Clean Energy by 2018
Al Gore’s call to move to a clean energy society by 2018 has not exactly been received with overwhelming support. Yesterday the former vice president challenged the next US president to help switch all of the nation’s electricity to solar, wind and other clean energy sources within 10 years to help end global warming and end our reliance on fossil fuels. He likened the call to that of John Kennedy’s challenge in 1961 to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The naysayers are already saying it’s impossible and CNET is not the only one asking, “Is Al Gore Nuts?”
I would love to see the country go green in such a short time period, but I must admit that I am a bit of a skeptic, not because I don’t think it’s possible, but mostly because I don’t see politicians and businesses having the courage to move that quickly, and I don’t see the average voter having the motivation to move that quickly.
The world is a different place now than when John F. Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon. Back then, we were scared. We were terrified of those evil, awful Russkies, and we had to come together as a country to defeat them and protect our national honor by beating them to the moon. It was a matter of pride.
I don’t think we worry about national pride anymore. We don’t worry about Russians. We don’t even really worry about global warming. We have become complacent. What we worry about is the economy and our mortgages and our jobs, as well we should. Reagan and Gorbachev ended the Cold War, and now our biggest enemy is China, not because we fear they will blow us up, but because we fear they will take our jobs. So Gore’s call for a clean energy society within 10 years is falling, it seems, on deaf ears.
Gore says the cost of his plan would be $1.5 to $3 trillion dollars over a 30-year period. That’s the figure developed by The Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonpartisan group Gore heads. Others have said the figure would be much higher, and that, it seems, is the basis for most skepticism and derision.
To get some perspective, I surfed over to the Cost of War calculator at the National Priorities Project to see how much we’ve spent on the war in Iraq. Some how, George Bush and Congress have managed to come up with over $500 billion to fund the war in Iraq. That’s half a trillion dollars in the last seven years, and a third of the low-end amount of Gore estimates as the costover the next 30 years of converting to clean energy. Personally, I’d rather see us fund alternative energy. After all, we’d actually receive some benefits from such an expenditure.
I find it ironic that lack of money is such a great excuse not to do something that needs to be done, but, in times of war, this country can always find the cash to send troops to battle. Perhaps if we decided this was a war and we once again had a fear of danger from an outside force, then we’d find a way to get the money. Al Gore shouldn’t have talked about going to the moon. Al Gore should have talked about going to war. Then perhaps the money and motivation would appear.
Until we see this as a battle we can’t lose, people and politicians will continue to drag their heels.
