AL GORE: Moving Beyond Kyoto
by Pamela LeaveyAl Gore penned an OP/ED in today’s N.Y. Times: Moving Beyond Kyoto. Gore says…
WE — the human species — have arrived at a moment of decision. It is unprecedented and even laughable for us to imagine that we could actually make a conscious choice as a species, but that is nevertheless the challenge that is before us.
Our home — Earth — is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.
Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we don’t stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase to levels humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate balance on which our civilization depends.
In the last 150 years, in an accelerating frenzy, we have been removing increasing quantities of carbon from the ground — mainly in the form of coal and oil — and burning it in ways that dump 70 million tons of CO2 every 24 hours into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The concentrations of CO2 — having never risen above 300 parts per million for at least a million years — have been driven from 280 parts per million at the beginning of the coal boom to 383 parts per million this year.
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Like how BushCO handled a Cat 5 hurricane?
The next president definitely needs to lead this fight and quickly.
Al, If you want it done right, you will have to do it yourself.
A bit timidly, perhaps, but big Al just rallied Earth to action. That makes him the only person of any political stature that I can think of that would qualify as a world leader. I hope that he will continue to develop this theme.
That would make him the best candidate for President that I’ve yet seen. Sadly, exposing more of that kind of vision might actually make it harder to get elected. I think that someone has to get elected as President first and then sneak up on the larger role.
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It is much easier for Al Gore to stand before the crowd and shout “we must do something or it’s the end of the world” and hope someone else will do the dirty deed and make it work in progress…
than to stand up and be a true leader and make it happen.
Dear Al Gore,
My respect and admiration for you is dying about as fast as a weed would after being sprayed with Roundup weed killer. If you truely believe what you preach to the congregation the stop with the wimp stuff and stand up like a man… a true leader… BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!
There is really no other choice for you, and if what you say is true, there is really no other choice for us. Anybody can holler “do something”… the real heroes DO IT!
Bryan S.
A real world leader as President of the United States that believes as Al Gore preaches would…
1. Stop wasting time and lives and money on Iraq.
2. Spend this country’s effort on energy sources and methods that are “green friendly”.
3. Lead the world to do the same.
and the results would be…
1. The war effort in Iraq would cease. Lives would be saved, money would be saved, and in the long run Iraq and the United States would be the better for doing so.
2. Alternate energy producing methods (other than carbon dioxide producing) would be developed. In doing so jobs would be on the increase, the U.S. economy would prosper, and the carbon dioxide producing countries would wither in their own pollution.
3. The U.S. would once more be looked at by the world as a “lead” country and regain the respect that Bush and his bunch of greedy bastards have collaterly squandered.
The list goes on and on in a favorable manner. It takes guts to do this… a true leader! Words, a concert here and there, a high priced book that most of the world will never read and may never hear of it, shouting into the empty darkness from the crowd to ears that are deaf, etc just won’t do it Mr. Al Gore! Neither will any of the current candidates that are more interested in their own ego than the good of the world or it’s inhabitants. Could we as a people of this Earth really have a chance in hell of survival with another “Bush” for 8 years? Year 2016 ? ? ?
Chances are, if you are correct, you won’t get a chance to answer that question.
So, like it or not, the world’s whole survival rests upon your shoulders.
I blogged about this op-ed piece on my website Is It Getting Warmer? as well.
I wish Mr. Gore well in his efforts to have a successful concert and I hope that the careers of the entertainers prosper.
I do have some problems with some of Mr. Gore’s statements regarding comparisons to other planetary bodies. He is walking a thin line doing comparisons with Venus and Mercury and opens himself up to a host of arguments. Can you just hear Jay Leno: “News flash from Venus – SUVs are no longer allowed on the streets of the cities in Venus.” He also gives credibility to others to discuss the warming on other planetary bodies (which I have also blogged about).
Also, what happened to Mr. Gore’s claims of calamity if we don’t do dramatic changes? There was a little bit here but I would have expected more.
Bryan,
I know the frustration. I also have some respect for the fact that Al Gore has been through plenty of that pressure cooking, stressed out life. He has a right to wonder if his own health and happiness don’t count. And I think Americans need to be a little less critical of their elected officials in the areas that don’t count. A little less strident or sarcastic even in the areas that do count. If we could do that, we might have more choices in leadership.
I am not discounting completely that Gore is immune to a grassroots appeal. I think it needs to be VERY strong and VERY positive. We will support him, we will not tear him down, we will elect other candidates who will work with him.
Sean,
I agree with you a lot. Mostly because there are many clearly man made ecological disasters that are already causing problems and will become serious enough that global warming disasters will just finish off the remaining human population. Or at least decimate it to very small and isolated communities.
I have a worst case scenario of a more intelligent species from elsewhere coming upon earth in the future, with all the satellites orbiting, the ruins of our infrastructure and technology, and just a few remaining humans – much like the ships that found the Easter Islanders descendents.
We certainly should address the global warming issue. Deforestation, soil erosion, water depletion, over logging, mining and fishing, air, soil and water pollution are the rest of the ecological pack that threatens earth, humanity and the future.