Gore throws down the carbon gauntlet - July 17, 2008
Gas is well over $4 a gallon, the president has lifted a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, and Americans are freaking out about their electricity bills. What’s an environmental icon to do? Call for the country to wean itself off of fossil fuels by 2018, of course. 
Al Gore, the former vice-president turned climate guru, outlined his latest vision in a speech (text; annotation at Dot Earth) in Washington DC today. He wasted no time in trying to amp up the urgency factor, saying early on that “the future of human civilization is at stake”. Gore then trotted out familiar examples, from melting Greenland glaciers to national security implications, in calling for Americans to shift entirely to renewable energy sources within a decade.
Politico reports that politics took a "back seat" at the talk, though he did manage to reference his "many conversations" on the topic with Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. Gore also singled out the oft-overlooked Libertarian candidate for president, Bob Barr, whom he noted for his “open mind and serious approach to this challenge”. (ABC News)
Never one to be left out, Texas oil magnate T. Boone Pickens has also been on a roll in recent weeks, taking out television and print advertisements for his “Pickens plan” to boost the use of renewables, particularly wind.
Image: NREL

Comments
What is Al Gore's real motive? Come on you don't think the environment is his only worry. Gore will be thought of as the biggest charlatan of all time some day. Read Freiman's blog to understand.
http://www.myspace.com/gafreiman
Posted by: Michelle | July 18, 2008 01:59 PM
Mr. Gore and others are proposing the wrong technology.
Free Energy Forever
http://nlspropulsion.net/Documents/Free%20Power%20Forever.pdf
Posted by: mthomas | July 20, 2008 05:21 PM
Will someone tell Al Gore that he did not invent the internet, that winning the Nobel Peace Prize, after telling a pack of lies in his "Inconvenient Truth", does not put him in the same category as Albert Einstein and remind him of that old adage - it is better to keep ones mouth shut and let people suspect you're a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.
Posted by: Richard | July 24, 2008 05:32 AM