This is a fist-time diary so I thought I would start with something relatively simple. This a a review of Al Gore's Our Choice released just a few weeks ago. If you are interested in learning about Al Gore's latest book, follow me below the fold. I've divided the review into two parts. Skip down to the "Analysis" if you want to skip a summary of the book.
Gore, Al (2009). Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Emmaus, PA: Rodale. ISBN: 978-1-59486-734-7. US $26.99.
Review by bmx writer
Book Summary
Global warming is an "unimaginable catastrophe that would unfold on this planet if we don’t start making dramatic changes immediately" (p. 12). Our Choice describes Al Gore’s plan for averting this impending disaster. Although Gore believes that we are near a political tipping point, and it is possible to have a global and collective effort to avert disaster, I fear that some key elements of such a unified response are missing.
The book has six sections. In "The Crisis" Gore describes the nature of global warming and how we must respond. We do not need to invent or develop new technology. We already have the means to solve three or four climate crises "and we only need to solve one. The only missing ingredient is collective will" (p. 15). This "collective will" must involve our entire planet and the time is limited for the emergence of an extraordinary level of international cooperation. We must quickly shift from using coal, oil, and natural gas to sustainable energy such as wind, solar, and hydrothermal. Gore detours briefly to look at the "birther" movement, which is a claim that President Obama is not legally President because he was not born in Hawai’i, as his birth certificate states. The example highlights the extremes to which individuals in the media will go to deny reality. Gore then draws a parallel with those who deny the reality of global warming in the face overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming up due to human activity (Note 1). The "powerful ideologues and self-interested corporate advocates" involved in climate denial are well-organized and command an audience through the mass media. It is a serious challenge to counter them and facts alone, no matter how powerful, may be insufficient for the task.
A wonderful feature of Our Choice is the superb photographs and graphics. I estimated that for each page of text there is a page of graphics or images. The first graphic in Chapter 2 (p. 54) shows how much CO2 is produced by each of the major sources of fossil fuel energy, while holding energy output constant. We urgently need to eliminate these CO2 producing energy sources if we are to address the dangers of global warming. Methane is an even more potent global warming pollutant than CO2. The good news is that methane is a useful source of energy so it can be captured and burned before it goes into our atmosphere. The bad news is that warming of the arctic permafrost is releasing unpredictable amounts of the gas that cannot be captured creating another layer of urgency on efforts to halt or slow global warming. Gore’s plan is simple: the six global warming pollutants must be reduced drastically while processes for removing them from the air are increased. What could be easier?
Chapter 2 begins seven chapters on "Our Sources of Energy." A carbon-free energy plan must include solar and wind power, covered in Chapters 3 and 4. The two solar technologies are solar panels that directly convert the sun’s energy into electricity but are useless at night and concentrated solar power that uses heat to drive turbines. Heat from concentrated solar can be stored so electricity can be produced at night. The chapter is richly illustrated with pictures of existing installations and diagrams explaining the technologies. The chapter on wind energy points out that the U.S. leads the world in amount of electricity produced from the wind, but is not highly ranked in terms of the percent of wind power. Like solar power, wind suffers from the problem of intermittency but that "will change with the construction of a unified national smart grid and with the widespread use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, because a large fleet of PHEVs can serve as a widely distributed and highly efficient battery" (p. 91). Gore points out that irregular policies have created an environment undermining steady development of wind power in the U.S. In contrast, countries such as Denmark now obtain 20% of their electricity from wind power due to consistent policies favoring it. Gore’s plan is twofold. First, incremental improvements in solar panels will boost their attractiveness as they become competitive with other forms of energy production. Second, he advocates government policies that accelerate development and deployment of solar energy which he predicts will provide "a major percentage of the world’s electricity" (p. 74). Despite lack of consistent government support, wind energy seems to be developing at a slow but steady pace in the U.S.
