Energy crisis threatens U.S. survival, Gore says

by Mon-Mage | July 17, 2008 at 10:23 am
10857 views | 14 Recommendations | 23 comments

Photos

Energy crisis threatens U.S. survival, Gore says

Energy crisis threatens U.S. survival, Gore says

see larger image

uploaded by Milieunet

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States should be making all of its electricity with renewable and carbon-free energy in 10 years, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday.

America's security, environmental and economic crises are all related, Al Gore said Thursday.

America's security, environmental and economic crises are all related, Al Gore said Thursday.

"The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said.

In a speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, Gore touched on an array of the nation's current woes, saying the economic, environmental and national security crises are all related.

"I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said.

To begin to fix all the problems, Gore said, "the answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels."

Gore called on the country to produce all of its electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources in 10 years, a goal he compared to President Kennedy's challenge for the country to put a man on the moon in the 1960s.

Gore chastised those who have proposed opening new areas for oil drilling as a solution to U.S. energy problems.

"It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil 10 years from now," Gore said.

New demand from places like China means oil supplies won't be able to meet increasing demand, Gore said.

"The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 a gallon gasoline," the former vice president and Nobel laureate said. Read Gore's full speech

After losing the presidential election to then-Texas Gov. George Bush in 2000, Gore returned to the nation's political main stage with "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary film detailing global warming's effects on the planet, in 2006. The widely acclaimed film went on to win an Academy Award for best documentary in 2007.

In the movie, Gore explains how the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have grown exponentially in the last few decades and how that has lead to changes in the Earth's climate, such as shrinking polar ice caps and an increase in the number of hurricanes and other violent storms.

Don't Miss

To counteract the effects of global warming, Gore has pushed for polices that would reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, such as greater energy conservation and the development of alternative energy sources like wind and solar energy. Gore has also advocated for governments to tax the emission of carbon dioxide.

Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for increasing awareness of the climate change issue and for advocating for policies that could potentially offset the effects of global warming.

Gore's return to the political arena has drawn increased scrutiny, particularly of his energy use. In 2007, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research chastised Gore for "extravagant energy use" at his Nashville, Tennessee, mansion.

Gore subsequently has installed solar panels, compact fluorescent light bulbs and other energy-saving technologies in his home.



After his documentary, an inconvenient truth Al Gore has now released a statement that the survival of the U.S. is at hand. It is difficult to expect that our politicians would pay any attention to this or his ultimatum of using renewable fuels within ten years.

recommend Add a comment
EverythingFinance
EverythingFinance
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:57 on July 17th, 2008

Mon-Mage, I like this story. It's good stuff.

0
René

Just how big is Gore's home?

0
conservativeNOTnew

You might find this link of interest: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/al_gore_energy.htm  Although the email writen of in this link is obviously anti Gore, the content - as discussed in the link - is correct. I believe that if Gore is so extremely concerned that the earth is in peril, he should be DOING something about it, not spending money in the form of carbon 'credits' to make himself and the rest of the liberal crowd feel better without solving the problem. Long after the movie debut and the spotlight turned on him, he decided to get a little more energy efficient - not before or even while the movie was being made. His excuse ? Why, he gave money to things that STILL don't help the situation which - according to Mr. Gore - have us on the brink of extinction unless we act NOW. Typical liberal - take money from something they deem 'not good' and give it to something they annoint as 'good' so they don't have to actually let their actions show their true lack of concern about the environment. I propose Mr. Gore give ME the carbon credit money and I will go completely 'carbon neutral' - sell my car, heat my home with gas from cow droppings and generate my own electricity. Then he will have actually REDUCED total carbon emmisions instead of paying somebody hush money to cover his own lack of action. 

0
dooter

"I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said.

I gues the dumbass doesnt remember the great depression, or the world wars, or civil war, or the revolutionary wars.  Of course all your sheeple lefty nimrods think it sounds good. Communism sounds great on paper as well

0
amyjudd

Well he wasn't alive then - maybe that's what he meant.

0
kabpopeye

you are the dumbass. You can't even spell guess, not gues, The way the sentence is structured it implies " within his memory", not the memory of all time.  By your logic he also should mention the great flood, the black plague etc. etc.  He assumes, incorrectly, that you have brains enough to figure that out, don't project, reflect.

0
Dave123456

Kabpopeye, don't make excuses for Gore, "I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," is a just a bit over the top. He did grew up during the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam War, and the Energy Crisis of the 70's. I'm not saying he is wrong. He is just overstating the his opinion. Sort of like Neo-Cons comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler. Also, don't tell a guy he is stupid because of a typo. Its an over generalization and just being a prick at the same time.

0
Dave123456

I left some typos for you to enjoy.

0
Thelonius Monk

Bells will be ringing

the sad sad news

albert has got the ecology blues

0
Kevin O'Mara

Hey fark--there was no USA during the revolutionary way.  That's what we got when we won.

 

Barbara McPherson
Barbara McPherson
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:09 on July 17th, 2008

Mon-Mage, I like this story. It's good stuff.  This planet is facing a crisis, but most of us would rather not think about it.  I find statements coming from Mr. Gore a case of "Do as I say, not as I do."  Carbon offsets or credits do nothing to reduce the carbon load.  They just shift the guilt.  Please don't call each other names.  You all have valuable insights to contribute.

