Can We Save the Planet and Rescue the Economy at the Same Time?

America's next moon shot.

—By Al Gore
—Photo: Guenter Standl/LAIF/Redux

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits, and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States as we know it is at risk. And even more—if more should be required—the future of human civilization is at stake.


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Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse. Gasoline prices have been increasing. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies, and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. The war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis is growing more dire—much faster than predicted. Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing beneath the north polar ice cap have warned that there is now a good chance that within five years it will completely disappear during the summer months. And by the way, our weather sure is getting strange, isn't it?

Yet when we look at these seemingly intractable challenges, we can see the common thread running through them. Our dangerous overreliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all of these challenges—the economic, environmental, and national security crises. We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.

If we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems will begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hands. The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity.

But to make this exciting potential a reality, we need a new start. That's why I'm proposing a strategic initiative designed to regain control of our own destiny. It's not the only thing we need to do. But it's the linchpin of a new strategy to repower America. I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life: political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and every citizen.

A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But the sharp cost reductions beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power—coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal—have radically changed the economics of energy.

Of course there are those who will tell us this can't be done. Some are the defenders of the status quo, those with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one opec oil minister observed, the Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones.

We should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make.

America's transition to renewable energy sources must also include adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship. We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry.

To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to remember that when demand for oil and coal increases, the price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down. To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people's appetite for change.

A political promise to do something decades from now is universally ignored because everyone knows it is meaningless. But 10 years is about the time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target. When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. Eight years and two months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon.

That was 39 years ago, and since then, many Americans have begun to wonder whether we've lost our appetite for bold policy solutions. Folks who claim to know how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is contrary to the wishes of special interests.

I've got to admit, that seems to be the way things have been going. But I've begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are tired of baby steps and special interest politics. So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge—for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. This is a generational moment. We need to act now.

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Comments
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Al says "tax what we burn, not what we earn." AMEN! But GENERALIZE that: Tax the use and depletion of natural resources. Make THAT the mainstay of government revenue generation (applied to trade policy too). Stop punishing value creation.

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Al Gore: I'd LOVE to save the World, and I DO know what to do!!!
You'll be hearing from me - more formally (ahem) - soon!
The Earth is a Petri Dish, and sending out some Tubules is In Order; it's that, or Mutate and Cannabilize - Really; and YOU know it.
Giant Steps in Works!
Signed; Still reading Sir Clarke, hearing Neil Armstrong, and seeing Walter Cronkite, cicra 1969!

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Hey, Al. How come whenever people (like you) make reference to renewable energy sources, you list solar, wind and geothermal, but never mention wave or tidal energy? Unlike the sun, which sets every day, and the wind, which sometimes doesn't blow, the oceans and great lakes are in constant motion, and the kinetic energy in the movement of all that water is enormous! Since a very substantial segment of our population is situated near oceans and the great lakes, the development of technology to tap this resource could deliver vast amounts of clean energy. By developing the technology with a sensitivity to the ecological impact, we could avoid the problems that traditional energy sources have brought. What am I missing here?

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I think this is the most sensible idea I have heard. I think it is very workable. Now give us some ideas, so we can spread them around.

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The following quotes, facts, figures and statistics are excerpted from Please Don't Eat the Animals (2007), by Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:

"A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter: What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet."

---John Robbins, author, Diet for a New America, and President, EarthSave Foundation

One study puts animal waste in the United States to between 2.4 trillion to 3.9 trillion pounds per year. The United states produces 15,000 pounds of manure per person. This is 130 times the amount of waste produced by the entire human population of the United States.

A 1,000-cow dairy can produce approximately 120,000 pounds of waste per day. This is the functional equivalent of the amount of sanitary waste produced by a city of 20,000 people.

A 20,000-chicken factory produces about 2.4 million pounds of manure a year. Poultry factories are one of the fastest growing industries throughout Asia.

One pig excretes nearly three gallons of waste per day, or 2.5 times the average human's daily total. One hog farm with 50,000 pigs in France produces more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles, and some pig farms are much larger.

Factory farm pollution is the primary source of damage to coastal waters in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Scientists report that over sixty percent of the coastal waters in the United States are moderately to severely degraded from factory farm nutrient pollution. This pollution creates oxygen-depleted dead zones, which are huge areas of ocean devoid of aquatic life.

