Gore calls for Carbon-Free Grid in the US

According to an article in the New York Times, Al Gore has called on the United States to switch to clean sources for electric power by 2020. (See excerpt of article below.)
Dot Earth: The (Annotated) Gore Climate Speech
Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.
“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”
Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal. He said the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision, although he said it would require fundamental changes in political thinking and personal expectations.
“This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” Mr. Gore said in his remarks at the conference. “It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life — to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”
Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 26 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.Check out the National IPL Blog.
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Al Gore's New Slideshow

See it at the Huffington Post.
Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 26 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.Check out the National IPL Blog.
Find discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Convenient Showing of An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth returns to the big screen at Cinestudio (Trinity College) in Hartford. Here is the Cinestudio write-up:

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (PG)Tue Jan 29 @ 7:30(2006) Directed by David Guggenheim, based on a presentation of Al Gore. Featuring: Al Gore.Not to lessen the positive rewards of making An Inconvenient Truth for former V.P. turned activist Al Gore (like winning the Academy Award® for Best Documentary and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize), but the more amazing impact of this eye-opening film has been the turn in public determination to pay attention to the threat of global climate change. If you've only seen it on DVD, now is the chance to experience the power of its visually stunning evidence of a planet in danger. You may even be inspired to urge the U.S. to get on board with the Kyoto Treaty - or to elect a President who will. 100 min.

CINESTUDIO 300 Summit St

Hartford CT
Telephone: 860 297 2544

Fax: 860 297 5126

Showtimes: 860 297 CINE

Visit http://www.cinestudio.org/ for the latest movie listings! Donate at http://www.networkforgood.org/

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.

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Bali Climate Talks Still Tense

Things are still tense between the US and EU in Bali, according to this article in Bloomberg (excerpt below.)

The European Union and developing nations have pushed for the agenda to state that industrialized nations should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. That would give future negotiations a clear goal, they said.
The U.S. argues that talks should first focus on ways to reduce emissions blamed for climate change, and then discuss specific targets. Delegates meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali are trying to bridge the gap between the EU and U.S., the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas, and salvage the UN talks on their final day.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who earlier this week was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of climate change, urged delegates yesterday to move ahead on the new treaty without the U.S., with the understanding that President Bush will be leaving office in almost a year. Gore shared the prize with a UN panel of scientists that reported global warming is very likely caused by humans.
``The United States is the world's most powerful economy, the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and therefore it has to be part of the solution,'' said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.
Delegates from more than 150 countries are in the final hours of talks to hammer out a two-year negotiating agenda leading to the signing of a new global treaty to fight global warming to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The conference has made progress in some areas. Delegates agreed on how to manage a pool of money that draws its income from United Nations emissions markets, and will pay grants to developing nations to help them adapt to the effects of global warming such as flooding and drought.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.Find discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Gore Urges US to Cooperate in Bali

According to an article in the New York Times, Al Gore is adding his voice to those urging to US to stop stalling on climate change action. (See and excerpt of the article below):

By THOMAS FULLER and ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: December 14, 2007
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Amid growing frustration with the United States over deadlocked negotiations at a United Nations conference on global warming, the European Union threatened Thursday to boycott separate talks proposed by the Bush administration in Hawaii next month.
Humberto Rosa, the chief delegate from Portugal, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said the discussions next month would be meaningless if there were no deal at the conference here this week on the resort island of Bali.
Germany’s environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, told reporters, “No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting.” He was referring to the formal name of the proposed American-sponsored talks.
The goal of the Bali meeting, which is being attended by delegates from 190 countries and which is scheduled to end Friday, is to reach agreement on a plan for a future deal to reduce greenhouse gases.
The escalating bitterness between the European Union and the United States came as former Vice President Al Gore told delegates in a speech that “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”
Mr. Gore arrived at the conference from Norway, where he, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to alert the world to the danger of global warming. He urged delegates to agree to an open-ended deal that could be enhanced after the Bush administration leaves office and the United States policy changes.
“Over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now,” Mr. Gore said to loud applause. “You must anticipate that.”
There appears to be broad consensus among the delegates that a new agreement on climate change should be ready by 2009, in time to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the current agreement that limits emissions by all wealthy countries except the United States, which signed the Kyoto agreement but has refused to adopt it. Gaping differences remain between countries over how to share the burden of switching from types of energy that contribute to global warming.
The United States and the European Union remain at odds on many major points, including whether an agreement signed here should include numerical targets, a move that the United States and a few other countries, including Russia, oppose.
The emerging economic powers, most notably China and India, also refuse to accept limits on their emissions, despite projections that they will soon become the dominant sources of the gases.
“I’m very concerned about the pace of things,” Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is playing host to the meeting, said Thursday.
The United Nations released fresh data on Thursday confirming what it called the planet’s continued and alarming warming.
The 10 years ending in 2007 were the warmest on record, said Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency, citing data taken since the late 1800s from a global network of weather stations, ships and buoys.
“It’s very likely the warmest period for at least the last 1,000 or 1,300 years,” he told reporters.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.Find discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Al Gore Accepts Nobel Prize

