Amazing new
article by Al Gore in latest issue of Rolling Stone. Al sees the future and it is good. He sees a future where we have stopped the worst effects of climate change and have saved civilization as we know it.
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.
He writes about the stunning progress in solar and how even big business is coming around with companies such as Citigroup, which recently questioned the feasibility of new coal plants in Europe, North America and even China.
Mr. Gore mentions how the cost savings of greening the energy sector is becoming apparent to business and the public.
He even tackles that most difficult question: Do we have enough time?
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.
I encourage you to read the entire article. You'll feel optimistic and energized to continue the work that we have started.