Al Gore Urges U.S. Energy Revolution to Save the U.S. -and- Human Civilization


		Al Gore Urges U.S. Energy Revolution to Save the U.S. -and- Human Civilization (Top Posts - Social/Legal - 071808) - - - In short, Al Gore states that the survival of the U.S. -and-, ultimately, the entire world is at risk due to the consequences of the U.S. and world's reliance on ever- increasing usage of carbon-emitting fuels which are contributing to economic, eco- logical, and national security crises which will only worsen -if- drastic measures aren't taken in the very near future. Specifically, Al Gore urges the U.S. to aban- don all carbon-emitting forms of electricity production within 10 years. - - - July 17, 2008 Gore Urges Change to Dodge an Energy Crisis by Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gore.html?hp - - - Excerpts: WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm. Like a modern Jeremiah, Mr. Gore called down thunder to justify the spending of trillions of dollars to remake the American power system, a plan fraught with technological and political challenges that goes far beyond the changes recently debated in Congress and by world leaders. "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," he said in a midday speech to a friendly crowd of mostly young sup- porters in Washington. "And even more -- if more should be required -- the future of human civilization is at stake." Mr. Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his environmental advocacy, said in an interview that he hoped to raise the alarm so that the next president, whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain, could rally Congress and the nation to action. He disavowed any interest in returning to elective office. His approach, which would require abandoning old-fashioned, coal-fired power plants, goes be- yond what even the most audacious scientists and entrepreneurs have proposed, as a means, he said, of jolting the world out of old ways of thinking. Without great dreams, he said, great deeds are never achieved, citing the quest for the Moon in the 1960s. "I see my role as enlarging the political space in which Senator Obama or Senator McCain can con- front this issue as president next year," Mr. Gore said. He said the United States and the rest of the world were facing unprecedented problems, including growing demand for electricity, dangerous changes in the climate driven largely by emissions of carbon dioxide and political instability in regions that pro- duce much of the world's oil. "When we look at all three of these seemingly in- tractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges -- the economic, environmental and national security crises," Mr. Gore said. "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change." His solution was to do away with all carbon-emit- ting forms of electricity production in the United States within 10 years, replacing them with alter- natives like solar, wind and geothermal power, conservation and so-called clean-coal technology in which all carbon emissions from the burning of coal are captured and stored. ... He said he envisioned nuclear power retaining its current share of domestic electricity genera- tion, about 20 percent. Coal, which now produces about half of American electricity, would dwindle, while renewable sources, now producing less than 3 percent of the nation's electricity, would rapidly grow. (Natural gas and hydroelectric dams provide most of the remainder of the nation's electricity, relatively little of which comes from burning oil.) Mr. Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Prize last October, is the most vocal in a growing chorus calling for a green energy revolution. The Texas oilman Boone Pickens has proposed converting a large portion of the American transportation fleet to run on compressed natural gas while spending billions on new wind farms to produce electricity. ... "To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider seriously what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in less than 10 years," he said. He noted that the United States uses only a tiny fraction of the wind, solar and geothermal power available. He said entrepreneurs were investing billions of dollars in new technology and rapidly bringing down the cost of all alternative energy sources. ... - - - end excerpts - - - - - - July 18, 2008 Money talks on climate change http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/18/algore.energyefficiency - - - Excerpts: ... Whereas environmentalists have sometimes seemed long on righteousness and short on numbers, Gore backed his case for renewable electricity with logical case studies. Electricity production is responsible for one- third of US global warming emissions. He explained the math of clean alternatives like solar and wind energy in easy terms: o 40 minutes of sun on the surface of the planet could power one year of electricity in the US; o one day of plains-state wind could do the same. o And - quite the inverse of coal or oil-based power - as the demand for these technologies increases, their price drops. ... An appeal for investment in clean technology appeals to both market-savvy conservatives and save-the-whales liberals. Ultimately, the kind of investments called for by Gore and other groups, like the interdisciplinary Apollo Alliance - named for the historic mission set by president John Kennedy in 1960 - will o stop the haemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs; o repair America's leaking, creaky infrastruc- ture; o and place the US on a more independent course while taking new energy technolo- gies to scale. ... as the price of oil soars ever higher and the likelihood of a price on carbon sinks in, mar- kets are responding, and billions of dollars are flowing into research and development for renewables - even at the largest oil companies. ... - - - end excerpts - - -