Notes From Al Gore's Climate Speech

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Nobody reading this--in fact, nobody alive today will run out of fossil fuels. We may run out of the money to buy fossil fuel products, but not the fossil fuels themselves. So, it is a question of whether or not we care about the welfare of future generations that we will or will not get serious about energy conservation and alternative energy sources. We owe the many wonderful inventions and processes we enjoy today to those who came before us and did not have them during their lifetimes. Our question is do we appreciate them enough to want to allow future generations to also enjoy them and the things not available to us, but could be made possible by our actions or inactions today.

Bill Gale of TN 10:47AM August 04, 2008

Mr. Gore is wrong about the necessary technology.
http://nlspropulsion.net/Documents/Free%20Power%20Forever.pdf

mthomas of MD 12:01PM July 20, 2008

Someone had to say what Al Gore is saying; someone has to be intellectually honest and willing to speak out loudly and clearly as Al Gore is doing.
Emergent and convergent global challenges, ominously looming before the family of humanity on the far horizon, threaten the future of human civilizations, life as know it and the efficacy of Earth as a fit place for human habitation:
the human overpopulation of Earth;
the pending loss of adequate fossil fuel reserves and other vital energy sources due to unrestrained international plundering;
the dissipation of limited resources due to reckless per-capita overconsumption;
the problems of global warming in particular and climate change more generally; and
the insufficiently bridled pollution of air, land and water as well as precipitating irreversible degradation of the planet's frangible ecosystems services due to relentless industrialization and unregulated economic globalization.
Who knows, perhaps necessary change is in the offing.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

Steven Earl Salmony of NC 3:06PM July 18, 2008

Someone had to say what Al Gore is saying; someone has to be intellectually honest and willing to speak out and clearly as Al Gore is doing.
Emergent and convergent global challenges, ominously looming before the family of humanity on the far horizon, threaten the future of human civilizations, life as know it and the efficacy of Earth as a fit place for human habitation:
the human overpopulation of Earth;
the pending loss of adequate fossil fuel reserves and other vital energy sources due to unrestrained international plundering;
the dissipation of limited resources due to reckless per-capita overconsumption;
the problems of global warming in particular and climate change more generally; and
the insufficiently bridled pollution of air, land and water as well as precipitating irreversible degradation of the planet's frangible ecosystems services due to relentless industrialization and unregulated economic globalization.
Who knows, perhaps necessary change is in the offing.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

Steven Earl Salmony of NC 11:35AM July 18, 2008

Okay, so which of you want to start forking over your hard earned money to pay the $3 trillion (and it is bound to be more expensive than that) tab to get us off of oil and onto solar and wind?
Governments and idiots who have faith in government have it backwards. You don't kill yourself in order to save yourself. Toyota is making money hand over fist with the Prius, yet they still make SUV's and gas powered cars. Now, why do you think that is? Because Toyota understands that even though the Prius is a hotselling commodity, it by no way is hot enough to bring in the kinds of money needed to sustain the entire business. On top of that, Toyota's technology is still nascent. As they work out redundancies and inefficiencies, over time it will become more viable that the Prius, and more hybrid vehicles, will become so economical for Toyota to make that they will be able to afford ending their production of gas only vehicles and concentrate on hybrids only. This is exactly what the government must do. It must exhaust ALL natural energy sources first, but at the same time, it can provide funding for research into alternative energies. You cannot do one without the other. Any other way, as Al Gore suggests, is complete suicide.

Chris of AZ 10:54AM July 18, 2008

Al Gore's speech was an excellent clarion call to arms on the need to take bold action on an array of problems surrounding energy, climate change, and ecologically sustainable global economic growth. That having been said, I think that it was a tactical mistake for him to omit mentioning any form of carbon-free nuclear power as an integral component of a whole portfolio of energy technologies that must be utilized to help solve these problems. In particular, there is a new type of nuclear energy technology that truly has the promise of being clean, green, and potentially low-cost. Unlike fission and fusion, which are based on what physicists call the "strong interaction," this new, little-mentioned technology is based on the "weak interaction." It is called Low Energy Nuclear Reactions or LENRs. It has radical advantages (no dangerous radiation and no radioactive waste) over nuclear fission and "hot" fusion technologies. However, this is a very disruptive technology in that it potentially threatens many vested interest groups in multiple industries all over the world, such as battery and fuel cell manufacturers in the near-term and in the long term, the oil industry. Just hit the Google and Yahoo search engines if you wish to learn more --- Lewis Larsen, Lattice Energy LLC.

Lewis Larsen of IL 9:18AM July 18, 2008

Read Freiman's blog to see what Gore is really up to. This guy will go down as the biggest crook of all time.
http://www.myspace.com/gafreiman

Steven of WA 8:56AM July 18, 2008

Al Gore won the Presidency. One of the biggest mistakes in American history was to not put him in office. We now hold this truth to be self evident....
As an old and well-experienced Environmental Engineer, I find it appalling to read the ignorance displayed on blogs by those who can offer only personal attacks and unscientific insight into such a huge American and world crisis.

Andy of FL 6:45AM July 18, 2008

"Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years." - Gore's statement is the most exciting thing I've heard any public official say, ever. It marks a turning point. To say something that audacious out loud in front of the nation is to make it possible. Finally.
You might enjoy reading all of Gore's speech:
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/17/climate.speech.pdf
There's a great video on youtube of a fellow asking the question - "What's the worst that could happen?" - about climate change. He goes through the different options, and comes to the conclusion that even if climate change is bogus or not a particularly big deal, getting free from fossil fuels would have many more benefits than draw backs: much cleaner air, healthier cities, healthier people, healthier trees and wildlife, cleaner water, no more mountaintop removal coal mining, etc. etc. as well as ameliorating the national security issues highlighted by Gore in this speech & improving our relations with the rest of the world. It's an interesting watch: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ

Chris of VA 11:47PM July 17, 2008

Solar enery generating electricity, are they doing it now and selling it ? I can get it to heat my water in the hot water tank, partially.
Wind energy for generating electricity; what wind minimum velocity is required ? What if it goes below that ?
Does Gore have solar heating at his home.
Does he have a wind enegy generator supplying his home or his
electric company, constantly ?
This guy is pert of the problem, not the solution to our current
crises. Thank God he never became President, he lives in a dream world.

Denny Ferguson of 10:44PM July 17, 2008