0
Dixie Flyer

Hypocrite Gore - owner of oil stock, seller and profiteer in carbon credits, and movie millionaire! My "footprint" will never catch up to his. Did he ever come clean on the hundred -to-two-hundred taxpayer-funded trips West to campaign for President the whole time he was Veep?

I'll give him credit for courage, though - he made a powerpoint and called it a Best Picture of the Year without Hollywood making a peep about it!

0
BAH

Anyone but a child has been througt this stuff before. The only difference is that there are more ignorant people now. There are probably more who will do any stupid scam for a buck. That is Al!

Global warming is great but we have no idea what the next cycle will be. CO2 is wonderful! Trees love it. You probably shouldn't put it up your nose.

See a page about all the climate change scares in the last 100 years. http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice/fireandice.asp

My comment better expressed. http://www.edge.org/q2003/q03_dutton.html

See a News Week article on climate change. http://www.denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm

0
René

Hi, Denis. You should sign up and post your views here, instead of hiding behind an anonymous name like BAH. I think you probably have good views, from just a quick perusal.

0
babs4of9s

Oh you mean building 100 new pebble nuclear reactors? Cool, glad you are on board!!!

Paschen
Paschen
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 22:40 on July 17th, 2008

Mon-Mage, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Well, he is correct, yet I am not sure if he realises how right he actually is!

0
O'dissious

AlGore said:  "I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said.

Al, try thinking back to the late 1970's. I believe Jimmy Carter was President.

P.S. I finally sent my old cardigan sweater to Goodwill! Good riddance!

Drill here, drill now, and it won't take 10 years to get any new-found oil to market. Try asking someone in the oil-prodction industry. They will tell you 1-2 years.

 

0
John the Evil Skeptic

After the embarrassment over how much energy his house consumes, Al Gore conducted a high-profile retrofit, installing all kinds of new (and expensive) energy saving technologies.  The result?  Energy usage went up another 10%!

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

Such serves as the perfect example of the results of the liberal plan for our country and economy; they’re going to force us to spend a large fortune to address a problem that mostly does not exist, and in the end we’re just going to make the problem worse.

Milieunet
Milieunet
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:32 on July 18th, 2008

Mon-Mage, I like this story. It's good stuff.

“For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It’s a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer.”

–Democratic candidate Barack Obama in response to Al Gore.

0
DaleC

I guess VP Gore doesn't remember the Carter years of 20% mortgage (not credit card, mortgage), 14% unemployment (not 5%) and high (over 10%?) inflation. He can't remember the "Misery Index". He can't rememebr a real (ie not a mental one) recession, hint we are not in one now..... He can't rememebr a bunch of punks like Iran taking our embassy hostage for 444 days.... or our arch enemy invading Afghanistan and we just stood by becasue we were too weak..... he doesn't even rememebr Vietnam (where he served, as a reporter but he served) or Nixon...

Why should he remember those things? After all, we can't expect a man who was a US Congressman at that time to notice little details like that, now can we?

 

0
owl_gore_is_a_fraud

Mmmmmmmmmmm lemme see, the fraudster himself travels in a huge jet and has his family sitting in a idling Chevy Suburban while he gives a speech about how he has changed the light bulbs in his house to counter global warming. Anyone who takes what this man and for that matter anything that the socialist dems have to say as fact is either downright stupid or too ignorant to check facts. When you get to the bottom line on global warming it is all about additional ways to get more of your hard earned money. Take a page from history. When the vikings discovered GREENLAND it was a green and hospitable place. It is now glacier and snow covered. Same with North America which was called VINELAND. Grapes cannot grow in colder climates as they were in Nova Scotia back in 1000a.d. Betcha it was the native americans industry and carbon fueled vehicles that was causing it !  Please America do a littile research before you let this fraud take your money, and if you have any common sense check on Obama's background, his lack of production as a representative in both state and federal capacity. Please discover who he has bedded down with to further his political dreams. Scary.

0
UTGeologist

I am a Geologist for a reputable exploration company in the DFW area and i can say as an expert its not 10 years to production of new domestic oil its 6 months to a year for the Bakken formation in ND and 1-2 years for deep water Gulf of Mexico. OCS oil is 1-2 years if floating production platforms are used instead of seafloor pipelines the backlog will be drillships there is a 3 year backlog as the industry ramps up for a repeat of the late 1980's of massive new production world wide. It really is amazing how $100+ oil can stimulate an industry to seek new sources, and make a few of us former starving Geologists very very wealthy no more teaching community college for 45K a year the going rate is 150K for a Master in Geophysics. If one is willing to relocate to Canda or the Middle East 300 a year is not uncommon for 10 years of tenure.

0
Flu-Bird

Excuse me but isnt this the jerk who wrote the book ASSUALT ON REASON? then he is running around acting like he is stupid? THAT BECUASE AL GORE IS STUPID

Add a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

closeSign in to NowPublic

is reporting from