Meat production causes deforestation, which then contributes to global warming. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and the destruction of forests around the globe to make room for grazing cattle furthers the greenhouse effect. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports that the annual rate of tropical deforestation has increased from 9 million hectares in 1980 to 16.8 million hectares in 1990, and unfortunately, this destruction has accelerated since then. By 1994, a staggering 200 million hectares of rainforest had been destroyed in South America just for cattle.

"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and sub-division developments combined."

---Philip Fradkin, in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York

Agricultural meat production generates air pollution. As manure decomposes, it releases over 400 volatile organic compounds, many of which are extremely harmful to human health. Nitrogen, a major by-product of animal wastes, changes to ammonia as it escapes into the air, and this is a major source of acid rain. Worldwide, livestock produce over 30 million tons of ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide, another chemical released from animal waste, can cause irreversible neurological damage, even at low levels.

The world Conservation Union lists over 1,000 different fish species that are threatened or endangered. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 60 percent of the world's fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95 percent in the north Atlantic.

The United States and Europe lose several billion tons of topsoil each year from cropland and grazing land, and 84 percent of this erosion is caused by livestock agriculture. While this soil is theoretically a renewable resource, we are losing soil at a much faster rate than we are able to replace it. It takes 100 to 500 years to produce one inch of topsoil, but due to livestock grazing and feeding, farming areas can lose up to six inches of topsoil a year.

Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals. By comparison, urbanization only affects 3 percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world's land resources.

Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.

The United States government spends $10 million each year to kill an estimated 100,000 wild animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, bears, and mountain lions just to placate ranchers who don't want these animals killing their livestock. The cost far outweighs the damage to livestock that these predators cause.

The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 34 pounds of topsoil.

33 percent of our nation's raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only 2 percent of our resources will go to the production of food.

"It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second- and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the overpopulation of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat."

---Jeremy Rifkin, author, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation

Lester Brown of the Overseas Development Council calculates that if Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent per year, it would free at least 12 million tons of grain for human consumption--or enough to feed 60 million people.

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Al Gore is a good politician; he is not a scientist or an engineer or a financier (though he does seem to enjoy a large income) nor an historian. His global warming tirade took no account of the many times in global history when it was warmer than it is now, and with no people to cause it. No doubt the world's appetite for energy is expanding and all economical sources will be used. The economics of energy will change as technology developes.
None of the politicians is talking about the best way to sequester carbon -
growing plants. We are tearing them up to make housing developments for an ever growing population.

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All what Al Gore says and more! I'd like to see offices around the country and where possible for a human to power the work stations we use by using specially designed work stations with bike peddles that feed the energy into a hub that makes the power in the office. !!!! May sound a little silly,but we would be healthier too!

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Does anyone really realize the implications of getting off of Carbon based fuels-The entire Political Spectrum of the world will be changed and those that are profiting from this dependency will fight it every step of the way and they have both the funds and the power to stop it from happening! A Battle Royal is shaping up quickly!

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I'm in! This is doable and arms us all with great arguments to silence detractors if not get them on board as our most persuasive advocates. Please memorize Gore's talking points and practice them at your next dinner party!

While tackling the lofty goal of energy reform, we must also tackle the "easy" way to slash 25% of global carbon emissions: End Deforestation. Across tropical Asia, millions of hectares are slated for replacement by biofuel crops. If forest carbon were included on today's booming carbon market, it would be more profitable to manage Borneo's last remaining rainforests as carbon reserves than to convert them to plantations. Putting forests on the carbon market ASAP is another way to save the planet and rescue the ECOnomy.

The US says it wants to be a leader in shaping UN climate policy. So let's see it step up to the plate at the next summit -- December 2008 -- with bold support of energy and forest policies that safeguard *everyone's* best interests. Including the special interests' beachfront property.

We have until 2012 to reach agreement on what will replace the Kyoto Protocol. That's not a threat -- it's a challenge that will drive us to new heights.

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To the nay-sayers: as time goes on there are fewer and fewer of you, but you are still an irritating part of the problem, rather than part of the solution! As Mr. Gore says in the excerpt above, get with the program, or get out of the way.

