Gore's speech on the env't a call to arms

Above is Al Gore's speech on the environment that he delivered earlier today at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall in Washington, D.C. (It's a little over 27:00 long, but it's well worth a close listen.)

Gore was no bore - he cut right to the chase not long after taking the stage: "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's got to change."

Then Gore dropped a whopper: "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." Woot! It's about time someone said it.

Now that is called political courage. Too bad it's coming from a former politician, but I'll take whatever I can get. (How long do you think it will take before the next, trite Al Gore Electricity Bill story will make headlines? Drudge is probably lubing himself up right now.)

Many, many people have expressed to me the opinion that Gore can make a much bigger difference outside of our government than in it, and up until now, I've disagreed, sometimes vehemently. But, those people were right - Gore is no longer constrained by the endless, incessant deal making and bargaining that hamstrings our political leaders in Washington.

The minute I heard his proposal that we should be using "carbon-free sources within 10 years," I yelled... well, I won't tell you what I yelled, but it's about time someone take an aggressive stance toward cutting fossil fuels instead of doing a political dance and just enough to get a few more votes.

Color me underfreakingwhelmed when I hear our politicians in Washington patting themselves on the back (and more recently, the G8 leaders) by pledging to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050. BFD. We need a much more aggressive approach to a problem that threatens every living thing on this planet.

I've said it many times, and it bears repeating here - I'm sick and tired of hearing global warming deniers (or selfish people who flat-out don't care) bring up India and China whenever the topic of global warming comes up. I guess American Leadership is a concept that's completely foreign to them. Maybe, just maybe, if China and India see us taking an aggressive approach to this problem, we will kick the last leg out from under their platforms of resistance, and more pressure can be brought to bear on them to curb their fossil fuel consumption.

Gore echoed this sentiment during his speech, and I had a big smile on my face when I heard him say it (At around the 24:20 mark of the speech):

...in fact, we must move first, [Emphasis his] because that's the key for getting other to follow, and moving first is in our own national interest.

And it's people like Gore who are going to help get it done. Part of me hopes that Gore is a part of a would-be Obama administration, & part of me hopes not, because that just gives the Grand Old Polluters ammunition; as Bill Maher said during his Decider show last year, when the GOP attacks Gore, they unfortunately sometimes succeed in poisoning the debate on global warming.

In a show of bipartisanship, I was happy to hear Gore mention Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. It's worth noting that Barr historically was no friend of the Clinton administration, to put it mildly. But, Gore seems to be moving above politics now, at least to a point. He's not completely bipartisan right now, nor can he be, especially when the lion's share of green legislators in Congress have a "D" after their names.

I'm very proud to have cast my vote for Gore in 2000, and I hope and pray that he does some day decide to take the plunge and run for president again. He's certainly young enough to do it, but for now, I hope he continues to give speeches like the one above while continuing to make a difference outside of government. I also can't help but wonder what sort of country we'd be living in had the Supreme Court not put a stop to the Florida recounts in the fall of 2000.

I urge all of you to do three things after watching this video:

1. Write your elected leaders and implore them to back the Gore plan to aggressively develop alternative energy sources. Pledging to halve our emissions by 2050 is no plan at all. (I'll be sharing my letters to my elected legislators shortly.)

2. Look at what you consume, use and throw away, and make the move to greener products where you can, and recycle anything that can be recycled. Don't buy into the bunk that "one person can't make a difference." Imagine if everyone in China had that attitude? That would amount to 1.5 billion bad attitudes.

3. Visit the We Can Solve It homepage for more ideas on what you can do, including this page to receive e-mail updates from the site.