On July 18th, 2008, Al Gore took a bold step forward...and a much needed one (1).
In a speech in Washington, DC he laid out what many of us have already seen happening and have already realized: the situation in this country is rapidly spinning out of control. While politicians are saying that the recession is all in our heads and we're a "nation of whiners," people are struggling to find enough money for food and gasoline.
He makes references to the slow collapse of our economy, namely the descent of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as well as the stress that airlines and car manufacturers are under. He talks also about the climate crisis and how it's progressing faster than we predicted. As he states, "According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland's largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City."
He paints a bleak picture of our current situation, but then again, anyone who's been paying attention can see that we're in a hell of a lot of trouble as a country.
When he turns to possible solutions, he makes several excellent points: "it seems to me that all these problems are bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for them...to offer old solutions to each crisis separately - without taking the others into account. And these outdated proposals have not only been ineffective - they almost always make the other crises even worse."
But what to do? Here is where Al Gore makes another challenge to America, very similar to the one he made when he agreed to make his slide show about global warming into a major motion picture. He challenges us to think outside the box, to set big goals, to see the surprisingly simple "common thread" to our problems, and to "commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."
Never has this been proposed and endorsed by such a prominent figure, though it has been proposed before. Scientists and activists the country over have proposed this very solution and have plans in place that could do it. I truly hope that Obama, as a presidential hopeful, will rise to this challenge as well.
It's emminently doable and a much more permanent solution than any offshore drilling could ever be. If you think about it, the estimates say that offshore drilling won't bring gas prices down until 2015 at the least, so wouldn't it be better to have a solution that will take less time, with less risk of environmental harm, and actually END our need for more oil?
(1) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92638501&ft=1&f=102...
