On April 15 to 18, 10,000 young leaders have converged on DC to reclaim our democracy from polluters and lead the way to a clean energy future. Al Gore gave the keynote presentation to young activists in the climate movement.
Al Gore spoke to thousands of young climate activists at the Power Shift 2011 Conference. (photo: Graeme Robertson/Guardian UK)
16 April 11
Al Gore set the stage for the Power Shift 2011 Conference, delivering the following keynote presentation to an audience of young activists in the climate movement. The transcript of his speech follows the video. -- CW/RSN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNhoAvkTaLA
Former United States Vice President Al Gore: Transcript, Power Shift 2011 Keynote Address
hen I was young, during the civil right movement, people could not answer the moral question of discrimination. That's when the laws began to change.
2010 was the hottest year ever recorded. What part of that is difficult to understand? Biggest drought in Russia's history. Food prices at all time high. Look at the American Southwest. Evergreen trees destroyed by climate change. We have to take action to protect our country and the world. Flood in Pakistan, destabilizing a nuclear-armed country.
Would these things be happening without global warming? No.
Columbia - 2 million homeless due to flooding. Australia. - Area equivalent to France and Germany flooded. Tennessee - Once in 1,000-year rainfall.
Happening all over the world. As temperature has gone up, warmer air holds more moisture. So when it rains, you get floods. Temperature dries out soil moisture.
New study projecting consequences of droughts, are we supposed to stick our heads in the sand and ignore this? We've got to respond to reality. Takes courage and leadership. We've got more work to do.
Also in this past year, we saw a big block of ice - 4 times the size of Manhattan, super typhoon, 190 mile per hour winds, the ocean acidification problem. You can go on. Look around the world.
People may wake up. Look at positive changes. Energy companies - oil, coal companies - have spent enormous amounts of money to paralyze political process. Response has to come from grass roots.
You can do it.
We have a grassroots, fantastic, growing movement. Photovoltaic energy - just a couple of years from being competitive with grid power. Wind power. Efficiency. Businesses can be more profitable by reducing wasteful practices. We need to change the laws. Put a price on carbon. Encourage us in the right direction.
Out of sight, out of mind. CO2 is invisible. Requires advocacy. Raising your voices. Your passion.
Pollution will be there for a long time. Short term - part of the problem we have to solve. Yes, it is complex.
What triggered recession? Mortgages given to people who could not pay back. Lumped together, made short-term profits. When tested, chain reaction. Same thing now. Trillions of dollars of sub-prime carbon assets. 90 million tons every 24 hours. We need to stop borrowing money from China to burn fossil fuel.
Young people gathered here. It is hard to grasp how important this is. Inconvenient Youth - thank you. Thank you.
I want to issue a challenge. We have not yet done enough. Our leaders have not done enough. 50 years ago. President John F. Kennedy - man on the moon in 10 years. 8 years later, Armstrong did it. Average age of systems engineers at NASA was 26. So they heard the challenge at age 18.
Old proverb:
If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
Let's start this movement and get it into high gear.
Make no mistake. When your children are your age. Depending on the circumstances they find themselves in, if they look at rising sea levels, and 100s of millions of climate refugees, a failure of policy, floods, political chaos, melted ice cap, they would be justified in asking, "What were you doing? Didn't you hear the scientists?"
If your children see they live a world with a sense of renewal. Building solar panels, sustainable agriculture and society, if they have hope in their hearts, I want them to look back, "How did you find the moral courage to face up to the coal companies?"
Part of the answer will be this meeting in Washington, DC. All we need is political will. Political will is a renewable resource.
Let's get to work.
Transcribed by tcktcktck.org http://tcktcktck.org/2011/04/transcript-al-gore-van-jones-keynote-address-powershift-2011/
Former Vice President Al Gore is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing. He is also co-founder and chairman of Current TV, an Emmy Award-winning, independent cable and satellite television news and information network based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. In addition, Gore is a senior partner with the venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a member of the board of directors of Apple and senior adviser to Google.
Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit focused on solutions to the climate crisis.
Gore was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the US Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. During the Administration, Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team. He served as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council and as the leader of a wide range of administration initiatives.
He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, and Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. He is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary and is the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change."
