Al Gore made a recent appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman on which he punted his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Gore stressed the fact that humans cannot adapt to the unrestrained effects of global warming as already we are seeing those that are forced to adapt to the current environmental changes around the world. Specific examples were given in this interview; they included the fact that those living near the Nile Delta are less than 1 meter above sea level due to the rising water levels. Another example was the Maldives, who recently held a cabinet meeting under water as we told you here to help draw media attention to their environmental plight.
He informed the viewers that the environmental movement is the largest grassroots effort in history, and the political pressure is rising; however, it still needs to reach critical mass so all political leaders listen. By disseminating this information to the masses via a late night talk show Gore is getting his message out to those that might otherwise ignore these startling realties. The former Vice President understands his audience and thus gives an eco-friendly perspective that is not all doom and gloom.
According to Bill McKibben from the Huffington Post, Al Gore deserves more credit for what he has done to bring about climate change awareness. “There´s been a certain amount of debate about whether Barack Obama deserved his Nobel Prize. About Al Gore there is no argument. He singlehandedly managed to wrest the topic of global warming on to center stage around the world. And frankly, he deserved his Oscar just as much, for figuring out a way to dramatize the sometimes complicated science of global warming. He did for climate what Mandela did for apartheid or Gandhi for colonialism–made it an inescapable part of our global political debate.”
In Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, there are extensive, deeply documented chapters on everything you need to know to make sense of our situation: on forests and soils and how they might be made to sequester more carbon. On wind turbines and solar power and geothermal energy (which intrigues Gore) and biomass. He´s less sanguine about carbon capture from coal and about nuclear power, as much on the grounds of cost as anything else – but he´s careful not to shut the door on any option, which is appropriate considering the scale of crisis we face.
Hats off to Mr Gore – I know what will be on my stocking stuffer list this Christmas!
Nicola
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