Arguments for a Carbon-Free Future

In case you didn't hear, Gore made a speech in Washington today beseeching the political community to take action towards a plan to make the US 100% carbon energy free by ten years time.

He appealed his case by beginning with his perception that: "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said. He referenced current rising gas prices, mortgage problems, war, expendable income and even weather. It is Gore's stance the USA's over-reliance on carbon based fuels are the core of the economic, environmental and national security challenges. National security will no longer just be concerned with bad relations in the Middle East, but the world will be left under pressure to take care of what he refers to "Climate Refugees".

At this point most of the country would probably agree the economic difficulties now experienced in every day life are a result of reliance on other country's rising need for the same fuels we have always used for our daily energy needs. Gore argues where before people legislators might have used expense as an excuse NOT to convert to renewable resources, with further technological advancements the price comes down dramatically.

He argues: "To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the cost of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world."

There is an underlying tone that if the USA is really a World Leader, then why haven't we come to bat for the future and instead keep relying on out-dated technology in this area. He does reference the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen in 2009, where the Copenhagen Climate Council hopes to present a plan to the UN to make the whole world community drastically less reliant on carbon-based energy. He dares the USA to stand up there and make a commitment, saying we are the ones with the power to change history. To bring this point home he speaks of JFK's commitment to put a man on the moon in ten years, a goal which accomplished before the deadline. He shares a memory of watching the space shuttle take off and paints it as a magical moment in United States History, and a great advance in US science and technology.

Besides rising energy costs, crashing mortgage prices, bank closures, bankruptcies in corporate America, damage to the auto industry and job-loss, he speaks to environmental loss as well. He shares a statistic that Naval scientists now predict the Polar ice caps will melt completely over summers in five years from now. He quites that for every one degree increase in global temperature each year results in a ten percent increase in lightening strikes.

We see the massive wildfires on the news from Big Sur to the Everglades. The Midwest was ravaged by rain, floods and tornadoes. Hear about huge Earthquakes in China and Japan, the massive storm damage in Myanmar. Perhaps this could be called the summer of disasters. Remember how shocking it was to watch New Orleans fall below the flood waters after Katrina, to watch the victims of the 2005 Tsunami in Indonesia? Media, celebrities, politicians and the people sent donations and kept glued to the stories of hardship. Now when these natural disasters occur, have they just become a part of the same ol' same old? Have they lost impact? And as the summer passes and the winter comes and next year the weather becomes even more chaotic, will we be numb to it?

Sometimes I do sit and daydream about the future of the world if the path of Climate Change is not alter, and in truth I am not at all convinced we are 100% capable of changing the future of the environment, but cleaner air and safer water and less pollutants can't ever be a bad accomplishment, even if it doesn't save the globe.

What would the world be? With no stable atmosphere for us to live in safely, a sun that burns with cancer and storms that rage constantly. Perhaps the surface of the Earth will become completely uninhabitable and humankind will be forced to go underground, create cities of tunnels and dinners out of microorganisms. Do we have the technology to sustain ourselves and our lives if our climate were to become drastically altered? Carbon-free energy sources would certainly be helpful if we come to a future where our Earth is a completely hostile environment. To continue to rely on old and out-dated technologies proven to be destructive to the life of our home and planet is to commit a hostile act.

For more info on Gore's proposal and what your state is doing to help the environment go to http://www.wecansolveit.org/

To read Gore's complete speech: