Institute

Karen J. Mathis, President, American Bar Association

Professor Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Assoc. Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Professor Charles Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Prior to this I just sat through a hearing which Pelosi scheduled 12 votes in the middle of, exactly as the Republicans used to do. Conyers subpoenaed no documents or people and put noone under oath. The media left in the middle because of all the votes. And the media was less than it had been when Conyers' hearings were unofficial minority affairs. The only difference was the presence of rightwing nuts at the witness table lying out from under oath. So, it is with some frustration and foreboding that I begin listening to this event. Blogging follows.

4:25 pm John Nichols introduces Chuck Collins and Congress Members Barbara Lee, Steve Cohen, John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Bob Filner, and Maurice Hinchey.

Collins spoke first. The Institute for Policy Studies ("Defining the Issues") is sending this out live to radio stations.

Collins suggests holding hearings off the Hill around the country, and tying them to activism. Fine. But how about using them to demand truth out of a criminal White House?

B. Lee spoke next, then Conyers. Conyers described signing statements as Bush placing himself above the law.