The Goracle Has His Say. (November 10, 2008)

In an extensive opinion piece, "The Climate for Change" in this Sunday's New York Times Nobel Laureate and former US vice president Al Gore sets down his views for the program that should be undertaken to allay global warming.

A few excerpts:

To those who are still tempted to dismiss the increasingly urgent alarms from scientists around the world... please wake up. Our children and grandchildren need you to hear and recognize the truth of our situation, before it is too late.

Economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive our economy in a quick and sustainable way.

[I]n the case of “clean coal,” [it is] too imaginary to make a difference in protecting either our national security or the global climate. Indeed, those who spend hundreds of millions promoting “clean coal” technology consistently omit the fact that there is little investment and not a single large-scale demonstration project in the United States for capturing and safely burying all of this pollution. If the coal industry can make good on this promise, then I’m all for it.

Here’s what we can do [now]... a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced.

[O]ffer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of concentrated solar thermal plants... wind farms... and advanced plants in geothermal hot spots.

[B]egin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used.

[H]elp America’s automobile industry (not only the Big Three but the innovative new startup companies as well) to convert quickly to plug-in hybrids that can run on the renewable electricity that will be available as the rest of this plan matures.

[E]mbark on a nationwide effort to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting.

Fifth, the United States should lead the way by putting a price on carbon here at home, and by leading the world’s efforts to replace the Kyoto treaty next year in Copenhagen with a more effective treaty that caps global carbon dioxide emissions and encourages nations to invest together in efficient ways to reduce global warming pollution quickly, including by sharply reducing deforestation... [T]he only way to secure a global agreement to safeguard our future is by re-establishing the United States as the country with the moral and political authority to lead the world toward a solution.