According to Gore, geothermal energy (Chapter 5) is one of the "most promising potential sources" of energy (p. 94). Geothermal energy comes from two related technologies. The first is conventional hydrothermal power, which comes from tapping hot springs and geysers near the surface of the earth. The other geothermal source is called "enhanced geothermal" and is explained by an informative graphic (p. 101). This technology consists of injecting water under high pressure into a geologically suitable area 1.9 to 3.7 miles below the earth’s surface. The water is heated as it flows through hot rocks. When brought back to the surface, the hot water is converted to steam which drives turbines to produce electricity. Both conventional hydrothermal and enhanced geothermal power require water. A map (p. 103) shows that the U.S. has vast areas with sufficient heat below the earth’s surface to provide enhanced geothermal power. Current U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, states geothermal resources are "effectively unlimited" (p. 96). The downside to enhanced geothermal power is that the technology is not sufficiently developed, especially in the U.S., which was "asleep at the switch" as other countries have gone ahead with development of enhanced geothermal sites. However, Gore places great weight upon this technology as a way of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.
Chapter 6 discusses "first-" and "second-generation" biofuels. First generation biofuels, mainly corn ethanol in the U.S., are dismissed as a serious contender for a substitute fuel with a lower carbon footprint. Second-generation biofuels such as those derived from switchgrass, miscanthus (elephant grass), or algae have much greater potential to provide sustainable fuel but it remains to be seen how soon they can contribute. Gore makes no predictions about biomass energy nor does he suggest that it will provide significant amounts of our energy needs. However, he suggests that a coherent policy and standards for sustainable use of biomass could emerge from the Council on Sustainable Biomass Production.
Chapters 7 and 8 cover carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and nuclear power. CCS would extend the life of coal plants by capturing and storing the CO2 they produce. Although large scale demonstrations of CCS are being conducted, Gore concludes that the technology has years or decades to go before it is fully developed. Meanwhile these years will see increasing development of more practical technology such as solar panels, wind power, and enhanced geothermal. At the end of the chapter on CCS, Gore suggests placing a price on emissions of CO2 so that "market forces will drive us quickly toward the answers we need" (p. 148). This foreshadows a more elaborate plan to be discussed in later chapters. In contrast to the unproven potential of CCS, nuclear power (Chapter 8) "has been an energy source in crisis for the last 30 years" (p. 152). Cost, safety, and the unsolved problem of what to do with nuclear waste have caused nuclear power development to flatline in the U.S. Gore concludes nuclear power is highly unlikely to play a significant role in programs to reduce CO2 emissions.
Nuclear power is the last chapter on sources of energy and two charts at the end of this chapter hint at the direction of the argument. The first chart (p. 165) shows the number of grams of CO2 produced by the energy sources discussed so far. This chart clearly shows that wind, concentrated solar, solar panels, and geothermal power have the smallest CO2 emissions. Nuclear, gas, and coal are the clear losers in this comparison. The next chart (p. 167) compares energy sources based upon the amount of water they use with wind and solar the clear winners and nuclear consuming the most water. Thus, wind, solar, and hydrothermal power are emerging superstars of clean energy according to this analysis.
The next section is titled "Living Systems" and Gore focuses on three: forests, the soil, and population. The chapter on forests first describes the problem of deforestation and the associated loss of CO2 sequestration. Then it describes other consequences of deforestation such as loss of species diversity. Finally, efforts to replant forests are described. It was interesting to learn that China replants more trees than all other parts of the world combined. Wangari Maathai, who is responsible for the planting of more than 30 million trees, is cited as an example of the power of a single individual to initiate change and she won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. The chapter ends with the suggestion that the world’s deforestation problem could be solved with international cooperation and a commitment of every individual in the world to plant at least two new tree seedlings every year.
Chapter 10 describes a neglected natural system, the soil. Rich, healthy soil is black because it contains 58% carbon. Therefore, soil has a key role to play in taking CO2 from our atmosphere. Unfortunately, we are locked into patterns of agricultural productivity that have the opposite effect on soil health. Modern farming techniques tend to produce short-term bursts of high productivity at the expense of long-term sustainability. The answers are organic farming, low- or no-till farming, and other methods of restoring soil health. A way to put carbon back into soil, restoring its health, is to mix it with a substance called biochar, a naturally occurring substance that is 80% carbon and can be made by burning biomass in low- or no-oxygen conditions. One source cited in Gore’s book, claims that burying large amounts of biochar in soil could make a significant contribution to cleansing the atmosphere of carbon. According to Gore, the primary reason biochar has not been a major part of the plan to combat global warming is the fact that a price on carbon does not exist. If there was such a price, Gore argues, biochar would become a major player because of its ability to sequester so much carbon in the soil. Biochar is part of a 12-part plan (p. 221) for using the soil to sequester carbon. At the apex of the plan is the idea that farmers should be subsidized for methods that place more carbon in soils instead of "overproduction." Gore rests his hopes on Copenhagen for recarbonizing the earth’s soils.
