Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA — Former Vice President Al Gore discussed climate change and his new book on Monday, November 23, 2009, during the 21st annual Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Buckhead.

The Eizenstat lecture has hosted many influential national and international figures. Previously, in 2006, APN provided on-the-ground coverage of protests at the lecture by Paul Wolfowitz, erstwhile President of the World Bank.

Gore previously warned the world about the consequences of climate change in his Academy-award winning 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” In 2006, Gore visited Atlantic Station in Midtown to promote his movie, as noted in this APN report.

Now he is using his latest book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis” (Rodale, $26.99), to outline strategies and alternative energy technologies already available to stem the effects.

“We have to go far quickly,” Gore warned the hundreds in attendance Monday. “We have now come face to face with a prospect that can end human civilization.”

Gore said a spike in population and industrialization has led to the burning of more petroleum and coal worldwide, a situation he argued has become unsustainable.

“We are now putting, every 24 hours, 90 million tons of pollution into the atmosphere,” he said.

The United States reached “Peak Oil” in 1971, meaning the country has produced less petroleum every year since, he said. The drop in domestic production has forced increased petroleum importation, especially from hostile nations in the Middle East and South America.

“This roller coaster has had an alternating effect on our economy,” he said. “It is time for us to learn from our own historical experience.”

Gore argued generating our own energy from alternatives sources would improve not only our environment but also our economy and national security.

He suggested the U.S. government could immediately improve energy efficiency and put 2.5 million Americans to work by retrofitting homes and businesses with better insulation, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and more efficient appliances.

“Those jobs can’t be outsourced,” he noted.

In his book, Gore argues solar and wind technology will emerge as the two primary alternatives.

“Enough energy from the sun falls on this planet in one hour than all the energy created from man-made sources in one year,” he said.

Gore suggested placing a solar square 100 miles in length on one side in the U.S. desert would generate enough energy for the entire country for one year.

He also noted that while wind power is the largest new source of energy over the last two years, there are still areas in rural mountains where current infrastructure does not reach far enough for wind power to work.

Gore said the U.S. government should work to expand its infrastructure to these areas and “infuse” them with smart grids.

Alternative technologies like these, Gore argued, are far more efficient than the combustion engine and coal fire, which produce between two-thirds and 90 percent waste.

“We are well past the time where we can stand for such wasteful practices,” he said. “It is functionally insane.”

Gore did not rule out using ground source heat pumps to make use of enhanced geothermal energy nor did he rule out a place for biomass.

He also argued carbon capture sequestration and nuclear power will play a role but it will be small.

Gore said he has “grown more skeptical” of nuclear power since his days representing constituents living around the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Problems like storing nuclear waste, operational safety, and construction costs and duration are major hurdles that Gore said might be solved in the future but warned nuclear “is not a silver bullet.”

Gore held 30 different summits with scientists all over the world before writing his latest book. Proceeds will be donated to the Alliance For Climate Protection, which also received the cash prize that accompanied Gore’s 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

About the author:

Jonathan Springston is a Senior Staff Writer for Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

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