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The key words are STATUS QUO.
Established, locked-in,
politically based industries
must have their influance nibbled away
like a "thousands cuts". Takes years.
Hurry.

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You got that right, Al. Let's face facts: The same people who are responsible for gutting our economy are the very ones responsible for gutting our planet, namely, BANKERS. Why bankers, you ask? Well, it's pretty simple, really. Bankers can't live off interest if the economy isn't growing. They can't loan a dollar today and collect a buck fifty later if, God forbid, we peons aren't running as fast as we can to power their little scam. Cultures have done just fine for thousands of years with stagnant or even shrinking economies, but NNNNNOOOOOOO, not here, folks. We have to CONSUME more and more each day, just to keep the gravy-train a' rollin'.

There's plenty of real work to be done, and a wonderful supply of people who have never done an honest day's work in their lives. Let's give Wall St., the speculators, bankers, landlords and their pals their first real jobs. Things like growing food, cleaning forests, making things so we don't have to help China's bankers and generally cleaning up the colossal mess we've made.

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I can honestly say we can do it, I produce large scales of Hydrogen from battery power induced with a step up transformer, all f my gel cell batteries are charged by the sun, if anyone needs info contact me at David_Duchesneau@yahoo.com I do not sell anything, I only give advice, good luck and God Bless.

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I To add to this, I heard that if we simply change the type of roofing on our homes and change the color of the roads we can save 25% emissions. Today, a nuclear physicist announced that there is a portable nuclear reactor (not the Chernobyl type) that can power up to 20, 000 homes and the cost would be 10 cents per kw. I am not advocating either because I do not know anything about technology but the point is that we have the technology to deal with the problem.
All of Mr. Gore's ideas are great and the US must become a leader but as he knows well the cost of most of these types of energies far exceeds what we pay today. Yes, we need to be leaders and yes we need to pay for this and in the long term we will win out, but while we do all of this China is building coal power plants. Mr. Gore knows that the pollution from these comes to our shores and that much effort on our part is negated by just one of their power plants. China is not the only one who had an unfair advantage under Kyoto. How do we even the playing field so that countries like China and India do not get an advantage over us? An agreement is of no use because China does not respect any agreements (think of the copyright laws).
Again, we can breathe all the good air we want but as long as the others are accelerating their push to destroy the earth, all of our efforts will be of little use.

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This is an amazing start but the change we need is fundamental shifts from income to use of our resources, along with a change in the mind set of Western Society. This video states these realities amazingly.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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Mr. Gore: Until you show yourself the leader you profess to be, you are falling on deaf ears, at least mine.
Get rid of that mansions and reside in a modest home. Keep your air on 78 degrees, park the jet and use public transportation. Until you do that you are a hypocrite. Seventy five percent of my daily travel in on a bicycle. I have taken cold showers for years. I don't waist the water since I'm not in there very long but, it is invigorating. We live multi-generational and multi-family,AreYou??t?
Your carbon footprint is huge and you insult to those of us who are conciously conserving. Get it right, or get off the stage.

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Al Gore has always been ahead of the curve. For the sake of all life on Earth, for once let's listen to Gore's sage advice.

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I don't understand why it is soooooo difficult to get more religion promoting pastors and the like thereof to promote environmentalism to their fans! What's it going to take? Are they scared of doing it? If they do it, will their lifetime followers take it to heart and make a valid effort to participate in the effort to restore Earth's health and well-being? I’d like to think they would. Who knows if the pastors will ever get the guts to stand behind environmental theology?

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How are we going to solve anything unless we address the issue of overpopulation? This has been the biggest failure of the green/environmental movement! I don't think there is a single environmental issue which cannot be directly linked to overpopulation. Why is no one talking about it?

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I've got to tell you guys ... I ROF and LMAO as I read this article. When are you gonna wake up and realize that the global warming farce was put into place to make money - and to place fear in the hearts of man so they'll open their pocketbooks good and wide.

I can see it's working, too. Sure worked here at Mother Jones. Hahahahaha!

Tell me this; can you give me just ONE example, of when the earth's climate DIDN'T change - daily ;)

You guys crack me up.