Population (Chapter 11) is the main environmental issue for some people for obvious reasons. The more people that live on earth, the more strain is placed on the natural systems providing the ecological services that support us. Gore acknowledges that population can be a sensitive issue because it is so closely related to contraception and the status of women. He cites a consensus among demographers that four main factors lead to stabilized populations: educating girls; participation of women in family, community, and national decisions; high child survival rates so parents expect their children to survive into adulthood; and having women with the ability to decide how many and when they will have children. He emphasizes all four factors are necessary to have the predicted effect. The chapter ends with a realistic discussion of the vociferous opposition to abortion in the U.S., which caused our country to withdraw support from badly needed family planning in developing countries. Interestingly, abortion foes tend to be closely allied with the same individuals who deny the reality of global warming and contribute to spreading misinformation such as the "birther" movement discussed earlier.
"How We Use Energy," has two chapters, one on using less energy and having greater efficiency and the second on how to distribute energy more intelligently. The theme of the first chapter is neatly summarized in its title, "Less is More." According to Gore’s research, only 13% of the energy produced in the U.S. is converted into useful work. Thus, 87% is potentially available to perform additional work. Insulating residences, increasing electric motor efficiency, hybrid cars, increased efficiency of appliances and lighting, recycling, and using waste heat from a variety of processes are just some sources of this "free" energy that can be used to perform useful work (see p. 246). An impressive graph (p. 247) shows that Californians have been using about the same amount of energy per person (7500 kilowatt-hours) for the past 30 years, whereas the rest of the country has increased per capita energy use by 60% to about 13,000 kilowatt-hours. Gore criticizes utility regulations that favor large energy plants over other co-producers of energy and policies that favor selling more kilowatt-hours instead of using the energy efficiently.
Indeed, the absurdly wasteful way in which we now generate most of our electricity needlessly doubles fuel use, cost, and CO2 emissions. These old electricity-only plants are long beyond their planned lives, propped up by their right to pollute. It is time to replace them with distributed CHP [combined heat and power] plants. This is one of the single largest sources of huge, profitable, near-term reductions in CO2 emissions. (p. 257)
Resistance of utilities to "net metering" laws that allow producers of small amounts of electricity from solar, hydro, or wind systems to sell excess power back to the grid at retail prices is another outmoded energy policy that prevents innovation. A complete restructuring of the electrical power system is needed so small power producers can contribute their efficiency gains to the grid without costly penalties imposed by electric utilities. This includes national standards for integrating many power sources into the national electric grid. The regulatory barriers to using small wind and solar installations and taking advantage of the wasted energy from industrial processes must be removed. Of course political opposition to such moves will come from the same "self-interested corporate advocates" that spawn denial of global warming.
Chapter 13, "The Super Grid" talks about a key ingredient in all plans for a solid energy future, an intelligent or "smart" grid. A super grid would include higher voltage transmission lines, advanced distribution networks, efficient energy storage concentrated at the level of the user, and "two-way communication throughout the grid" that would eliminate or shorten power outages. Such a grid would be more efficient and produce better integration of renewable energy sources. The intermittency problem characteristic of wind and solar can also be solved by an intelligent grid. The solution involves integrating fast-responding batteries to the grid to even out the dips in electricity supplied by intermittent sources. The unsolved problem is to find a method of energy storage that can be used across the grid, a need that is being addressed by both established and start-up companies. The chapter discusses the need to update laws governing electric utilities. A complete redesign of our electrical grid is needed to make the grid "more efficient, far less costly, and far more environmentally responsible than today’s grid" (p. 297). Again, the missing ingredient is "political will" which I interpret as the need to have national legislation supporting modernization of the national power grid.
