Gore Says U.S. Could be Fossil Fuel-Free in 10 Years
During a speech given this week in Washingon, Al Gore said that America must end its dependence on fossil fuel, and soon….or else.
By Anastacia Mott Austin
“I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously,” said Al Gore in a speech this week in Washington, in which he urged political leaders to lead the way in eliminating America’s dependence on carbon-based fuels.
Comparing the goal to completely get rid of the country’s dependence on fossil fuels to President John F. Kennedy’s vow to get America to the moon, Gore said he believes it is possible to accomplish a carbon-free country within 10 years.
He proposes to do this by changing our focus to alternative sources of fuel, such as wind or solar power. During the speech, Gore claimed that the wind that blows across the prairies of the Midwest United States every day could provide enough power to fuel the country’s energy needs, and that enough solar power hits the surface of the earth in 40 minutes to power the entire world for a year.
Sounds good, but can we accomplish this? Gore seems to think so. We just need to change our way of thinking about energy. “This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life, to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”
He points the finger at politicians. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet,” said Gore, criticizing defenders of the status quo. “Every bit of that’s got to change.”
Citizens who may have ignored Gore even a few months ago are starting to sit up and take notice, as the effects of soaring fuel prices and food costs, combined with increasing unemployment and the crash of the housing market are making themselves felt in many households.
Gore said that focusing on non-carbon sources of fuel like solar and wind power would return energy costs to the equivalent of $1.00 per gallon of gas.
Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, had words of praise for Gore and his speech. “For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat,” said Obama.
Gore cited the recent report on fuel and food costs sparking a worldwide crisis, which would imperil national security and create international wars over food and water.
Gore said that his idea for non-carbon energy concerned not just the issue of global warming, but of the future of our nation as an economic and policy leader, something which has been seen as increasingly shaky. Changing our national focus on energy to sun and wind power is imperative, he said.
Indeed, he used no less than dramatic terms to describe his view. “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. The future of human civilization is at stake.”
| By Buzzle Staff and Agencie |
Gore told us that more CO2 in the atmosphere meant higher temperatures. That was the huge technical error in his movie. More recent Antarctic studies, on more refined time scales, have shown that instead of causing warming, the CO2 levels … We must face the fact that the earth is now cooling, and any drastic actions to reduce fossil fuel emissions are premature.
Free us from our addiction to oil
What Al Gore is doing is tremendously important and not juist for his country, even tho it is the biggest oil addict in the world. the whole world needs to get off its oil addiction and also fossil fuel profligacy.
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