In a Nov. 5 speech at GW, former Vice President Al Gore discussed a range of potential solutions to the climate crisis as outlined in his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. The speech and book signing were sponsored in partnership with the D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose.
“In contrast to An Inconvenient Truth, which focused on the nature, causes and impact of the crisis, Our Choice is focused more than 90 percent on the solutions to the crisis,” explained Mr. Gore, who said he was “delighted and honored” to be on GW’s campus again.
Among the solutions examined in the book are various sources of renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal power, said Mr. Gore, who is donating book profits to the nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection.
“In each of the last two years, the largest new source of energy production has been wind,” he said. Mr. Gore called geothermal power, which draws energy from rocks about two kilometers below the Earth’s surface, “widely misunderstood.”
“You’re going to be hearing a lot more about it,” he predicted.
Our Choice also examines carbon capture and sequestering and nuclear power -- “subjects that will play an important role, but, in my view, probably not as significant a role as their advocates think” in large part because of their expense, he said.
“What about growing our fuel?” asked Mr. Gore. While calling first-generation ethanol “disappointing,” he said the next generations of bioenergy crops are non-food plants that “open up new possibilities.”
Switching to renewable energy is “a huge part of the solution,” said Mr. Gore, who also stressed the need for a massive reforestation program and for re-carbonizing soil. But he said that the largest new source of energy will come from increased efficiency.
“The fact is that the old technologies in common use are for the most part incredibly inefficient,” he said, citing coal plants and internal combustible engines as examples. “There’s a common thread through the climate crisis, the economic crisis and the energy security crisis, and that thread is our ridiculous dependence on carbon-based fuels.”
“I want to encourage you to become part of the solution for this crisis,” Mr. Gore urged the audience. “This is not just an intellectual exercise; it’s not just a parlor game; it’s not a political issue. It is the moral issue of the present generation.”