Earth to Gore: Time's up!
Fri Oct 12, 2007 at 07:50:46 AM PDT
Like most of you, my first thought this morning, when I opened my eyes, was "Did he win?" And I came straight here for the answer, only to find ecstatic confirmation in my first bleary glance at the Recommended list. Yes, friends, the dream is beginning to become true, thanks to him, and also thanks to all of you! This is a force 8 tremor on the political Richter scale. But until he announces, his "chances" of entering the race will be endlessly poo-poohed by every Beltway voice, from Right Wing pundits to establishment scribes claiming personal knowledge to unofficial spin easily traceable to the Hillary campaign (Dan Gerstein on Hardball last night, anyone?). But none of all that really matters.
Here is what has to be driving Gore's decision -- and I'm among those who believe that his decision to run, conditional on a "tipping point" being reached in the media-driven public opinion climate in the U.S., was taken a long time ago. A few months back, when Gore was asked if there were any circumstance he could concieve of that would drive him into the race, he answered cryptically but tellingly that he had no idea, "but I'll know it if I see it". I've always thought that he was referring to two critical factors: the movement he hoped to build actually materializing, and the warnings his contacts in the scientific community had been pressing on him with ever-increasing urgency: that a point of no-return had been reached and the global climate had suddenly shifted gears and revved itself into chaotic, run-away warming.
Well, friends, it seems that both "tipping points" have now been reached, and while the first is cause for celebration, the second is unbelievably frightening:
A key threshold crossed
An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report to be released next month will show that the limit on greenhouse-gases scientists hoped to avert has already been surpassed.
By Gregory M. Lamb
from the October 11, 2007 edition
In Ray Bradbury's science fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451," that number represented the temperature at which books would burn (...)
For climate scientists, a similar number, 450 parts per million (ppm), holds its own ominous meaning. It represents a dangerous concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; a total that they were not expecting to be passed for at least another decade.
That sound you just heard is the 10 years that scientists have been warning we had to address this crisis evaporating. We no longer have them. They're gone. And if we don't get a move-on, it's all downhill from here for the human species (andmany other living things)
But a new UN-sponsored report, to be released next month, will show that as of 2005 the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had already reached 455 ppm, according to Tim Flannery, a prominent Australian climate scientist who says he's seen the raw data that go into the document.
"If you want to stabilise around 450 ppm, that means in a decade or two you have to start reducing emissions far below the current level.... So in other words, we have a very short window for turning around the trend we have in rising greenhouse gas emissions. We don't have the luxury of time."
But, says Flannery, named Australian of the Year for 2007, that window is closed. According to the Australian Associated Press he says that higher figure is due to miscalculating the potency of other greenhouse gasses, which are included in the 450 ppm figure and measured in terms equivalent to that of CO2. But he adds:
"[A]lso we have really seen an unexpected acceleration in the rate of accumulation of CO 2 itself, and that's been beyond the limits of projection ... beyond the worst-case scenario. We are already at great risk of dangerous climate change – that's what the new figures say.... It's not next year, or next decade; it's now."
And Al knows this. He's known it for a while. I've been fortunate enough to witness him giving his presentation live, last March, and from the new, unpublished information he revealed, it was obvious, to those who follow climate news closely, that he has deep contacts in the climate research community. And as others here who've seen his talk and shared their experience with the rest of us, Gore updates his slideshow DAILY.
Gore is a true leader. As he is reported to have said just yesterday, at a fundraiser for Senator Barbara Boxer, consciousness raising on the issue of global warming must avoid "paralyzing people with fear". This is what the Bush administration, with the help of Osama bin Laden, has tried to do for the past 7 years, and for the first four, they succeeded. But the antidote to fear is HOPE and that is what Gore is offering. Not only to the American people, but to the rest of the world's people. Because he CAN lead on this, the most dire threat we humans have ever faced. Because he has the knowledge, the experience of government, the esteem of the world community, the network of allies in every country, and above all the carefully tought-out, long-held vision to lead the effort. Because he can unite us all in the fight, and mobilize the tremendous reserves of human energy that true HOPE can unleash in all of us. Other great leaders have done it before him. Winston Churchill pulled Britain from the brink of capitulation and inspired its people to fight to the death to save their island. He too had warned his countrymen for many years of the dangers of Hitler's rise, and been scoffed at, ridiculed and dismissed as a has-been by that era's equivalent of Beltway gasbags. Until he too was proven prescient.
As Gore so often quotes him in his prsentations
"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place, we are entering an era of consequences."
It's up to us now, and it's up to Al. If you elect him, he will unite is and lead us toward a more hopeful future for all our children than we can presently count on. Let's not allow our blind complacency to continue.Let's end this futile game of guess-and-catch-up with Mother Nature, once and for all. The Earth is giving us final warning. Our time is up!
Please Draft Al Gore as your President and then let's get to work! You have no idea of the ripple effect his entering the race will have in countries like mine, where a federal election will soon be held. A Gore win in 2008 will have coat-tails my friends, and bring progressive leaders to the fore up here as well. Let's all of us unite and help our leaders save a habitable Earth forour and future generations.
Crossposted at Docudharma and Truth & Progress
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