The next section is "The Obstacles We Need to Overcome." Chapter 14 begins with "Changing the Way We Think." Gore uses evidence about human brain functioning to describe how difficult it is to address global warming, which emerges slowly with few obvious warning signs. Humans evolved to deal with immediate, concrete threats such as predators, snakes, and other signs of immediate danger. It takes special circumstances for humans to focus upon long-term, cross-generational goals but history shows us many examples. Two examples are the building of the Chartres Cathedral, which took more than 100 years and the 35-year campaign to reduce American’s smoking habits. However, research shows that the cognitive processes supporting long-term, cross-generational projects are taken off-line when people are under stress. Unfortunately, the very media we need to help us focus on the long-term problem of global warming are providing the distractions and stress that actually work against such a focus. These same processes have fueled a binge of consumption serving as a distraction from more important issues and directly contributing to global warming. The chapter ends with a discussion of how it might be possible to create social cooperation around the global warming issue.
For me, this chapter ended twenty pages early because it barely touched upon the constant stream of distractions presented by our consumer culture, the media, politicians, and corporations that dominate our lives. These distractions keep society from focusing on global warming and perpetuate the status quo. I was hopeful that the two following chapters, Chapter 15, "The True Cost of Carbon," and Chapter 16, "Political Obstacles" would address these issues.
The main theme of Chapter 15 is "market forces." "The easiest, most obvious, and most efficient way to employ the power of the market in solving the climate crisis is to put a price on carbon" (p. 320). Gore recognizes the flaws in our current system whereby externalities such as pollution and CO2 emissions are ignored. He argues
that many institutional investors are now beginning to suspect that another widely held assumption that undergirds the value of their portfolios is beginning to collapse. Several trillion dollars worth of ‘subprime carbon assets’ depend, for their valuation, on the belief that it’s perfectly okay to put 90 million tons of CO2 into the earth’s atmosphere every 24 hours—and on a zero price for carbon emission that reflects this assumption. The world’s scientific community has presented irrefutable evidence that we must quickly stop burning carbon-based fuels in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. The owners of these assets will soon face a reckoning in the marketplace. They are roughly in the same position as the holders of subprime mortgages before they realized the awful mistake they had made. (p. 330)
The short-term view that supports the status quo is Wall Street’s obsession with quarterly results instead of long-term profitability and sustainability. An example is a recent disaster in Al Gore’s home state of Tennessee. A power plant’s leftovers from burning coal escaped from a holding pond causing a nightmare of pollution, ruined farmland, and disrupted lives. Gore points out that this disaster was marked as a positive in our economic accounting since the costs of cleanup added to the nation’s gross national product. Paradoxically, the loss of farmland, homes, and clean water did not subtract from the gross national product. In fact, trillions of dollars of "ecological services," such as air to breathe, provided by our environment are valued at zero dollars. If a value was placed on these natural assets, an accurate accounting of the true costs of polluting our atmosphere could be done. Gore also argues that we are held hostage by foreign governments controlling the oil market. These market makers have two strategic objectives. The first is to maximize profit, and the second is to prevent the U.S. and other nations from forming policy that will lead to sustained drops in our dependence upon oil imports. How many of us have seen this pattern: when gas prices are high and talk about alternatives becomes strong, the price declines, as does the interest in alternatives to imported oil. As for the solutions, Gore gives about equal time to three strategies: a carbon tax, cap and trade, and direct regulation. He seems to believe that a combination of a carbon tax (an idea he has long advocated) and the cap and trade approach will emerge. His conclusion is simple: "We must develop sustainable capitalism."
According to Chapter 16, the Bush II administration was "an active participant for eight years in the effort to mislead the American people about the seriousness and urgency of global warming" (p. 365). This was accomplished mainly through placing employees of the carbon industry in key administrative positions where they censored or denied the research on global warming. Coupled with a massive campaign since the 1980’s to seed doubt about climate science, the result has been a basic misunderstanding of the known facts about global warming by a significant portion of the American public. This campaign was financed by shareholder funds from major corporations that saw such climate denial as being in their own best interests. Gore then states that these companies have created a great financial risk for themselves and that a financial bubble of carbon intensive industries is likely to burst in the future with devastating financial consequences, at least for the companies directly involved. We can only hope that this threat is taken seriously by stockholders and board members of these industries and that they take appropriate action, such as shifting profits to investments in renewable energy businesses.
About ten to twelve years ago, I recall that there was a national concern about a computer glitch called the Y2K problem which was the result of the way dates were coded in early computer programs. In response to national concerns, President Clinton signed The Year 2000 Information & Readiness Disclosure Act in 1998. The result was that almost any company or organization that one researched had information about the risks posed by the Y2K problem to its business and customers. It seems to me that a politically neutral "Global Warming Risk Disclosure" law could force a scientific and data based examination of the risks posed by global warming to all businesses and organizations. Industries that emit global warming pollutants would need to examine whether their business model, based upon the right to pollute, could continue under scenarios that are already beginning to emerge. This might be a method of accelerating the carbon intensive industries bubble that Gore predicts is on the way.
