An inspirational (and alarming) talk on climate change and what our generation can (and must) do about it, together.

excerpt from the show:

In order to be optimistic about [stopping Global Warming], we have to become incredibly active as citizens in our democracy. In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to solve the democracy crisis.

68% of Americans believe the earth’s atmosphere is impacted by Global Warming. What’s missing is a sense of urgency.

We have the technologies; we have to have a unifited view about how to go about this. What’s the solution? Put a tax on carbon — to replace a tax on employment which was invented by Bismark!!

We have to mobilize resources and political will, but the political will has to be mobilized to mobilize the resources.

What we need is another hero generation. How many generations in history have had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts? We have to approach this challenge with a sense of great joy and gratitude. We have to somehow understand that history has presented us with a choice. We now have a culture of distraction. We have a planetary emergency. We have to find a way to convey a sense of generational mission. We can rise to the challenge that history is presenting to us!

From the TED website, where you can see Gore’s presentation:

How Dare We Be Optimistic?

In Al Gore’s brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of “generational mission” — the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement — to set it right.

Gore’s stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates’ climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future.

Alliance for Climate Protection, which is launching a nationwide, grassroots campaign to end Global Warming, [I believe it is sponsored by Gore] and invites our help!

The President’s plan to have America stand by while greenhouse gases reach dangerous levels and threaten America and the world is worse than doing nothing – it is the height of irresponsibility. I strongly believe that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee bill will not only make our nation a leader in the global warming challenge, but it will trigger an American economic renaissance.

Inhofe:

I applaud the President for outlining a bold alternative climate initiative that rejects the concept that the United States must adopt economically ruinous cap-and-trade legislation such as the Lieberman-Warner bill that would significantly drive up the already skyrocketing cost of energy on the American public. Today, as American families and American workers are faced with an economic downturn, the slumping housing market, and rising gas prices, they are unlikely to tolerate a ‘de-stimulus’ climate bill that will not have the sponsors’ purported impact on temperatures but will further exacerbate economic pain.