Al Gore caps off an amazing year by accepting a Nobel Peace Prize (shared with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), according to an AP article (see excerpt below):

Saying it's "time to make peace with the planet," Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.
The United States and China — the world's leading emitters of greenhouse gases — will stand accountable before history if they don't take the lead in that global challenge, the former vice president said.
"Without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the Earth itself," Gore said in his acceptance speech. "Now, we and the Earth's climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: 'Mutually assured destruction.' It is time to make peace with the planet."
Gore was awarded the prize for sounding the alarm over global warming and spreading awareness on how to counteract it. His co-winner, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was represented by the panel's leader, Rajendra Pachauri.
They received their Nobel gold medals and diplomas at a gala ceremony at Oslo's city hall, while the Nobel prizes for medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and economics were presented in a separate ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Gore urged government officials at a U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, to prepare the ground for quick negotiations on an emissions-limitation treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Gore and Pachauri will leave for the U.N. meeting Wednesday. "I will urge the delegates in Bali to adopt a bold mandate for a treaty," Gore said.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.

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Will You Be in Bali with Al?

Al Gore is speaking at the UN Climate Conference in Bali in nine days and he plans to take a petition on stage with him to demonstrate the support for meaningful action on climate change. If you would like to sign the petition, go to http://www.climateprotect.org/standwithal

Climate Laureates

Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will share the Nobel Peace Prize this year, according to the L.A. Times.

"His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change," the citation said. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
Gore's decades-long crusade against climate change was captured in the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which is seen as a major force in shifting the debate from whether the burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet to what should be done about it.

The Nobel Peace Prize is likely to increase calls for him to enter the 2008 presidential race, despite his insistence that he has no intention of running.

nterfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 22 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.htm

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Live Earth Pledge

Are you ready to take the Live Earth Pledge? Here is what it says:

I PLEDGE:
To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"
To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

If you are ready to take this pledge, go to http://www.algore.com/pledge/

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at http://www.irejn.org/.

That's Eco-tainment

Apparently even the eco-friendly famous have their own super-fans, who can now follow the every move of the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Sheryl Crow at ecorazzi, which bills itself as "the latest in green gossip". Today's story: the breakup of An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David and her Seinfeld co-creator hubby Larry David. Was Laurie's love of the earth to blame? Read the blurb (below), visit the website, and wallow in a little eco-voyeurism.

Making the rounds through the media circuits this afternoon is the sad news that Larry David and Laurie David are calling it quits after 14 years of marriage. As many of you know, we regularly have highlighted Laurie and Larry’s commitments to fighting global warming. Laurie David in particular has made massive waves with co-producing An Inconvenient Truth and her StopGlobalWarming site. Many consider her to be the #2 person in terms of environmental power in the United States behind Al Gore.
According to some reports, it may have been this sudden rise in fame and commitment to the cause that strained the relationship. In 2004, Larry David told Eric Alterman for a piece on Hollywood fundraising in The Atlantic:
“‘I heard nothing about the environment for all our lives and now this. I wish she would at least take back her own name.’”
Might the StopGlobalWarming tour with Sheryl Crow been the final nail in the coffin for the relationship? Obviously, speculating over why two people have separated doesn’t make us any better than the other gossip sites out there — but you have to wonder? We’ll leave it at that.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Bill McKibben: Momentum is Building

In Alternet, Bill McKibben says that sees signs of hope that the momentum to solve the climate crisis is building. Here is his editorial in its entirety:

When we started Step It Up 2007, all of 10 weeks ago, 80 percent cuts in carbon emissions by 2050 seemed at the very outer edge of the politically possible. A week ago, youth climate activist Courtney Fryxell, who is helping organize one of the Washington rallies for April 14, asked John Edwards point blank if he'd commit to 80 percent carbon cuts by 2050. "Yes," he said -- and with that earned himself real respect as the first of the major contenders out of the gate on this issue.
He won't, I think, be the last. Because what he was responding to was a surge in grassroots political activism all around this country. For instance, a few hours before Edwards talked, a group of intrepid religious climate activists in Massachusetts set off for a 10-day march to Boston -- it was enormous fun to applaud them as they left the church to start their journey because they symbolized the way that faith communities have come to this cause in the last year.
The next night in D.C., 800 people gathered for an evening organized by Mike Tidwell and Ted Glick, tireless activists from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, who for five years have been holding much smaller gatherings, slowly building the movement. The huge throng, cheered by the music of Emma's Revolution, clearly sensed the turn in the weather. Meanwhile, Laurie David and Sheryl Crow are circling the country putting on shows; Al Gore just testified before Congress; everywhere the force is building.
For many years, speaking at one college or church or library after another, I'd tell people about global warming and they'd say: we can't break through the wall of special interest and inertia that keeps the solutions bottled up. And I'd say, that's right, we can't. Not yet. But eventually the day will come when events -- Hurricane Katrina -- provide an opening. And when that opening comes, we'll need every network, every plan, every small model to build on. So we'll be able to seize the moment.
That's what's happening. Across the country, people who have been working for years and people who have just started worrying about global warming are quickly joining forces. Step It Up is only the most dramatic example -- earlier this week we went past the 1,000-rally mark; April 14 is going to be one of the most dramatic days in American environmental history. People in every state will be raising their voices, and when that happens the power will help speed this new consensus into being.
The battle won't be easy, of course. But finally Exxon has some opponents they can't ignore. Momentum counts, and momentum all of a sudden is squarely on our side.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Climate Change Skeptics Explained?

In the Huffington Post, blogger Chris Moon tries to get away from scorched-earth debates about Climate Change and offers a plausible explanation for skepticism on climate change, which has been most pronounced in the US Government amid members of the GOP. He argues that it goes deeper than a dislike for prominent climate change activist Al Gore.

I'd like to suggest that we consider some other factors:
1. The broad and longstanding conservative distrust of academia and "leftwing" campus intellectuals, including scientists. This allows many Republicans to dismiss large bodies of scientific research as essentially politicized and therefore safe to ignore.
2. The growth of ideological think tanks which provide alternative "facts" and alternative "knowledge" tailor-made for conservatives. It's not just that many Republicans reject mainline "science"; they actually have their own.
3. The growth of a rightwing media that quotes the think-tank "experts" and puts them on the air regularly--so that the sealed off alternative knowledge environment becomes complete and very hard for mainstream science to penetrate (especially when scientists themselves do not speak in a language designed to appeal to political conservatives).

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Mr. Gore Goes to Washington

“A day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they’ll ask one of two questions.” Either, “they will ask: what in God’s name were they doing?” or “they may look back and say: how did they find the uncommon moral courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise of American democracy?”
Al Gore made his long-anticipated trek back to Washington to testify before Congress on climate change. This was his first appearance on the Hill since leaving the office of Vice President in 2001. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune,

Gore advised lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide and other warming gases 90 percent by 2050 to avert a crisis. Doing that, he said, will require a ban on any new coal-burning power plants — a major source of industrial carbon dioxide — that lack state-of-the-art controls to capture the gases.
He said he foresees a revolution in small-scale electricity producers for replacing coal, likening the development to what the Internet has done for the exchange of information. He also advocated tougher fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks.
"There is a sense of hope in this country that this United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis," he said. "Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination."
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Gore Defended

Grist's David Robert's has struck back against the New York Times article about the backlash against the film "An Inconvenient Truth," analyzing the meandering article point by point.

His conclusion?

Bill Broad took to the pages of the paper of record to establish that there is significant concern in the scientific community about the accuracy of Gore's movie. To do so, he trotted out scientific outliers, non-scientists, and hacks with discredited arguments. In at least two cases (Pielke Jr. being a scientist and the NAS report contradicting Gore) he made gross factual errors. As for the rest, it's a classic case of journalistic "false balance" -- something I thought we were done with on global warming. I guess when it comes to Al Gore, the press still thinks it can get by on smear, suggestion, and innuendo.