Al Gore’s love of technology is reflected in Chapter 17, "The Power of Information." The basic idea is simple: with enough information about the climate crisis, the world’s population would demand that resources be devoted to a solution. One of his proposals is to reschedule the launch of a satellite that would be located between the earth and sun and provide data to model earth’s climate. The satellite was ready for launch in 2001 but was cancelled by the Bush/Cheney administration. It has remained in storage, although a dedicated group of scientists has kept it ready for a future launch date. Gore mentions two other projects, Vulcan and Hestia, which would make it possible to visualize processes that affect the climate. The existence of data that could provide us with feedback about the earth’s climate would contribute to fighting climate change. It would let us know the current state of the earth’s climate and provide feedback as things improve or get worse. Instead of abstract debates about cutting back on CO2 emissions, we could see more immediate results. The Internet, no surprise here, is prominently featured and rightly so. It can be an organizing tool for groups addressing climate issues and a way of monitoring the state of the climate. Gore sees a lot of untapped potential for information technology to contribute to solving the climate crisis.
Analysis
"Our Choice" described in Chapter 18, is simple. Either future generations will ask us how we missed all the evidence and failed to act, or they will ask "How did you find the moral courage to rise up and solve a crisis so many said was impossible to solve?" The remainder of the chapter describes the imagined "Great Transformation" that began with the election of a President in 2008. These changes would begin with small movements toward the control of carbon that at first seem like they have no chance of success. However, like the successful effort to protect the ozone layer, the strength of agreements hashed out at the Copenhagen summit continued to grow according to Gore’s prediction.
Gore’s imagined vision of the future course of events included a strong beginning to solving the crisis inspired by a shift in the U.S. policies toward climate change. Here is a direct quote from this visionary prediction of the future: "China, it turned out, had been quietly changing on its own. India was slower to begin the change, but in 2009, the combination of the United States and China—then the two largest global warming polluters on the planet—made all the difference. Europe, which was then in the early stages of its unification process, joined with Japan in supporting the U.S.—China proposal to place broad limits on emissions of CO2 and the other five pollutants that were causing the crisis" (p. 398). Then, this story moved from visionary to factual because a recent summit meeting between President Obama and top leaders in China resulted in significant climate-related agreements (Note 2). One Internet headline referred to the agreement as "More Important than Copenhagen" (Note 3). Is Gore prescient? Did he know serious discussions with Chinese leaders were underway? Is it possible that he influenced the processes about which he was prognosticating? These possibilities are in line with the nature of the book. To write it, Gore
organized and moderated more than 30 lengthy and intensive ‘Solutions Summits,’ where leading experts from around the world have come to discuss and share their knowledge of and experience in subjects relevant to the construction of a plan to solve this crisis. In addition to hosting these group meetings, I have engaged in a large number of one-on-one sessions with other leading experts around the world in an extended effort to find the most effective courses of action. (p. 12)
Who else has the gravitas to call together the world’s experts on global warming? This brings me to the strongest feature of the book. It is up-to-date, providing the reader with an accurate, picture of climate science and the ways that global warming can be turned back. I would recommend this book to any individual who is looking for a thorough introduction to climate science and the world’s response to global warming. Even individuals who are familiar with the basic concepts are likely to learn something. Enhanced geothermal systems and biochar were two concepts with which I was not familiar, yet they could play key roles in our energy future. The wonderful illustrations, images, and graphs, assembled in an easy to use collection, could serve as a valuable resource for explaining these concepts to others. I have pointed out those that garnered my attention but other readers are sure to find their own favorites. In sum, as a source of education about climate science and our responses to the climate emergency that now faces us, Our Choice is my choice. There is no better resource available.
I was not so impressed by Gore’s plan to combat global warming. In fact, I needed to read the book twice to understand the totality of his plan, because I expected that the comments I read regarding national policy were foreshadowing a major summary and outline of a detailed plan. The last chapter did not provide this. The predicted scenario in the last chapter depends upon a few political tipping points that may or may not exist. Thus, I needed to review the book a second time to understand Gore’s plan.
