Al Gore: Part of the Wurzel?

I unfortunately missed Al Gore's speach in Washington DC on Thursday. When expressing my disappointment, an friend told me that going would be a waste, that Al Gore missed his chance when he lost in 2000. I disagreed whole-heartedly that Al Gore only had one chance for greatness for a number of reasons. Do I agree he missed a chance? Of course. As president Al Gore would have had the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices and I don't believe there is any power greater than that single one that comes with being the "Big Guy" here in the US. However, if you can put the Supreme Court aside for just a couple of minutes. I still think it's important especially when considering the crossroads our court is at. I think Al Gore is having a greater impact on energy and climate change than he ever would have as President. I believe this for one simple reason, the Al Gore we see today is animated and passionate and speaks his mind because he does not have to cater to big industry interests like coal, oil, auto and other transportation systems. His speech on Thursday which I've watched online only supports this claim.

Global Warming is well a global issue. Sorry if that seems obvious to some folks. But you cannot solve the current climate crisis if you will, while catering to every special interest at the same time. If you do, as Gore said, you ending up solving one problem with another. We love our cars, I don't doubt that, so we need more oil and it's expensive these days. Problem and solution #1,2,3: "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet." These are all solutions to some problem while creating more problems. I agree we need to change all of these things. Yeah, we need to get off fossil fuels, to me that's old news. I know that the potential for solar and wind is there to power the whole world, but Al Gore only talks briefly about the lack of infrastructure to do this (and it's dropping cost and the jobs it will provide). In the 10 year plan, we need to work with what we've got right now, which is fossil fuels, while moving towards a universal grid that can harness all this wind and solar potential.

An important thing to acknowledge is that we can't invest another dime in exploring for more fossil fuels. Drilling for oil off our coasts or in the Arctic doesn't the solve the problem that we are passed peak oil production. The supply of fossil fuels is declining, it does not matter how much we drill for it. Blowing up mountains for coal to power a new coal-fired power plant doesn't make sense either. It doesn't lower our costs. When instead we could be investing that money in never needing fossil fuels. Then investment needs to be in the move from fossil fuels and investment in solar and wind technology. When the opportunity for innovation arises we need to take it. And not turn to old solutions for the new problems we face today. For starters, if our cars had better fuel economy, ie we could get more miles per gallon (which we can and should) this would be a good place to start in revamping our oil and gas strategy over borrowing money from China, to get more gas from the Persian Gulf. Eventually, maybe we'll be plugging in our cars, but that still requires electricity. We need to invest in new technology, not old technology like coal-fired power plants. But I digress.

Al Gore's speech and impact:



Yeah I think it's ambitious. But it's better than what our world leaders are coming up with. The G8 Summit's energy plan is like a teenager taking baby steps. I commend Al Gore and the impact he is having on global warming. His movie "An Inconvenient Truth," opened the eyes of the world to the climate crisis. I don't believe we can sleep any longer when climate is actually changing. From Hurricane Katrina to fires in San Diego and flooding in the Midwest, the climate is changing. We can't hope that people wake up tomorrow and maybe decide to reduce their carbon footprint. A voluntary system like that proposed by the G8 will work for some, but not everyone. We need the likes of Al Gore, who's unbridled and special interest free vision will guide our next president to take on the biggest problem our society and the world has ever seen. I just don't think you can take on these issues while catering to the coal industry or oil industry first and unfortunately, our Democratic or Republican President caters to everyone (it's not a special interest kind of job). So yeah, Al Gore blew his chance to be that guy. But I do believe a person's character is determined not when they blow that big chance, but in what they do afterwards. Al Gore brushed himself off and decided to take on the biggest issue out there. Good for him.