As reported in The New York Times, former US Vice President Al Gore has written a long essay for Rolling Stone criticizing the climate policies of President Barack Obama.
Gore argues that Obama understands the scale of the problem and has appointed some good people to work on it, but that he has failed to effectively press the case for action.
Gore is clear about the uncertainty of whether America’s political system can deal with this key challenge: “It is about whether or not we are still capable — given the ill health of our democracy and the current dominance of wealth over reason — of perceiving important and complex realities clearly enough to promote and protect the sustainable well-being of the many. What hangs in the balance is the future of civilization as we know it”.
Here’s hoping Gore’s comments help to drive more serious attention to the problem of getting America to take world-leading action in response to this enormous threat.
“The truth is this: What we are doing is functionally insane. If we do not change this pattern, we will condemn our children and all future generations to struggle with ecological curses for several millennia to come. Twenty percent of the global-warming pollution we spew into the sky each day will still be there 20,000 years from now!
We do have another choice. Renewable energy sources are coming into their own.”