There is a worthy competitor for those seeking a different perspective. Plan B: 4.0 (Brown, 2009), provides a somewhat broader perspective on environmental problems and proposes a budget for solving them. The book is a free pdf-format download at the Earth Policy Institute website. The printed version uses "recycled paper" but no details are provided. In contrast, Gore’s book is certified carbon free and printed on 100% recycled paper. The source of the money in the Plan B series is simple; rededicate our military budgets to saving the planet. With a budget of $187 billion in annual spending, it would be possible to stabilize climate, redesign cities, eradicate poverty and stabilize population, restore the earth, and feed people well. This is about 13% of the world’s military budgets and about 33% of the U.S. military budget. Whereas Gore counts mainly upon "market forces" to produce the budget for solving the climate crisis, Brown counts upon a shift in priorities. Both approaches suffer from weaknesses but the main thrust of Brown is that the budget to restore the earth is finite and doable. It is not an impossible task. The money is available if priorities are shifted.
Both Plan B and Our Choice offer excellent overviews of the sustainability crisis we face. Gore offers a technologically sophisticated perspective on the crisis whereas Brown favors policy over explanations of the technology. Brown’s book is straight text whereas Gore’s is lavishly illustrated. Both approaches are valuable because there is a better chance of using technology that is well understood and Gore does an excellent job of vividly illustrating important facts and principles of climate science and the less carbon intensive technologies we need to fight climate change. On the other hand, Brown’s analysis and presentation of the policies is more in-depth and sophisticated than Gore’s. Both authors agree that we need to move quickly toward a carbonless energy economy. The time for discussion and debate about the validity of the theory of global warming is over. We must take action right now.
Our Choice’s weakness is that Gore does not acknowledge the strength of forces aligned against a response to global warming and the lengths that they will to go to distract Americans from the work that needs to be done. The practice of burning coal endangers the ecological systems humanity needs to survive. These carbon-intensive businesses must end and be replaced by carbon-free energy sources. Carbon intensive businesses will resist the change as long as they make a profit from the status quo. Gore argues that as major investors in the stock market realize the risks of global warming, a market bubble in carbon-intensive industries will burst and cause the value of these businesses to crash. Gore proposes accelerating the process with a carbon tax. However, congress is now considering a cap-and-trade system that allows continuing CO2 emissions without any additional cost to polluters. The more complex cap-and-trade approach seems to leave room for "gaming the system" especially considering that it requires an entirely new bureaucracy. Furthermore, it is likely that the carbon-emitting industries will use all means at their disposal to preserve their profits (Note 4). Gore features a photo-gallery of global warming deniers (p. 355) who command a significant audience. A Supreme Court almost identical in composition to the group that denied Gore the Presidency is now revisiting a 100 year old tradition that corporations should be restricted in the amount of money they can spend to support political candidates. The decision could allow corporations to unleash their incredible wealth to influence the outcome of elections leading to more legislators who are global warming deniers (Note 5).
Maybe the financial bubble for "carbon-intensive" industries is about to burst causing the value of these assets to crash. Although Gore suggests that a carbon tax is the best way to hasten this crash, it is also reasonable to expect the value of carbon-intensive industries to fall with each visible perturbation of the climate. For example, if the Arctic region becomes ice-free during the summer, this vivid example of the reality of global warming could motivate change and cause a crash in carbon intensive industries. This could be hastened if full disclosure of risks associated with global warming was required by law. Thus, under the right circumstances, a shift to a carbon neutral society at warp speed is possible.
On the other hand, the intensity of opposition to any legislation that puts corporate interests at risk, the potential unleashing of unprecedented amounts of corporate wealth into the electoral process, the intensity of the conservative "tea bagger" movement, the willingness of public figures to lie and ignore facts about global warming (and numerous other issues), and the need to have 60 U.S. Senate votes to pass any significant legislation, all cause significant bouts of pessimism. Thus, I wish that Gore had delved more deeply into our political processes and identified pathways out of this dangerous delay in dealing with global warming.
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- See http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/ for a sobering update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) presented just in time to for the Copenhagen negotiations.
- http://www.energy.gov/... http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.c...
- http://www.scientificamerican.com/...
- Bakan, J. (2004). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Power and Profit. New York: Free Press.
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/...