How long will it be before Al Gore is leading Barack Obama’s climate change programme?
The Nobel Peace Prize winner described his frustrations at being unable to persuade the Bush administration to take climate change seriously when I heard him speak in Cambridge.
Treehugger has a report of Obama saying he wants Gore as part of his team to 
address global warming:
“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He’s somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I’m already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now.”
Who better to lead on this than Gore? He will be inspirational.
Here is what Obama plans to do to combate climate change. He will move the U.S. away from petroleum as its primary energy source and towards renewable energy, advanced biofuels and efficiency and low greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies.
He plans to cap emissions such as carbon dioxide and auction greenhouse gas credits to encourage a fundamental transition away from high emitting industries to low-carbon alternatives. He believes such a policy would be more aggressive than any other cap-and-trade system proposed.
As part of that policy shift, renewable energy, natural gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and advanced electricity transmission are forecast to receive a major boost. Obama has proposed using $150 billion from the emissions auction to fund such low-carbon alternatives over the next decade.
I plan to be writing much more on climate change from now on. We need to understand and debate this very important topic.
[…] More here: When will Al Gore join Obama’s team? […]
How long will it be before Al Gore is leading Barack Obama’s climate change programme?
Hopefully never, ever, ever. Sorry, Ellee, I can not accept that a science that can’t tell me with 100% precision if it will or will not rain on Saturday can nevertheless assure me that Florida will be largely underwater in 50 years. Al Gore thinks otherwise. He represents a blind alley.
Far better that we spend time and effort on identifying and implementing realistic (and less polluting) alternative energy sources. That will be good for the U.S. and for the West as a whole and, if there really were something to this idea of human-caused global climate change, finding and implementing real alternative energy strategies would do more to retard climate change than anything else we might do anyway.
(P.S. — I don’t doubt that climate change is underway. The climate of the Earth is always changing. And I don’t doubt that mankind has an influence on climate, at least in certain local areas. But I don’t think we can stop climate change — it would change whether we were here or not. I do think we should understand how our climate is changing and plan how to cope with the inevitable changes. But in the meantime — let’s focus on energy sources and NOT on Al Gore.)
Thanks Ellee for linking to my blog. Hope you will like it !
Both you and Curmudgeon have some good points, Ellee.
Well Elle,
I’ve got a feeling that the majority of young americans 18-30 year olds might have voted for Obama and change
but not convinced that the majority of young americans are on the environmental bandwagon yet, after all they can ‘drive’ before they can drink or vote – lol!
I guess Al Gore would enjoy being Obama’s environment minister
but one thing is gabbing on about the environment in opposition, another thing is playing second fiddle to the man in the white house – when you are an also ran.
We shall see how it pans out.
I’m with Curmudgeon on this one. Have never been a fan of Gore and find him a bit of a self-aggrandizing fraud. He was a dud as Clinton’s vice-president and a lot of his climate findings have been rightfully challenged.
When will Hillary depose Obama. THAT is the question!!!
Ian Lidster: It is certainly true that many of his findings have been rightfully challenged, but he has been one of the frontrunners in getting the world to open his eyes to the climate problem. and that is no small feat..
Despite what the sceptics here say, I am also a big fan of Al Gore. He has done so much to raise the profile of climate change internationally, and it was no easy task, especially in America.
And another thought too, I expect Schwarzenegger could make a valuable contribution too following his pioneering green California:
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/90617.php