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September 19, 2008

Al Gore's Challenge: Repowering America

It's always inspiring when you see someone working on something they're passionate about. I think Al Gore would have made a good president, but I think he makes an even better soldier on the front lines of the climate change crisis. And he's getting stuff done.

Al Gore made a big splash with An Inconvenient Truth, but that was only the beginning. In 2006, he founded the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose mission is to persuade people (Americans especially) through solid science that climate change does exist, is a very serious concern for the future of mankind, and can be addressed, if only we act soon.

Preferably now.

The Alliance is currently running the WE (We can solve it) campaign, an urgent call to bring together the American public to fight against climate change by issuing collective, bipartisan pressure on politicians of every level to solve the climate crisis. The message is clear: regardless of who your party affiliation, if you care about the future of the country and the planet you will leave for your children, then the WE campaign is for you.

Back in July, Al Gore gave a speech challenging the American public. He set an ambitious goal for our country: produce 100% of our electricity needs from zero-carbon-emitting sources (like wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, etc.) and do so within the next decade.

Yeah, it's a tall order but if you listen to Gore's speech, you'll see that he doesn't just talk about the WHAT. Now he's talking about the HOW.

Gore didn't pull many punches when it came to illustrating how the oil and gas industries lobby in Washington tries to control our nation's energy policy. As to why oil and gas industries need to be a product of our past, not our future, he stated that pretty clearly when he said:

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change." - Al Gore

This past week, the WE campaign ran a hard-hitting ad about the oil and gas lobby. I think it's safe to say it was pretty effective.

You can find out more about Al Gore's Challenge on the WE website.

Posted by sorsha at September 19, 2008 10:46 AM