Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore

On Environment: Humans can impact earth’s ecology; especially the atmosphere

On Energy & Oil: Skeptics point to historical warming--but today is hotter

Nevertheless, the so-called global warming skeptics often say that global warming is really an illusion reflecting nature’s cyclical fluctuations. To support their view, they frequently refer to the Medieval Warm Period. But as [the historical] thermometer shows, the vaunted Medieval Warm Period was tiny compared to the enormous increases in temperature of the last half-century.

In any given year, it might seem as if the average global temperature is going down, but the overall trend is very clear. And in recent years, the rate of increase has been accelerating. In fact, if you look at the 21 hottest years measured, 20 of the last 21 occurred within the last 25 years. The hottest year on record during this entire period was 2005.

On Environment: To let earth continue warming would be deeply immoral

There is not a single part of this 650,000-year record--no fact, date, or number--that is controversial in any way or in dispute by anybody. To the extent that there is a controversy at all, it is that a few people in some of the less responsible coal, oil, and utility companies say, “So what? That’s not going to cause any problem.”

[Does temperature follow CO2 levels?] It’s a complicated relationship, but when there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, the temperature increases because more heat from the Sun is trapped.

But if we allow this to happen, it would be deeply and unforgivably immoral. it would condemn coming generations to a catastrophically diminished future.

On Principles & Values: Son’s serious accident spurred interest in environment

I tell this story because it was a turning point that changed me in ways I could not have imagined. I asked myself how did I really want to spend my time on Earth? The environment had for years been at the forefront of my policy concerns, but it had been competing for attention with a lot of issues. Now, in this comprehensive and soul-searching rethinking of how I would spend my time, the global environment trumped other concerns. I realized that this was the crisis that should occupy the bulk of my efforts.

I believe I was handed not just a 2nd chance, but an obligation to do whatever I can at this moment of danger to try and make sure that what is most precious about God’s beautiful Earth--its livability for us, our children, future generations--does not slip out of our hands.

On Energy & Oil: Ocean warming causes stronger hurricanes, like Katrina

As the oceans get warmer, storms get stronger. In 2004, Florida was hit by 4 unusually powerful hurricanes. That same year, Japan set an all-time record for typhoons. The previous record was 7. In 2004, 10 typhoons hit Japan.

The emerging consensus links global warming to increasingly destructive power of hurricanes, increasing the strength of the average hurricane a full half-step on the well-known 5-step scale. As water temperatures go up, wind velocity goes up. One major study came out less than a month before Hurricane Katrina hit.

When Katrina first hit, it was only a category 1 storm. Then, it passed over the unusually warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico [and became category 5].

On Energy & Oil: Global warming causes more floods & also more droughts

Recently, for example, there were huge floods in Sichuan and Shandong provinces. Paradoxically, however, global warming also causes not only more flooding, but also more drought. The nearby Anhui province was continuing to suffer a severe drought at the same time the neighboring areas were flooding.

One of the reasons for this paradox has to do with the fact that global warming not only increases precipitation worldwide but at the same time causes some of it to relocate.

A second reason for the paradoxical effect of global warming is that while it produces more evaporation from the oceans to fill the warmer atmosphere with increased moisture, it also sucks more moisture out of the soil. Partly as a consequence, desertification has been increasing in the world decade by decade.

On Foreign Policy: Drought from global warming set stage for Darfur genocide

Just 40 years ago Lake Chad was as large as Lake Erie--formerly the 6th largest lake in the world. But now due to declining rainfall and ever-intensifying human use, it has shrunk to 1/20th of its original size. The lake’s dissipation has led to collapsing fisheries and crops.

While Lake Chad withered, intense drought set the stage for the violence that erupted in neighboring Darfur, a war-torn region of Sudan.

The more we understand about climate change, the more it looks as if we may be the real culprit--the US emits 1/4 of the world’s greenhouse gases. We helped manufacture the suffering in Africa, and we have a moral obligation to try to fix it.

On Energy & Oil: Supported ethanol in 1970s & cellulosic ethanol now

On Energy & Oil: Arctic ice is melting & may disrupt global weather patterns

The melting of the ice cap represents bad news for creatures like polar bears. A new study shows that for the first time, polar bears have been drowning in significant numbers.

