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kpete

(71,979 posts) Wed Jun 18, 2014, 12:18 PM Jun 2014

AL GORE for Rolling Stone: The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate---Is there enough time? Yes.

The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate
It's time to accelerate the shift toward a low-carbon future

In the struggle to solve the climate crisis, a powerful, largely unnoticed shift is taking place. The forward journey for human civilization will be difficult and dangerous, but it is now clear that we will ultimately prevail. The only question is how quickly we can accelerate and complete the transition to a low-carbon civilization. There will be many times in the decades ahead when we will have to take care to guard against despair, lest it become another form of denial, paralyzing action. It is true that we have waited too long to avoid some serious damage to the planetary ecosystem – some of it, unfortunately, irreversible. Yet the truly catastrophic damages that have the potential for ending civilization as we know it can still – almost certainly – be avoided. Moreover, the pace of the changes already set in motion can still be moderated significantly.

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Is there enough time? Yes. Damage has been done, and the period of consequences will continue for some time to come, but there is still time to avoid the catastrophes that most threaten our future. Each of the trends described above – in technology, business, economics and politics – represents a break from the past. Taken together, they add up to genuine and realistic hope that we are finally putting ourselves on a path to solve the climate crisis.

How long will it take? When Martin Luther King Jr. was asked that question during some of the bleakest hours of the U.S. civil rights revolution, he responded, "How long? Not long. Because no lie can live forever.?.?.?.?How long? Not long. Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

And so it is today: How long? Not long.

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Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618#ixzz350YRIvje
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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AL GORE for Rolling Stone: The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate---Is there enough time? Yes. (Original Post) kpete Jun 2014 OP

Also posted ProSense Jun 2014 #1

It's changing worldwide. Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #2

Kick! n/t ProSense Jun 2014 #3

ProSense

(116,464 posts)

1. Also posted

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Wed Jun 18, 2014, 12:21 PM

Jun 2014

at Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/18/1307840/-Al-Gore-We-have-reached-the-turning-point-and-there-is-hope-for-the-climate

Another snip from the piece:

Something else is also new this summer. Three years ago, in these pages, I criticized the seeming diffidence of President Obama toward the great task of solving the climate crisis; this summer, it is abundantly evident that he has taken hold of the challenge with determination and seriousness of purpose.

He has empowered his Environmental Protection Agency to enforce limits on CO2 emissions for both new and, as of this June, existing sources of CO2. He has enforced bold new standards for the fuel economy of the U.S. transportation fleet. He has signaled that he is likely to reject the absurdly reckless Keystone XL-pipeline proposal for the transport of oil from carbonintensive tar sands to be taken to market through the United States on its way to China, thus effectively limiting their exploitation. And he is even now preparing to impose new limits on the release of methane pollution.

Al Gore: The Most Important Step Taken to Combat Climate Change in Our Country's History
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025045078

Obama’s Move On Solar Is Equivalent To A Year Without 80 Million Cars
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024929575

Obama to create largest marine protected area ever, because bigger is better
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025113914

Uncle Joe

(58,328 posts)

2. It's changing worldwide.

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Wed Jun 18, 2014, 01:08 PM

Jun 2014

In poorer countries, where most of the world's people live and most of the growth in energy use is occurring, photovoltaic electricity is not so much displacing carbon-based energy as leapfrogging it altogether. In his first days in office, the government of the newly elected prime minister of India, Narendra Modi (who has authored an e-book on global warming), announced a stunning plan to rely principally upon photovoltaic energy in providing electricity to 400 million Indians who currently do not have it. One of Modi's supporters, S.L. Rao, the former utility regulator of India, added that the industry he once oversaw "has reached a stage where either we change the whole system quickly, or it will collapse."

Nor is India an outlier. Neighboring Bangladesh is installing nearly two new rooftop PV systems every minute — making it the most rapidly growing market for PVs in the world. In West and East Africa, solar-electric cells are beginning what is widely predicted to be a period of explosive growth.

At the turn of the 21st century, some scoffed at projections that the world would be installing one gigawatt of new solar electricity per year by 2010. That goal was exceeded 17 times over; last year it was exceeded 39 times over; and this year the world is on pace to exceed that benchmark as much as 55 times over. In May, China announced that by 2017, it would have the capacity to generate 70 gigawatts of photovoltaic electricity. The state with by far the biggest amount of wind energy is Texas, not historically known for its progressive energy policies.

The cost of wind energy is also plummeting, having dropped 43 percent in the United States since 2009 – making it now cheaper than coal for new generating capacity. Though the downward cost curve is not quite as steep as that for solar, the projections in 2000 for annual worldwide wind deployments by the end of that decade were exceeded seven times over, and are now more than 10 times that figure. In the United States alone, nearly one-third of all new electricity-generating capacity in the past five years has come from wind, and installed wind capacity in the U.S. has increased more than fivefold since 2006.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618#ixzz350lFpYgz
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

ProSense

(116,464 posts)

3. Kick! n/t

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Wed Jun 18, 2014, 05:47 PM

Jun 2014

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