Most of your stuff is pretty decent, but your take on "climate change" (see how the name changed, as well?) is ludicrous.

Please do some more research before you make bigger fools of yourselves.

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Deb:

You have opened your mouth and proven yourself a fool.

Can you point to any time in history, ever, when the climate has changed so dramatically?

I think you may want to do some more research yourself. Even though it's by no means comprehensive, you can start with the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/stateofknowledge.html

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To Mr. Eakin and Deb.

Yes, the planet has gone through many changes. From being a ball of ice to mainly tropical to mostly deserts. The planet has gone through many extreme changes in condition. And for hundreds of thousands of years (if not longer) the earth has been going through "ice ages". But the thing that makes what is happening now dramatically and crucially different is all of earth changes that have happened before either took thousands of years or were the result of some sort of catastrophe such as a massive volcanic eruption or a meteor impact. All without the benefit of man's help.
What's happening now is happening on a time scale that is a blink of an eye compared to the progress of an ice age. There is no dramatic upheaval. What's happening is that we've increased the amount of methane by the order of over 1,000 percent in less than 100 years. There is no arguement that industrialization, mass consumerism and fossil fuel burning hasn't increased the global temperature. Science has proven this. NASA has proven this. It is nearly 100% univerally accepted across the scientific communities. We produce massive amounts of greenhouse gases. The increase in greenhouse gases is warming the planet. Where is the confusion? Who are these people making money from 'global warming'? A vast conspiracy of scientists looking for grants across the planet? Evil environmentalist worrying themselves into an early grave over their love of the planet? Take a step back from your position. Stop listening to Rush Limbaugh. The people who are working for changing the energy plans and working on pollution control don't do it for the money. Well 95% or more don't. They're concerned about the welfare of the planet and the life on it.

Thanks for posting the "Story of Stuff" Ben. Everyone on the planet should watch it and learn. Especially Mr Eakin and Deb.

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Al Gore is a liar and front man for the Club of Rome. Anthropomorphic climate change is a myth designed to put the screws to us via a carbon tax. Listen to an interview with Paul Joseph Watson about the Global Warming scam. It is a free MP3 download at http://drop.io/Summerbird It is the 6th audio file up from the bottom of the page.

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Gore is rite.
When will we ever learn?
And in addition why do we kill each other all over the planet?
Dont we know we are all in this together

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Amen, Brother Gore, the Beasley family from Arkansas supports you 100%. Thanks for writing this article. Stay with us, man. Don't give up on us. We need a leader like you.

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yes, you are absolutely right! the technology is already developed.

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We needed to act 10 years ago. Let us pray we haven't passed the tipping point!

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So yeah I am not a scientist, a finacier, or anything other than a recent graduate but I can do research too. Ballpark estimate of the total national subsidies (indirect and direct) to keep oil cheap 222.762 billion dollars a year(this is including state and local). That is enough money to convert the entire energy market to wind energy in exactly 6 years that leaves 4 years to switch the transport sector to something like coproduced hydrogen ;) or if that is too slow coproduced natural gas. Oh yeah and we can extract that in a way that takes co2 out of the atmosphere. 10 years pshaw lets shoot for 8 ;)

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Al Gore is right. A new administration should start Jan 20. 2009.

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10 years, 100% shift! Thank you, these are the sort of compelling policy initiatives we need to drive the economy forward and to shift the consciousness towards a more sustainable future.

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The earths climate is not changing at a rate any different than it has forever. There are tens of thousands of scientists who think the CO2 linked climate change theory is full of holes. Most of what you hear is second hand news reports. Just try and follow the sources of original data....if you can find it, they lead to a hand full of true believers who site their own works. CO2 linked climate change has become a religion. People believe that it the cause of everything that they think is wrong.

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An idea-
* CO2 is not a green house gas in that
it has simply no effect compared to the
continents of cloud of our 3/4 water world
* CO2 is the fertiliser of the sky - there
are plants that are decendents of CO2 rich early
atmosphere of earth that are CO2 starved.
* by the way no CO2 no plant growth
* Al Gore is making millions from carbon
credits- what is he doing with them
* All those scientists who sign up to this
deception should be put on notice- 'that this
garbage will be in the near future totally refuted
by continued climate variation and the non
disappearance of the cryosphere (ice at poles)
and that specifically you scientists who have
promoted this non science nonsense will be
made to account for your mis-deeds i.e.,
loss of funding and career.'

