Averting the climate crisis Al Gore
thank you so much Chris and it’s a it’s
truly a great honor to have the
opportunity to come to this stage twice
I’m extremely grateful I have been blown
away by this conference and I want to
thank all of you for the the many nice
comments about what I had to say the the
other night and I and I say that
sincerely
partly because I need that
put yourselves in my position
I flew on Air Force two for eight years
now I have to take off my shoes or boots
to get on an airplane
I’ll tell you one quick story to
illustrate what that’s been like for me
it’s a true story every bit of this is
true soon after tipper and I left the
White House I we were driving from our
home in Nashville to a little farm we
have 50 miles east of Nashville driving
ourselves I know it sounds like a little
thing to you but
I I looked in the rearview mirror and
all of a sudden it just hit me
there was no motorcade back there you’ve
heard of phantom limb pain
this
this was a rented Ford Taurus
it was dinnertime and we started looking
for a place to eat we were on i-40 we
got to exit 238 Lebanon Tennessee we got
off the exit started looking but we
found a Shoney’s restaurant low-cost
family restaurant chain for those of you
don’t know it we went in and sat down at
the booth and the waitress came over
made a big commotion over tipper she
took our order and then went to the
couple in the booth next to us and she
lowered her voice so much I had a really
strained hear what she was saying and
she said yes that’s former Vice
President Al Gore and his wife tipper
and the man said he’s come down a long
way
there’s been kind of a series of
epiphanies the very next day continuing
a totally true story I got on a g5 to
fly to Africa to make a speech in
Nigeria in the city of Lagos on the
topic of energy and I began the speech
by telling them the story of what had
just happened the day before in
Nashville and I told it pretty much the
same way I’ve just shared it with you
tipper and I were driving ourselves
Shoney’s low-cost family restaurant and
what the man said they left I gave my
speech then went back out to the airport
to fly back home I fell asleep on the
plane until during the middle of the
night we landed on the Azores Islands
for refueling I woke up they opened the
door I went out to get some fresh air
and I looked and there was a man running
across the runway and he was waving a
piece of paper and he was yelling call
Washington call Washington and I thought
to myself the middle of the night middle
of the Atlantic what in the world could
be wrong in Washington I remembered it
could be a bunch of things
but but what it turned out to be was
that my staff was extremely upset
because a one of the wire services in
Nigeria had already written a story
about my speech and it had already been
printed in cities all across the United
States of America’s printed in Monterrey
I checked and the story began former
Vice President Al Gore announced in
Nigeria yesterday quote my wife tipper
and I have opened a low-cost family
restaurant named Shoney’s and we are
running it ourselves
before I could get back to US soil David
Letterman and Jay Leno had already
started in on one of them had me in a
big white chef’s hat
tipper was saying one more burger with
fries three days later I got a nice long
handwritten letter from my friend and
partner and colleague Bill Clinton
saying congratulations on the new
restaurant out
we like to celebrate each other’s
successes in life
it’s gonna talk about information
ecology but I was thinking that since I
planned to make a lifelong habit of
coming back to Ted that maybe I could
talk about that another time I want to
focus on what many of you have said you
would like me to elaborate on what can
you do about the climate crisis III I
want to start with a couple of I’m gonna
show some new images and I’m gonna
recapitulate just four or five now oh
the slideshow I update the slideshow
every time I give it I add new images
because I learned more about it every
time I give it
it’s like beachcombing you know every
time the tide comes in and out you find
some more shells
just in the last two days we got the new
temperature records in January this is
just for the United States of America
historical average for January’s is 31
degrees last month was 39 point five
degrees now I know that you wanted some
more bad news about the environment I’m
kidding
but these are the recapitulation slides
and then I’m going to go into a new
material about what you can do but I
wanted to elaborate on a couple of these
first of all this is where we’re
projected to go with the US contribution
to global warming
under business-as-usual efficiency in
induce electricity and in use of all
energy is the low-hanging fruit
efficiency and conservation it’s not a
cost
it’s a profit the sign is wrong it’s not
negative it’s positive these are
investments that pay for themselves but
they are also very effective in
deflecting our path cars and trucks I
talked about that in the slideshow but I
want you to put it in perspective it’s
an easy visible target of concern and it
should be but
there is more global warming pollution
that comes from buildings than from cars
and trucks cars and trucks are very
significant and we have the lowest
standards in the world and so we should
address that but it’s part of the puzzle
other transportation is efficiency is as
important as cars and trucks renewables
at the current levels of technological
efficiency can make this much difference
and with what the node and some and John
Doerr and others many of you hear a lot
of people directly involved in this this
