Nobel peace prize winner, former vice-president and climate crusader Al Gore gives a short (7 minutes) updated presentation on the state of our climate. Besides highlighting some of the latest climate science Gore also talks about the “clean coal” lie.
The video comes from a TED conference in February 2009. Watch it:
When most of us think of a community fair, we think of ferris wheels, halls of mirrors, rodeos and greasy food. Families come from miles around to ride the rides, watch the shows, look at the animals and stuff their faces. The good news is that local fairs are still going strong, the even better news is that more fairs are focused on being green.
Green fairs seem to be a great new trend in communities. Instead of crazy rides and sloppy food, green fairs show off the latest green products, ideas and organic foods. A green fair might not have adrenalin pumping rides or shows, but they definitely get people pumped up about being green.
New research from the UK Met Office, one of the world’s leading providers of environmental and weather-related services, shows that the world’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions would only offer a 50-50 chance of keeping temperature rises below the two degree threshold.
Dr Vicky Pope, Head of Climate Change Advice at the Met Office states: “Even with drastic cuts in emissions in the next 10 years, our results project that there will only be around a 50% chance of keeping global temperatures rises below 2 °C.
“This idealised emissions scenario is based on emissions peaking in 2015 and quickly changing from an increase of 2–3% per year to a decrease of 3% per year. For every 10 years we delay action another 0.5 °C will be added to the most likely temperature rise.”
In an interview with the Guardian last week Al Gore talked about the climate negotiations in Copenhagen this year, the European carbon market, climate change deniers, smart grids and nuclear energy.
The most surprising comment from Gore was about nuclear energy and its role in fighting climate change. According to Gore nuclear energy is not the answer to our problems because it’s dirty, too expensive, unsafe and that it poses a threat to world peace.
“I’m not a reflexive opponent of nuclear. I used to be enthusiastic about it, but I’m now sceptical about it. There’s a few reasons. Let’s assume for the moment that we will solve the problem of long-term storage of radioactive waste. Let’s assume also that we’ll figure out how to standardise their design as [each plant] is currently unique and that enhances the risk of operator accidents. Let’s assume we can solve the terrorism threat to nuclear reactors. That still leaves a couple of very difficult problems.
Al Gore and The Alliance for Climate Protection have announced that they are interested in creating a new .eco domain name extension. The .eco domain extension will be for individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions.
“We fully support Dot Eco LLC in its efforts to secure the .eco top level domain through the ICANN application process and look forward to working with Dot Eco LLC to promote .eco. This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole,” said Al Gore.
But what is more exciting than a new “green” domain extension is that a majority of the profits generated from the sales of the .eco domains will be distributed to support environmental causes and organizations.
Here is the full video of Al Gore’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about repowering America and the need for USA to resume global leadership on the climate crisis. You can read and watch his opening statement here.
Watch the whole testimony below:
You can also watch it on YouTube.
Will.i.am has together with DipDive just released a new video titled “Take Our Planet Back” which focuses on energy, climate and environmental issues and topics. The video calls for citizens and their leaders to deal with the serious environmental problems that our planet faces. The video features clips of Al Gore, montages of the various environmental challenges we face, and will.i.am singing.
Watch it:
Yesterday Al Gore testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about repowering America and the need for USA to resume global leadership on the climate crisis. You can read his opening statement below.
Al Gore is also calling for you to support his energy and climate plan which will create 100% electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years while creating millions of green high-tech jobs:
What is equality and development? And what kind of influence has the environment on both of these relations? For me, environmentalism has always been about caring about the well-state and equality of everyone and everything. Al Gore said, during the annual World Economic Forum Meeting in 2008, that you can’t solve climate change or poverty in the developing world “without dealing with the other”:
“Earlier this year, Bono and I spoke about the intersection between the extreme poverty in the developing world – especially in Africa – and the climate crisis. It is impossible to solve one of these issues without dealing with the other (Gore, 2008)”.
So if we are to solve the equality in the world, our uneven development and environmental problems we just can’t work on one of them. They are all connected and thus we have to deal with all of them at once.
Just days after Al Gore and a bunch of environmental organisations launched a “Reality Coalition” campaign to tell the American public that there is no “clean coal” they might have gotten their best advertisement, ever.
Last month a coal ash dam in Harriman, East Tennessee, USA, ruptured and sent out billions of gallons of toxic sludge across a 300 acres big area, even knocking one home off its foundation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) these coal ash damns can reach up to 1,500 acres and contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium which the federal agency considers to be “a threat to water supplies and human health.”
“This spill shows that coal can never be ‘clean,’” said Kate Smolski, Senior Legislative Coordinator for Greenpeace. “If the Exxon Valdez was a symbol of pollution 20 years ago, the Tennessee Coal Spill of 2008 is the symbol of it today.”
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