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An Inconvenient Backlash

In a backlash that was perhaps inevitable, some scientists charge that "An Inconvenient Truth" overhypes effects of climate change and fails to explain nuances adequately.
According to the New York Times,

Kevin Vranes, a climatologist at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, said he sensed a growing backlash against exaggeration. While praising Mr. Gore for “getting the message out,” Dr. Vranes questioned whether his presentations were “overselling our certainty about knowing the future.”

Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton who advised Mr. Gore on the book and movie, said that reasonable scientists disagreed on the malaria issue and other points that the critics had raised. In general, he said, Mr. Gore had distinguished himself for integrity.

“On balance, he did quite well — a credible and entertaining job on a difficult subject,” Dr. Oppenheimer said. “For that, he deserves a lot of credit. If you rake him over the coals, you’re going to find people who disagree. But in terms of the big picture, he got it right.”

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Al Gore, You Just Got An Oscar! Where are you going?

If you're Al Gore, apparently you head to Washington--for a visit to Congress, that is. Gore's new initiative is a petition drive to get the US Congress to act quickly on climate change legislation. Here is the link to sign his petition:

http://www.algore.com/cards.html?sc=M0001

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Al Gore Under Attack

Op-ed News.com is reporting on what it refers to as A Far Too Convenient $mear: Part One: namely, an item that appeared on the Drudge report and rapidly metastisized that Vice President Gore has an outsized carbon footprint.

Responding to Drudge's attack, Vice President Gore's office told ThinkProgress:1) Gore's family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family's carbon footprint - a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore's office explains:
What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore's do, to bring their footprint down to zero.


The report comes from an organization that calls itself "The Tennessee Center For Policy Research."


As of Feb. 16, the Tennessee tax dept. considers them "not a legitimate organization" because of their misrepresenting themselves involving questions about the group's opposition to a state crackdown on drug dealers.


IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Oscar Goes Green

In addition to honoring "An Inconvenient Truth" as best documentary and Melissa Etheridge's original song for the film "I Need to Wake Up," the 2007 Academy Awards integrated eco-friendly practices into its production this year.
As reported in The New York Times,

Mr. Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, a nominee for best actor (“Blood Diamond”), announced in the middle of the telecast that the program had offset its carbon emissions by buying energy credits. “This show has officially gone green,” Mr. DiCaprio said.
The Oscars adopted other conservation measures this year, such as using recycled paper for the Oscar ballots. “We have a long way to go, but all of us, in our lives, can do something to make a difference,” Mr. Gore said.
But Mr. Gore did not throw his hat in the ring, as the producers of his film, among others in Hollywood, had hoped he might. Asked if he had a major announcement to make, Mr. Gore said: “With a billion people watching, it’s as good a time as any. So my fellow Americans, I’m going to take this opportunity, here and now, to formally announce” — and the Oscars orchestra, right on cue, drowned him out as if he had droned on a second too long.

Later, when the Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth" was announced, Al Gore joined the director and producers onstage.

“I made this movie for my children,” said the director, Davis Guggenheim[as he accepted the award], his arm on Mr. Gore’s shoulder. “We were moved to act by this man.”
Mr. Gore took his moment in the worldwide spotlight to underline the film’s message. “My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis,” he said, adding that the “will to act” was a renewable resource. “Let’s renew it,” he said.

Learn more about the greening of the Oscars at www.oscar.com.
View a CNN video of Al Gore speaking at a press conference after the ceremony.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Live Earth 07/07/07

Al Gore has announced a 24-hour Live Aid-style event to be held on July 7 and featuring over 100 music stars, including Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Eyed Peas, and Snoop Dogg. It will take place at seven different locations simultaneously, including London, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg and locations to be named in Japan, Brazil and the US.

The proceeds will create a foundation to combat climate change led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, currently chaired by Gore.
"In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people," Gore said.
"The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement."

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Chevy Pitchman Changes His Tune

According to NPR, Detroit rocker Bob Seger, whose anthem "Like A Rock" served as the theme for Chevy Pickup TV ads for many years, has changed his tune. On his new album "Face the Promise" he sings of his concern for climate change in the song "Between":

World keeps getting hotter

Ice falls in the sea

We buy a bigger engine and say it isn't me.

N.B. This blogger is a lifelong Bob Seger fan who knows all the lyrics to "Night Moves."

Check out more Bob Seger tattoos and tour info at the fan site.

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