I just finished listening to Al Gore's speech at NYU. I don't see another diary on it as of now, but will delete if necessary.
I witnessed the true potential of real leadership while watching Al Gore's speech today at NYU. He spoke with clarity, passion, and believe it or not, hope.
His ideas to help solve some of our CO2 emmision problems below the fold.
Al said over the next year he will be getting together with those that have a vested interest in helping solve our climate crisis. Businesses, govt. officials (prob. local or state), faith groups, and grass roots are all looking for leadership on our global warming issues, and ways in which they can help speed the process along. He will chair meetings on SOLUTIONS to our current problems and help spread the word on effective approaches to reduce CO2 emmisions. He feels that this problem can be a rallying point for the American people to come to together in the absence of effective political leadership.
He spoke about current scientific evidence that about 15-20 major factors, should they be tackled, could dramatically help reduce Global warming. Should we choose only 8 or 9, should still help us on our way. This was talked about AFTER he described how day by day the evidence is mounting that the process of heating is accelerating, and that there is startling new evidence that the polar cap is melting at a faster pace than previously thought. Make no mistake, he said we have maybe 10 years to dig in our heels and start the process of change. At that time, irreversible major damage will have occured to our climate and attendant factors of farming, coastlines submerged, violent weather etc.
Before I talk about solutions, I would like to mention that he spoke about our dependence on oil. A major point was made that the oil markets are being controlled by oil producing governments and large oil corporations. Even though we think of this as a "free" market, it is subject major manipulation by these forces. He feels that right now as we speak, the oil markets are "suddenly" lower due to the fact that these interests feel that we as a nation are looking to really convert to alternative fuels. Major companies are looking to control their energy costs and are willing to invest in renewables like never before. Just when we really sart to look seriously at solutions, it seems our will is sapped by "lower" oil prices. Go Al go, I always suspected this was the case myself!
Now, solutions. I am so happy Al made this next point, because I had started to write some energy diaries for Dkos myself and discovered this point on my own. EVERYTHING we need to solve the climate crisis is ALREADY AVAILABLE!!!!! It is just that we lack the political will to IMPLEMENT them (Phew, I hope I made my point). Today all the waste heat in factories & other systems is let out into the envirornment thus making them less efficient. You can capture this heat and cycle it back into the system to dramatically increase efficiency AND use less fuel. He used the example of a car engine. Shockingly 90% of a gallon of gas is WASTED energy due to the old technology of the internal combustion engine. Newer more efficient models exist and can be put to use. Photovolaics is on a new and significantly better economic footing than even one year ago (solar power). There have been dramatic improvements in efficiency and storage of energy on this front, which makes this a truly exciting and potential gold mine of energy for our future. Wind power, small windmills being put to use can, for certain areas, be the sloution in many areas with the right type of environment. Biodiesel, ethanol are both renewable sources that can be a major part of an overall solution to the gas-oil problem. He had some steps to help revitalize farms (sorry, couldn't catch it).
Al Gore had some intersting solutions in terms of buildings that could not only make them carbon neutral, but could PRODUCE ENERGY! The technology is available now, and in fact has made major leaps forward in countries that had signed the KYOTO protocol. They are being built TODAY. He made the point that more buildings are going to be built around the world in the next 35 years, than the sum total that has already been built. If the new technologies are utilized it could be a major advancement for humanity as they are refined and knowledge expaned on. Guess which countries already have a leg up on these new systems for the architectural marvels of tomorrow, you guessed it, many of the countries that had signed the KYOTO protocol. They have new factories being built and jobs created for their citizens (imagine that).
The speech covered many more topics than I could capture while listening. One point I want to make, This is how a REAL leader reacts to problems, by squarely looking them in the face, garnering support from the people, and rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. It was refreshing actually to see a real leader in action. It just goes to show you, you can take a real leader out of a leadership position, but you can't take the leader out of the man. The reverse is also true, you can put a man in a leadership role, but that is NOT what make a true leader. (as we here in America have found out). Man or woman I should say!