Gore issues an ambitious and inspirational challenge to America
To a packed audience in Washington yesterday, Al Gore issued an inspirational address and challenge:
“Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years”
Gore goes on to discuss the economics, and potentially more importantly, the politics of such a bold (and necessary) move in more detail. The thing that keeps gnawing at me is that I can almost script the response from the “other side” (partisan and not). It will start with the policy wonks and pseudo-intellectuals talking about the “reality” of the situation and how changes likes this are just not possible. Then the attacks will become more personal, focusing on Gore’s personal carbon footprint and energy usage. While there is a certain granuality of truth to these attacks (which makes it more digestible to the general public), it essentially redirects the focus and diffuses the value and importance of the message, which is: this is possible and within our abilities and most importantly…it is necessary and now.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Well, this is an ambitious challenge, but one that I believe could be accomplished, if it were AS important as putting a man on the moon for the second time. Let’s face it, it’s an incredibly inspirational challenge, and one that I would consider donating my left test-tube to see manifested, but it’s unlikely that it will be taken seriously or even considered because it’s not as sexy as putting another person on the moon. Perhaps this time it could be a woman on the moon!!
But seriously ladies and gentlemen of planet earth: This Is Doable. I believe we could accomplish just about any technological/structural/developmental feat we put our minds to. One just has to look at the construction going on in Dubai, or Beijing. Some of these construction challenges seemed impossible right up until the time they were built.
I remember speaking with a representative from BMW almost 10 years ago, and asking him about the difficulties they were having in creating a container small enough and strong enough to store liquid hydrogen for their hydrogen powered car and what kind of progress they had made…and he said, in quite the German as-a-matter-of-fact way, “well, we gave that problem to our engineers, and they solved it, that’s what they do”… like, it’s, like, no big deal man, we got it covered dude (all with a German accent) So in that spirit, I believe it is possible for Gore’s challenge to be met, but with a planet full of obstacles and people are SO good at finding the obstacles, and REALLY, REALLY focusing on them, I think we’ll get side tracked on the problems.
Being ever the optimist that I am, I’d love to get excited about a challenge like this. It would be an incredible period of time to live in if it were seen through. Revolutionary. Exciting. Bright, clean future (or at least a good start), But sexy? No. “Wow, check out the new power grid on Ms. California, I wonder what her sign is, Geo, Solar or Wind?”
(Focus people, focus)
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I couldn’t agree more. Nations (individually and collectively) have accomplished some of the most amazing things imaginable in the last 40 years and yet something so important as climate change is viewed as too hard.
Thankfully, this increase in the cost of crude is forcing companies to invest in innovation and strive for ingenuity.
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
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