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The only way we will achieve the goal of zero-carbon electricity powering our country is to enlist NASA and their engineers and scientist to spearhead the project. We have change their mission from space exploration to creating a new power source for America and the world. All the collateral benefits we talk about with space exploration will apply and it will help American companies become the world's leaders in this new power and technology. Obama should make a American energy speech akin to Kennedy's "Man on the moon" speech. I can hear him now. "Ten years from now we will power America with a clean, sustainable energy source created by Americans for the betterment of the whole world."

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Please take a look at these companies: Epoch Energy Tech Corp, Taiwan, Genepax Japan, Skyonic, Arizona, Aquygen, VIVACE (vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy) as well as nano-solar and dyesensitized solar the above companies are using technologies to solve all our problems. Why isn't the Gov in UK or anywhere else for that matter implementing them?

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You are right. Overpopulation is the elephant in the room-- not to lessen the responsibility of all to use less carbon-based energy, but the population crisis needs real and ethical solutions published and pushed to the front of world-wide attention.

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Thanks to Al Boor, we have the carbon tax proposal (essentially a fart tax on every cow, pig, chicken and God knows what else). Interestingly, Bush signed an executive order last week exempting factory farms from any testing whatsoever, much less taxing them.

Hmmm, I smell a corporate rat... or a pack of them on both sides of the proverbial aisle. Just think, without those pesky mom and pop ranchers and farmers, we can all eat GMO frankenfoods and hormone-laced, tortured meat. Or preferably, nothing at all! (to please the likes of Kissenger, who calls us useless eaters, and other dictatorial types who impose the conditions for famines as soon as they rise to power)

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the simple truth is, that we already have the proven technology and practical experience to use wind and solar, all we have to do, is build it. kinetic energy from waves and tides may be good, but, why not build what we already have? as the carbonless energy system evolves we can always add other systems if we need them.

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While we are saving the planet, an ugly brown cloud is forming over China. I love the concept that the U.S. is going to save the planet with 14% of the world's population when the two Countries with the biggest Armies in the World are competing for the world's energy resources and technology. Russia and China have the fastest growing economies in the world and the U.S. thinks we have the SAY in what goes on-Get real! We are in the fight of our lives and have the stupidist and most egotistical government in the world!

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screw this article i want to go up to the north pole with some space heaters melt the ice after clubbing baby seals for furcoats and shooting down polar bears for carpet in my house from a helicopter

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We here around Lake Arenal in Costa Rica are planting diverse species of hardwood trees ( and more ) at our own incentive and cost, just because we believe in leaving this mother earth in better shape than we found her. e mail us: 3.Rivers.of.Joy@gmail.com ..thanks `

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Wow, You got that right! So come on down to Costa Rica and get in on a good thing.
Help us help our mother earth before we lose her. E me: 3.Rivers.of Joy@gmail.com

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Without a tax on all fuels,

Without a tax on all fuels, none of the fancy proposals of which Washington is so fond make any sense. You can force automakers to build small cars, but only a few will buy them with gas at $2. You can build windmills and solar generators, but they will not make money with electricity at $.10/ kilowatt hour. You can preach about eco-responsibility, but it's just talk without financial incentives. And the type of gimmickry that Washington likes to pass off as financial incentives (tax credits, subsidies, etc.) is far less efficient and far less effective than a simple gas tax (and tax on all non-renewable energy).

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There is something in this solution for everyone

The only way to create the kind of activity in the economy that is required to turn around our mess is for us to declare we are going to do this and do it as a nation. We have to get everyone on board with this.

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I doubt if we ca do that

I really don't think we can save the environment and rescue the economy at the same time. The reason why the environment is bad today is because man wants to satisfy his needs. and these needs.

During this process, so much harm is usually done to the environment. we can only try to minimize the damage, but not stop it.

From Wats, the Jump Manual guide
Jump Manual

Just A Cool Guy!

Secret Gold Guide

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