Eric Young's Blog
Academy Award Winner Al Gore Addresses Bali Audience
December 17, 2007
Posted by Eric Young in Solving Global Warming
Al Gore Speech to a packed house in Bali, Indonesia at the 13th Conference of the Parties and the 10 year anniversary of the Kyoto protocol. I will ask for forgiveness in advance because this will be a little rough. I will be typing/blogging in real time and I will keep the editing to a minimum.
My thoughts will be inside ( ).
Introduced by his staffer. First credential mentioned was "Academy Award Winner." Lots of laughs.
Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC came in late to great applause.
Remembering Rio - reminds him of a working lunch in Los Angeles. An old woman was staring at him. Came up to him and said "If you died your hair black, you would look like Al Gore." Reminds him of how long he has been doing this.
We face a planetary emergencey. Sounds shrill to some. Stable climate balance is in danger. This balance is a crucial assumption for the development of human civilization. New data on possibly losing the entire North Pole in five to seven years. They used to tell us that it would not be for another fifty.
Third Reich story. Killings. First they rounded up the gypsy, but I was not a gypsy. Then they rounded up the Jews, but I was not a Jew. Eventually, they came for the person telling the story. He was Indifferent to the killing. Progresses to you. Starts with someone else and leads to us. It is not affecting this generation. Not future ones.
Challenge to our moral imagination. The way we developed in evol process, we react quickly if we see something dangerous AND immediate. If we encounter an amorphous less tangible danger we react slowly.
Floods in Africa, Australian drought, flooding in Mexico - unprecedented weather events. LItany of impacts we are seeing today.
Pause
These and other challenges are getting more difficult to ignore. Seasonal glaciers in Rockies, Andes, Himalayas are melting. Threatened with the loss of water.
We need to see clearly and vividly exactly what is going on. 20 of 21 are the hottest years on record. This year set to be 2nd hottest on record. Beyond the boundries of normal variation.
Why are countries sending their delegates here without instructions to respond to the threat that this emergency requires.
Unprecedented change in the past century. Population explosion. Stabilizing - women's education, empowerment, family planning - so this is not the answer to the climate crisis.
(Very academic talk so far)
Energy transformation in the last 1/2 century.
Quotes Dickens - "Best of Times, Worst of Times." Think of two planets. Venus and earth, twins divided at birth. Venus, 455 degrees (to earth's 15) average temp. The difference between earth and venus is Carbon. Carbon on earth was taken out of the atmosphere and placed in the ground in the form of coal and natural gas.
(Listening to this makes one wonder how a climate denier gets out of bed in the morning and looks in the mirror)
Comparing climate skepticism to medical skeptisicms. Do you disagree with a doctor because you read a sci fi novel? (Great rhetorical question)
Imprisoned in an illusion that nothing is wrong.
Abraham Lincoln - We must disenthrall ourselves and we will save our country.
Al Gore - We must disenthrall ourselves and we will save our world civilization.
Winston Churchill in 1938 - "They go on in strange paradox, decided to be undecided, XXX, XXX, XXX, all powerful to be impotent. (Sorry, I just could not catch the quote)
You face a critical choice here in Bali. I speak to you as a person, a father, a grandfather. Tried for 40 years to communicate about this.Speak as a citizen of the U.S. Not an official, not bound by diplomatic niceties. Going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country is primarily responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. CROWD WENT NUTS. But my country is not the only one that can take steps to ensure we move forward with progress and hope.
(He is getting worked up)
Tells us that getting angry and directing at the U.S. is not worth it. Or you can do the work that needs to be done. (To the delegates) Leave a blank spot in your document. Put in a footnote, saying that this blank will be filled in. This is the beginning of a process designed to culminate in Copenhagen.
Bobby Hull greatest passing hockey player of all time. Said he passed the puck to where players will be, not where they are. Look at the U.S. House of representatives, State governments - CA, etc.
1 year 40 days from now, there will be a new president. All candidates have different positions from this admin.
If we don’t get it done here, then we will lose momentum.
Goes into adaptation, deforestation
We can get this done. Targets must be a part of the treaty in Copenhagen. Move the target for full implementation of this treaty two years forward. We can’t wait five years to make these targets.
Frozen C in the permafrost. Thaw and double the amount we have to reduce. C sinks now appear to be saturated. Losing capacity to absorb C.
There is a growing realization around the world…mothers and fathers, business leaders are beginning to look more clearly at that is necessary. There is a growing people power movement. MLK. Global warming pollution anywhere affects everyone everywhere. Will redesign our conception of foreign aid. We need to summon a sense of urgency here in Bali.
Change is possible. Australia for an example. What a difference a change in government makes. Aus came here and ratified.
(Going on 35 minutes here)
We are priviledged to live in this era of economic growth and improving living standards. Era of prosperity began after WW2. Shift in thinking in the hearts and heads of those who served in that war. Greatest generation for what they did after the war. Came home, no longer 19 and 20 year olds. “It is time we steer by the stars and not the lights of passing ships” “We need a European recovery plan. We don’t want Europe to export World Wars anymore.” AG: they acquired the ability to think long-term. France is not going to invade Germany next year or vice versa. Now the question is silly, but a half century ago it wasn’t.
Look at the situation in Darfur – children soldiers, ocean acidification: Are these ‘political’ problems?
We have to see problems like these for what they are – moral problems.
There is a great opportunity in rising to the challenge of the climate crisis.
There is
One future
One people
One destiny
But we have to see it. By solving this problem, we will achieve the capacity for long-term thinking (like the greatest generation acquired by, among other things, winning world war II)
Gandhi and the notion of truth force. Truth has the power to set us free. The power to unite. It can bridge the differences between us.
There is an African proverb. “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
We must use our moral imagination to travel into the future. The way ahead is difficult. The maximum considered possible (in dealing with global warming) is short of the minimum needed.
The poet Antonio Machada wrote “Pathwalker, there is no path, you have to make the path yourself.”
The delegates gathered here must make a path that goes around that blank spot (where the U.S. is).
Think of what your children will ask?
- How did you ignore this problem?
- Or where did you get the courage to deal with this problem.
(Rousing ending) You are alive at a moment to make a difference. We need the political will but remember, POLITICAL WILL IS A RENEWABLE RESOURCE (at this point the crowd went ballistic.)
(bookmark or email this entry)
- Eric Young
- Senior Press Secretary - Climate and Energy
- Washington DC
- I've basically had two jobs in my adult life: communications staffer at an environmental group...
- more→