wedge is going to grow much more rapidly
than the current projection shows it
carbon capture and sequestration that’s
what CCS stands for it is likely to
become the killer app that will enable
us to continue to use fossil fuels in a
way that is safe not quite there yet ok
now uh what can you do reduce emissions
in your home most of these expenditures
are also profitable insulation better
design by green electricity where where
you can I mentioned automobiles buy a
hybrid use light rail figure out some of
the other options that are much better
it’s important be a green consumer you
have choices with everything you buy
between things that have a harsh effect
or a much less harsh effect on the on
the global climate crisis consider this
make a decision to live a carbon neutral
life those of you who are good at
branding I’d love to get your advice and
help on how to say this in a way that
connects with the most people it is
easier than you think it really is a lot
of us in here have made that decision
and
it is really pretty easy it means it
means reduce your carbon dioxide
emissions with the full range of choices
that you make and then purchase or
acquire offsets for the remainder that
you have not completely reduced and what
what it means is elaborated at climate
crisis dotnet there is a carbon
calculator participant productions
convened with my active involvement the
leading software writers in the world on
this arcane science of carbon
calculation to construct a
consumer-friendly carbon calculator you
can you can very precisely calculate
what your co2 emissions are and then you
you will be given options to reduce and
in by the time the movie comes out in
May this will be updated to 2.0 and we
will have click-through purchases of
offsets next consider making your
business carbon neutral again some of us
have done that and it’s not as hard as
you think
integrate climate solutions into all of
your innovations whether you are from
the technology or entertainment or
design and architecture community invest
sustainably majora mentioned this listen
if you have invested money with managers
who you compensate on the basis of their
annual performance don’t ever again
complain about quarterly report CEO
management over time people do what you
pay them to do and if they judge how
much they’re going to get paid on your
your capital that they’ve invested based
on the short-term returns you’re gonna
get short term decisions a lot more to
be said about that become a catalyst of
change teach others learn about it
talk about it the movie comes out the
movie is a movie version of the slide
show that I gave two nights ago except
it’s a lot more enter
painting and it comes out in May many of
you here have the opportunity to ensure
that a lot of people see it consider
sending somebody to Nashville tick well
and I am personally going to train
people to give this slideshow repurposed
with some of the personal stories
obviously replaced with a generic
approach and it’s there it’s not just
the slides it’s what they mean and it’s
how they link together and so I’m going
to be conducting a course this summer
for a group of people that are nominated
by different folks to come and then give
it in mass and communities all across
the country and we’re going to update
the the slideshow for all of them every
single week to keep it right on the
cutting edge working with Larry Lessig
it will be at somewhere in that process
posted with tools and limited use
copyrights so that young people can
remix it and use it and do it in their
own way where did anybody get the idea
that you ought to stay arm’s length from
politics it doesn’t mean that I’m trying
to convey Republican that I’m trying to
convince you to be a Democrat
we need Republicans as well this audit
you used to be a bipartisan issue and I
know that in this group it really is
become politically active to make our
democracy work the way it’s supposed to
work support the idea of capping carbon
dioxide emissions global warming
pollution and trading it here’s why as
long as the United States is out of the
world system it’s not a closed system
once it becomes a closed system with us
participation then everybody who’s on a
board of director people here serves
serve on the board of directors of a
corporation once it’s a closed system
you will have legal liability if you do
not urge your CEO to get the maximum
income from reducing and trading the
carbon emissions that can be avoided the
market will work to solve this problem
if if we can accomplish this help with a
mass persuasion campaign that will start
this spring we have to change the minds
of the American people because presently
the politicians do not have permission
to do what needs to to be done and in
our modern country the role of logic and
reason no long no longer includes
mediating between wealth and power the
way it once did it’s now repetition of
short
hot-button 32nd 28 second television ads
we have to buy a lot of those ads let’s
rebrand global warming as many of you
have suggested I like climate crisis
instead of climate collapse but again
those of you who are good at branding I
need your help on this somebody said the
test we’re facing now a scientist told
me it’s whether the combination of an
opposable thumb and a neocortex is a
viable combination that’s really true I
said the other night and I’ll repeat now
this is not a political issue again the
Republicans here this shouldn’t be
partisan you have more influence than
some of us who are Democrats do this is
an opportunity not just this but
connected to the ideas that are here to
bring more coherence to them we are one
thank you very much