Gore Urges Change to Dodge an Energy Crisis

Former Vice President Al Gore called on Thursday at Constitution Hall in Washington for a shift in the nation’s energy policy.

WASHINGTON — July 18, 2008 — Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm.

Like a modern Jeremiah, Mr. Gore called down thunder to justify the spending of trillions of dollars to remake the American power system, a plan fraught with technological and political challenges that goes far beyond the changes recently debated in Congress and by world leaders.

“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” he said in a midday speech to a friendly crowd of mostly young supporters in Washington. “And even more — if more should be required — the future of human civilization is at stake.”

It is not only the survival of the United States that is at stake, it is the survival of the entire planet. The human civilization needs to re-think their priorities. We need to focus our attention on the welfare of our societies as Nelson Mandela pointed out today. We need fewer vehicles, fewer roads and more human oriented resources like tree shaded bicycle paths and freedom from exhaust emission caused smog. We need to re-think the economic premise that growth is good and focus instead on sustainability. Editor. More >>>