http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_s_new_thinking_on_the_climate_crisis.html
The latest from Al Gore on climate change.
A summary:
Environmental problems are similar to military crises, they can be local, regional, or global and all require similar strategies. Climate change is a global crisis and mobilising resources requires the mobilisation of politics on a global scale.
The evidence of climate change is increasing. Increasing Arctic sea ice melt is an example and the CSI project aims to bring the science of climate change into education.But climate change has the lowest priority compared to other issues in the USA and media coverage is extremely poor.
Al Gore then presents increasing oil consumption figures as well as showing urban development in places like Bolivia and the growth in global fisheries. The solution: Put a price on carbon. The EU super grid using HVDC cables and investments in geothermal, efficiency and conservation are vital.
But the USA did not ratify the Kyoto protocol. Even Australia signed up after the Big Dry drought and 780 cities have signed up.
We need another hero generation. Gore: "History has presented us with a choice. We can do this. We have the capacity."
"One final point: I'm optimistic. Rise to the challenge with joy and gratitude."
Presentation ends.
Interview with TED:
Are you excited about political parties plans to tackle climate change?
All three have put forward plans, but the main sponsors are pushing clean coal! WE need more radical solutions. We need to be active citizens on the internet. No new coal fired power stations, but nobody is talking on that scale. The Global Alliance are doing great things though.
And finally a quote from Africa:
If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
Al Gores’ new thinking on the climate change crisis
ReplyDeleteSummary
In its speech Al Gore appeals urgently to everyone on this planet referring to climate change.
At the beginning he mentions an important point: we first have to solve the problem in our democracy, than we can solve the climate change threats.
There are not only experts who are responsible for solving the climate change problem; we also have to contribute to solve this huge threat.
Furthermore he’s talking about military conflicts which are divided into three parts: local wars, regional war zones and global wars. The problem of climate change can be categorized in each of them. People often think that we only have threats like air or water pollution but it’s more than that. Acid rain is spread out over a large part on our planet and is really dangerous for the environment because it contains chemicals which are emitted from industries.
Moreover, Al Gores shows a graphic of Greenland. The ice is melting in sizes of America’s western states. With these pictures he clarifies how terrible the situation really is.
In addition to that he compares the petrol emission in America and Europe with the emission of the developing countries like China. They get the same emissions in a shorter time and overtake the other countries.
The solutions for this problem: “Put a price on carbon!”
He states that we should focus on using more renewable energy like photovoltaic for example. We have enough sunlight and we can achieve a lot with it.
At the end of its speech he appeals again that we have a contingency and we really need to solve it and that we are able to do it.
If we hark back on heroes who were able to stop slavery and to bring through the right to vote for women we also can solve these problems but first we have to change our democracy before we start to work on eliminating elementary climate change problems.
Summary: Al Gore’s new thinking on the climate crisis
ReplyDeleteAl Gore gives a new presentation on the impacts of climate change and the responses to it which the world needs to consider.
With his entrance he states that being optimistic should be a behavior and not a believe, since the consciousness about climate change has risen but there is still a lack of reaction.
Furthermore, one need to consider that it is not only important to change daily life but also to change laws. Moreover, citizens have to overcome the democracy crisis in order to deal with climate challenges.
He compares three categories of war to three categories of environmental challenges. Both exist on the same levels; local, regional and global. These stages need different solving approaches. As local problems he defines for example water problems, regional problems could be acid rain but the most needed response is to global and strategic issues, since those effect everything.
Gore points out that there urgently needs to be a worldwide global mobilization for renewable energy, conservation, efficiency and global transition to low a low carbon economy.
During the presentation he gives an example of the North Pole melting which has been in 2005 as big as the area east of the Mississippi. This leads to high pressure on Greenland since almost everything could be gone within the next five years.
As another concerning topic Gore compares the Earth to the Venus which have the same size and same amount of carbon, but whereas the Earth deposits carbon in ground in terms of coal and oil, the Venus has most of its carbon in the atmosphere. It gets problematic since we are taking out the carbon into the atmosphere, like it is at the Venus not considering that there is an average temperature of 855 degrees.
The influence of developed countries on developing countries has started a transition to higher emissions and these countries are catching up on a fast pace. However, Gore gives a simple solution to reduce poverty and emissions of wealthy countries which is to put a price on carbon.
Finally, he mentions that the USA has still not signed the Kyoto protocol which even Australia has done.
In conclusion, Al Gore encourages reaction to environmental challenges by saying that we are living in a generation which has the capacity and opportunity of changing for an optimistic future.