Al Gore Optimistic About Paris Climate Talks (Exclusive Videos)
Our friend Giles Parkinson, one of the best clean energy journalists and bloggers in the world, got the second question in to Al Gore at the Zayed Future Energy Prize press conference last week. (It was actually the only question other than mine that was directed at Al Gore, surprisingly.) His question concerned the upcoming climate talks in Paris. Basically, Giles asked Al what he thought would come out of the big Paris meeting on climate change and global climate action. Here’s Al’s response:
Not surprisingly, as is typical with Al, he is optimistic — or, at the least, he acts as if he is optimistic, which is probably the best way to act if you want to encourage a positive outcome at these talks.
Aside from this question to Al, I asked a few people throughout the week about their opinion on the upcoming climate talks. Everyone was expressing optimism. Richenda van Leeuwen — UN Foundation Executive Director, Energy and Climate, Energy Access — was one of the people I talked to about this. She had a very eloquent response to the issue. I was going to highlight it and her responses to my other questions in a future article, but I may as well include the bit about Paris here:
Thanks to both Al Gore and Richenda van Leeuwen for answering these questions.
Related Stories:
Al Gore On Corruption In Politics & Media
Al Gore Speaks To CleanTechnica (VIDEO)
*Full Disclosure: My trip to and accommodation in Abu Dhabi for the Zayed Future Energy Prize, World Future Energy Summit, and other Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week events is being covered by Masdar. That said, I have full editorial control over the work and am even publishing it without feedback. I am only covering things that I find very interesting or important, and that I think others will find interesting or important.
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Well there is hope for us, humans as a species, to survive.
And good news for all other living things that share this planet with us.
Just wondering how many of the people commenting/reading on this website have been able to reduce their impact on the planet, by their actions?
I would be interesting to see next to their name a rating of their carbon foot print.
Anybody any thoughts on this?
I’ve cut mine considerably, what with being off the grid and driving less than half the national average. Along with all the reuse, recycle, compost stuff.
Where I do “sin” some is travel. But even with that my carbon footprint is well below average. And I purchase carbon offsets to bring my personal contribution down to zero.
Gore’s “inconvenient truth” was simple. The correlation between atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global mean temperatures is too close to be ignored. It still stuns me that he has been pilloried so thoroughly for pointing out this simple, verifiable fact.
The next “inconvenient truth” that needs to be made clear to the public is that the problem isn’t CO2 itself–it’s essential–but that we have to stop digging for it.
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Several years back Republicans quit trying to engage in reasonable discussion over issues and adopted an “attack viciously” strategy.
Aw, c’mon, the fact that Gore lives in a big house and he might make money off his renewable energy investments totally disproves any points he’s trying to make…according to Faux “News”!
Gore’s “inconvenient truth
inconvenient truth”
The administration’s hands are tied, especially now that all of Congress is being run by bunch of climate deniers. At best, they’ll be some feel-good agreements made in Paris, but nothing close to the strong follow-on to Kyoto the human race needs right now. Expect OPEC states to gum up the works even more by demanding payment for oil they leave in the ground. There might be some developmental aid for emerging countries, but again, that money will have to be appropriated by the U.S. congress, so even that will be a challenge.
Congress is voted by you and all USA.
so dont blame the congrees blame the voters .
drought, burn flooding sandy blizzard comin to big apple
you vote for it.
Red states elect a Republican Congress, even sparsely populated states get TWO senators.
I’ll re-post this for you sj…There are thousands of Patented Ideas and Inventions dating back over 100 years in the U.S. Patent Office that would take us off fossil fuel tomorrow. Every President and Al Gore knows this. Yet they push for wind mills and solar energy which all of us know barely scratch the surface of the worlds energy needs. Al Gore is in the Oil, Coal, and Nuclear producers pockets just like the Republicans are. So I am not interested in the guy. Liberals need to wake up and re-discover what Tesla and others were prevented from doing for this world ages ago. You need to be honest and kick guys like Gore to the curb………………..
And I’ll re-post the main reason why you’re a crackpot:
“Please spare us the illogical conspiracy theories. You can search the USPTO database and easily present proof of even just one of those “inventions”. Until you do that, you’ll want to check the sizing on your tinfoil hat to make sure it isn’t cutting off the circulation to your brain.”
I’m not trying to assign blame. I’m just laying out the most likely scenario. But yes, slightly over half of 36% of registered voters came out last year and handed power to the Repubs. But barring a massive string of recall elections ahead of the Paris talks, things are going to stay that way until 2017.
There are thousands of Patented Ideas and Inventions dating back over 100 years in the U.S. Patent Office that would take us off fossil fuel tomorrow. Every President and Al Gore knows this. Yet they push for wind mills and solar energy which all of us know barely scratch the surface of the worlds energy needs. Al Gore is in the Oil, Coal, and Nuclear producers pockets just like the Republicans are. So I am not interested in the guy. Liberals need to wake up and re-discover what Tesla and others were prevented from doing for this world ages ago. You need to be honest and kick guys like Gore to the curb….
There are thousands of Patented Ideas and Inventions dating back over 100 years in the U.S. Patent Office that would take us fossil fuel tomorrow. Every President and Al Gore knows this. Yet they push for wind mills and solar energy which all of us know barely scratch the surface of the worlds energy needs. Al Gore is in the Oil, Coal, and Nuclear producers pockets just like the Republicans are. So I am not interested in the guy. Liberals need to wake up and re-discover what Tesla and others were prevented from doing for this world ages ago. You need to be honest and kick guys like Gore to the curb.
Please spare us the illogical conspiracy theories. You can search the USPTO database and easily present proof of even just one of those “inventions”. Until you do that, you’ll want to check the sizing on your tinfoil hat to make sure it isn’t cutting off the circulation to your brain.
Don’t spam the site with your extremely dubious claims.
As for myself, in the mid 1990’s, I designed and build a energy efficient house with passive solar features. In 2007, 2008 I designed and build a net zero place and wrote about it in early 2010, it was published on line.
Total energy use is 4.58 kWh per sq foot per year or 50 cents per sq foot per year.
As for transportation, in the same time period, I went from a one ton truck to a minivan and trailer, when I need more room for work, working towards a carbon neutral lifestyle.
What I found in trying to interject some facts into my discussions with climate deniers is that climate denial seems to be a belief rather than anything supported by the majority with empirical fact. Unfortunately, you cannot succeed in arguing with a belief. Even the argument that if climate deniers are right and we move to renewable energy, no harm is done. However, if the climate deniers are wrong and we do nothing, we are inviting catastrophe. So my final correspondence usually ends with a picture of downtown Phoenix where you cannot see the bottom of the mountains due to the smog; only the tops are visible.
True believers find it difficult to accept inconvenient facts.