Earth in the Balance: on Energy & Oil


The effects of global warming on polar ice are significant

Indeed, global warming is expected to push temperatures up much more rapidly in the polar regions than in the rest of the world. As the polar air warms, the ice here will thin; and since the polar cap plays such a crucial role in the world’s weather system, the consequences of a thinning cap would be disastrous.
Source: Earth in the Balance, page 23 Jul 2, 1993

Global warming is a strategic threat

Global warming is a strategic threat. The concentration of carbon dioxide and other heat-absorbing molecules has increased by almost 25 percent since World War II, posing a worldwide threat to the earth’s ability to regulate the amount of heat from the sun retained in the atmosphere. This increase in heat seriously threatens the global climate equilibrium that determines the patterns of winds, rainfall, surface temperatures, ocean currents, and sea level.
Source: Earth in the Balance, page 29 Jul 2, 1993

Global Marshall Plan must include the First and Third worlds

The model of the Marshall Plan can be of great help. for example, a Global Marshall Plan must focus on strategic goals and emphasize actions and programs that are likely to remove the bottlenecks presently inhibiting the healthy functioning of the global economy. The new global economy must be an inclusive system that does not leave entire regions behind. The new plan will require the wealthy nations to allocate money for transferring environmentally helpful technologies to the Third World and to help impoverished nations achieve a stable population and a new pattern of sustainable economic progress. To work, however, any such effort will also require wealthy nations to make a transition themselves that will be in some ways more wrenching than that of the Third World.
Source: Earth in the Balance, page 297-301 Jul 2, 1993

Global Marshall Plan: Five strategic goals

    In my view, five strategic goals must direct and inform our efforts to save the global environment:
  1. stabilizing of world population
  2. the rapid development of environmentally appropriate technologies
  3. a comprehensive change in the economic “rules of the road” by which we measure the impact of our decisions on the environment
  4. negotiation & approval of a new generation of international agreements
  5. a cooperative plan for educating the world’s citizens about our global environment.
Source: Earth in the Balance, page 305-307 Jul 2, 1993

Global Warming is a clear & present threat; but preventable

Global warming is no longer a distant threat; it’s as real, as clear and present an issue, with profound effects on people’s lives, as war and peace or recession and poverty--and the effects are only just beginning to be felt.
There are still some scientists--a shrinking but vocal minority, invariable invoked by special interests--who deny or doubt climate change or its relationship to carbon dioxide pollution. The flaw in the argument this time is that if the skeptics are as wrong as it appears, and if we do not act now, the crisis of global warming will inflict enormous, even irreversible damage. And it is preventable if we act now, wisely and boldly.
It is worth remembering that big changes can occur quickly. There will probably be some climate surprises. Melting of the arctic tundra could release huge quantities of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, which would greatly amplify climate change. Who can afford to wait?
Source: New foreword to Earth in the Balance, p. xiv-xvi Apr 23, 2000

Kyoto goals are an indispensable first step

As record floods alternate with record ice-storms, as record-breaking hot months are followed by even hotter months a year later, who can afford to wait? The US took the lead in convincing other nations that a voluntary international agreement to reduce carbon pollution was no longer enough--that we needed to negotiate a binding timetable to meet specific goals. When I led the US delegation to the Kyoto Conference in 1997, we worked with 180 other nations to put the world on track to reduce the carbon pollution pouring into the atmosphere. The Kyoto agreement isn’t the final answer to global warming, but it is the indispensable first step.

Our next step is to seek meaningful participation from developing nations and submit the Kyoto agreement to the Senate for ratification. I will stay and fight on this issue until we overcome the special-interest opposition, abroad and at home, that threatens to extend and worsen global warming. The Kyoto goals are both practical and economically beneficial.

Source: New foreword to Earth in the Balance, p. xvii Apr 23, 2000

  • The above quotations are from Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, by Al Gore.
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