What does it mean to look at a vast expanse of water that used to be ice? We ought to care about this because it has serious planetary effects. An increase of 5 degrees actually means an increase of only 1 or 2 degrees at the Equator, but more than 12 degrees at the North Pole. And so all those wind and ocean patterns that formed during the last ice age, are now up in the air.

Our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this.

On Corporations: Commerce wounds nature that can no longer heal itself

Nature, by contrast, is slow-moving, undemanding, maybe underwhelming for many people. But if you never put yourself in the midst of nature--to understand that its essence is our essence--then you’re inclined to treat it as trivial. You become willing to abuse and destroy it through carelessness, not recognizing that to do so is wrong.

We’ve come to accept that if nature can yield something of value to the lucrative engines of commerce, then we should grab it and rip it out, never thinking twice about the wounds left behind. According to this way of thinking, if exploitation results in injury to the environment, so be it: nature will always heal itself. But the magnitude of environmental destruction is now on a scale few ever foresaw; the wounds no longer simply heal themselves. We have to act affirmatively to stop the harm.

On Homeland Security: Real danger to WTC is not terrorism, but rising sea levels

But if sea levels rose 20 feet worldwide, the site of the World Trade Center Memorial would be underwater.

Is it possible that we should prepare for other serious threats in addition to terrorism? Maybe it is time to focus on other dangers as well.

On Technology: Tech makes us a force of nature; obligation to use wisely

Our new technologies, combined with our numbers, have made us, collectively, a force of nature. And those with the most technology have the greatest moral obligation to use it wisely. And this too, is a political issue. Policy matters. The US is responsible for more greenhouse gas pollution than South America, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Japan, and Asia--all put together.

On Energy & Oil: Carbon exchange market can cap-and-trade CO2 like we did SO2

A similar approach can speed up the reduction of CO2 emissions. The European Union has adopted this US innovation and is making it work effectively. Here at home, while Congress has not yet passed a federal cap-and-trade system for CO2 emissions, there is an effective private-sector carbon market that is already up and running--the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).

The CCX is leading the way toward a future in which reducing CO2 could bring not only environmental rewards, but financial ones too.

On Energy & Oil: Consensus on global warming, but newspapers fabricate doubt

There is a misconception that the scientific community is in a state of disagreement about global warming. In fact, there is virtually no serious disagreement on the central points.

The misconception of disagreement is actually an illusion that has been deliberately fostered by oil & coal companies. These companies want to prevent any new policies that would interfere with their current business plans that rely on the massive unrestrained dumping of CO2 into the Earth atmosphere every day.

On Environment: Use market capitalism as ally of environmentalism

The environmental impact of our economic choices has often been ignored because traditional business accounting has allowed these factors to be labeled “externalities” and routinely excluded from the balance sheet.

Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p.270 May 26, 2006

On Energy & Oil: Current tech can reduce CO2 emissions to 1970 levels

• Reduction from more efficient use of electricity in heating and cooling systems, lighting, appliances and electronic equipment.
• Reduction from end-use efficiency, meaning we design buildings and businesses to use far less energy.
• Reduction from increased vehicle efficiency by manufacturing cars that run on less gas and putting more hybrid and fuel-cell cars on the roads.
• Reduction from making other changes in transport efficiency, such as designing better mass transit systems.
• Reduction from increased reliance on renewable energy technologies that already exist.
• Reduction from the capture and storage of excess carbon from power plants and industrial activities.

On Energy & Oil: Dealing with global warming inconvenient for rich & powerful

The truth about global warming is especially inconvenient and unwelcome to some powerful people and companies making enormous sums of money from activities they know full well will have to change in order to ensure the planet’s livability.

These people--especially those at a few multinational companies with the most at stake--have been spending many millions of dollars every year in figuring out ways of sowing public confusion about global warming.

On Technology: Internet restores press integrity lost by 1-way TV dominance

On Energy & Oil: We solved ozone crisis; can solve CO2 crisis by same methods

In 1987, 27 nations signed the Montreal Protocol, the first global environmental agreement to regulate CFCs. At last count there were 183 signatories, and the levels of CFCs have stabilized or declined.

Today, as the CO2 crisis unites us, we must remember the lesson of the CFC battle: that cool heads can prevail and alter the course of environmental change for the better.