State of Alabama secondary Archives: on Environment


Al Gore: Humans can impact earth’s ecology; especially the atmosphere

Many people today assume mistakenly that the Earth is so big that we humans cannot possibly have any major impact on the way our planet’s ecological system operates. That may have been true at one time, but it is not the case any more. We have grown so numerous and our technologies have become so powerful that we are now capable of having a significant influence on many parts of the Earth’s environment. The must vulnerable part of the Earth’s ecological system is the atmosphere. It is vulnerable because it is so thin. Indeed, the Earth’s atmosphere is so think that we have the capacity to dramatically alter the concentration of some o fit basic molecular components. In particular, we have vastly increased the amount of carbon dioxide--the most important of the so-called greenhouse gases.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p. 22-25 May 26, 2006

Al Gore: To let earth continue warming would be deeply immoral

In Antarctica, measurements of CO2 concentrations and temperatures go back 650,000 years. At no point in the last 650,000 years before the pre-industrial era did the CO2 concentration go above 300 parts per million (ppm). Where CO2 is now--350 ppm--is way above anything measured in the prior 650,000-year record.

There is not a single part of this 650,000-year record--no fact, date, or number--that is controversial in any way or in dispute by anybody. To the extent that there is a controversy at all, it is that a few people in some of the less responsible coal, oil, and utility companies say, “So what? That’s not going to cause any problem.”

[Does temperature follow CO2 levels?] It’s a complicated relationship, but when there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, the temperature increases because more heat from the Sun is trapped.

But if we allow this to happen, it would be deeply and unforgivably immoral. it would condemn coming generations to a catastrophically diminished future.

Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p. 67 May 26, 2006

Al Gore: Use market capitalism as ally of environmentalism

One of the keys to solving the climate crisis involves finding ways to use the powerful force of market capitalism as an ally. And more than anything else, that requires accurate measurements of the real consequences--positive and negative--of all the important economic choices we make.

The environmental impact of our economic choices has often been ignored because traditional business accounting has allowed these factors to be labeled “externalities” and routinely excluded from the balance sheet.

Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p.270 May 26, 2006

Al Gore: Proposed tsunami warning system prior to 2004 tsunami

On Dec. 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake sent a shock wave through the Indian Ocean, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 150,000 lives.

It was an unspeakable tragedy for everyone. But for Gore, the horror was compounded by the knowledge that a huge amount of the suffering could have been prevented if, not so many years before, Republicans in Congress had been able to set aside partisanship and let him carry out his plan for a Global Disaster Information Network. Had his system been put into place, ocean-bottom earthquake detectors would have alerted scientists at a monitoring hub that a tsunami was on the way. The scientists in turn would have activated an international alarm system, warning officials in Asian coastal areas to immediately begin evacuation.

Today, the Global Disaster Information Network survives as little more than a professional society for people in the depressing, though crucial, field of disaster management.

Source: The Truth (with jokes), by Al Franken, p.141-142 Oct 25, 2005

Al Gore: Co-sponsored first Superfund bill, on Love Canal

In 1978 chemicals from an abandoned underground dump seethed into basements and backyards in he Love Canal neighborhood in upstate New York, [causing] an abnormal number of miscarriages and birth defects. [Gore’s father was a board member of its corporate owner]. Gore considered recusing himself but decided that the issue was too important. Later that year he co-sponsored passage of the first Superfund bill, mandating a joint public-private effort to clean up the sites.
Source: Inventing Al Gore, p.137 Mar 3, 2000

  • The above quotations are from State of Alabama Politicians: secondary Archives.
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2016 Presidential contenders on Environment:
  Democrats:
Secy.Hillary Clinton(NY)
V.P.Joe Biden(DE)
Gov.Andrew Cuomo(NY)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel(IL)
Gov.Martin O`Malley(MD)

Republicans:
Amb.John Bolton(MD)
Gov.Jeb Bush(FL)
Dr.Ben Carson(MD)
Gov.Chris Christie(NJ)
Sen.Ted Cruz(TX)
Gov.Mike Huckabee(AR)
Gov.Jon Huntsman(UT)
Gov.Bobby Jindal(LA)
Rep.Peter King(NY)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Sen.Rand Paul(KY)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Sen.Rob Portman(OH)
Secy.Condi Rice(CA)
Sen.Marco Rubio(FL)
Rep.Paul Ryan(WI)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA) 		2016 Third Party Candidates:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg(I-NYC)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Donald Trump(NY)
Gov.Jesse Ventura(I-MN)
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Page last updated: Mar 28, 2014