Gore explains the dangers of our current energy path
This is the first of two posts on Gore’s op-ed in the NYTimes.
On the right hand side of this website is a list of “private leaders.” Al Gore is sitting at the top of that list for a reason. In today’s NYTimes, Gore has a tremendous op-ed where he describes the existential dangers to both our environment and national security resulting from our dependence on fossil fuels, and lays out a clear path to solve the crisis. While we suggest you read the op-ed yourself, here is the first of two posts that will give a general overview:
Gore begins by noting that the “world authority on the climate crisis, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, now says that the evidence [of climate change] is ‘unequivocal.’”
In addressing the naysayers, skeptics, and deniers, Gore asks, “please wake up. Our children and grandchildren need you to hear and recognize the truth of our situation, before it is too late.”
Gore then makes a point that we’ve discussed repeatedly around here, which is, that the steps we must take to address climate change are the same steps we must take to improve our national security, and even our economy. That is, eliminate our consumption and dependency on a fuel that is destroying the environment, funding petro-states and terrorists, and weakening our domestic economy.
Illustrating the difficulty it will be to get the country to actually follow-through on the decision to act, Gore notes that “Thirty-five years ago this past week, President Richard Nixon created Project Independence, which set a national goal that, within seven years, the United States would develop ‘the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy sources.’ Yet today, after all six of the presidents succeeding Nixon repeated some version of his goal, our dependence has doubled from one-third to nearly two-thirds.”
This is the same concern that we have now– which is, now that gas and energy prices have fallen, the immediate fears of September 11 and Middle Eastern upheaval have grown more distant, and the average citizen is more concerned with the current state of the economy, will we be able to keep our eye on the big picture of completely changing our energy policy? (This is made even more difficult given that the effects of climate change are better seen by scientists using satellites and hard data, than by average citizens sitting in their climate controlled homes or offices.)
Gore also warns not to be distracted by promises that we can continue on the old path of burning fossil fuels, but do so in a “clean” manner. “Some have come up with even dirtier and more expensive new ways to extract the same old fuels, like coal liquids, oil shale, tar sands and ‘clean coal’ technology,” Gore notes. “But in every case, the resources in question are much too expensive or polluting, or, in the case of ‘clean coal,’ too imaginary to make a difference in protecting either our national security or the global climate.”
While Gore concedes that if coal was able to be made clean in the real world, he would support it, he warns that “until that day comes, we simply cannot any longer base the strategy for human survival on a cynical and self-interested illusion.”
In our next post we will describe the 5 point path that Gore lays out to solve this crisis.
- Similar Posts:
- Gore Testifies on Climate Change Before Senate Committee
- Al Gore calls for abandonment of fossil fuels in 10 years
- Gore calls for ‘civil disobedience’
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