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