CNN’s Jake Tapper and his State of the Union gave us a great Christmas gift to be shared widely. The Dec 24 show was dedicated to the climate crisis and highlighted three very different leaders who have been working hard to take it on: Former VP Al Gore, Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe and billionaire investor Ray Dalio, the 17th wealthiest man in the world and founder of the largest hedge fund. What they have in common are their important, hopeful messages everyone should know about how we can turn things around.
We want to highlight VP Gore’s comments: “We still have the ability to seize control of our destiny. Here’s the good news, Jake. If we stop adding to the overburden of these greenhouse gas pollutants in the sky, if we reach what they call true net zero and stop adding to the heat-trapping capacity up there, the temperatures will stop going up right away.”
“If we stay at true net zero, half of the human-caused greenhouse pollution will fall out of the atmosphere in as little as 25 to 30 years. We have the ability to do this.
“And it’s not impractical, because we now have the cheapest new source of energy in the history of the world with solar electricity and wind electricity. And the electric vehicles reached 20% of sales globally this year. The batteries are now — we had one Gigafactory several years ago. Now there are 200 and another 400 being built.
“If we stay at true net zero, half of the human-caused greenhouse pollution will fall out of the atmosphere in as little as 25 to 30 years. We have the ability to do this.
“We can do this if we just overcome the greed and political power of the big fossil fuel polluters, who’ve been trying to control this process. It’s time for people at the grassroots level in every country to speak up. And the good news is, that’s happening too.
“We also need to reform this U.N. process, because it requires a what they call consensus now, which is similar to requiring it to be unanimous if the president of the COP decides that they don’t see any objections, then he declares there’s a consensus. And that’s why it’s so important that that person who’s in charge of the process not have a direct conflict of interest.
If you look at all the new electricity generation installed worldwide, 80% of it was solar and wind…It creates three times as many new jobs for each dollar invested compared to dollars invested in the old dirty, polluting fossil fuels.
“We have to make a decision to get past fossil fuels and start accelerating the shift over to renewable energy and efficiency. And this is beginning to happen anyway, Jake. Last year, if you look at all the new electricity generation installed worldwide, 80% of it was solar and wind. In India, it was 93%. It’s cheaper now. And it creates three times as many new jobs for each dollar invested compared to dollars invested in the old dirty, polluting fossil fuels.
The International Energy Agency says that we have got all of the solutions that we need with proven deployment models to cut the emissions in half this decade.
And we have got a clear line of sight to get the rest of it done before mid-century. So we can do this.
“The only thing that we need is sufficient political will. But, as many have pointed out, political will is itself a renewable resource. And these young people around the world are helping the world to renew it.
“If we don’t take action, there could be as many as one billion climate refugees crossing international borders in the next several decades. Well, a few million has contributed to this wave of populist authoritarianism and dictatorships and so forth. What would a billion do?
The good news is, we can reclaim control of our destiny if we summon the political will and the courage and the moral courage to do it.
“The survival of our civilization is at stake. And it sounds dire, but it is dire. The good news is, we can reclaim control of our destiny if we summon the political will and the courage and the moral courage to do it. There’s a European politician, Claude Juncker, who said, we all know what to do. We just don’t know how to be reelected if we do it.
More than three-quarters of Americans, including a majority, 76% of independents and more than half of the Republicans, support action.
“This is why grassroots pressure from people who understand how high the stakes are is the critical element. And the good news, again, is, people are rising up and demanding action. Your new CNN poll shows that more than three-quarters of Americans, including a majority, 76% of independents and more than half of the Republicans, support action.
“We just have to break the political power that the fossil fuel industry has exerted with its fixers and its lobbyists and its bags of money and its revolving door colleagues. But we can do this, Jake. We can do it.”
This is especially comforting coming from Al Gore. As Obama would say “Yes we can!”