Averting the climate crisis - Al Gore
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging speech, the speaker reflects on his experiences post-White House, humorously recounting the adjustment to a more private life. He emphasizes the urgency of the climate crisis, presenting updated data and visual aids to illustrate the severity. The speaker outlines actionable steps individuals and businesses can take, such as reducing emissions, buying green energy, and investing sustainably. He also calls for political activism to support carbon capping and trading, urging a collective effort to address global warming as a non-partisan issue.
Takeaways
- 🙌 The speaker expresses gratitude for the opportunity to address the conference and acknowledges the positive reception of his previous speech.
- 🚗 He shares a personal anecdote about adjusting to life post-White House, highlighting the contrast between his previous and current lifestyle.
- 🍔 A humorous story is told about being recognized in a low-cost restaurant, which later led to a misreported news story about him opening a restaurant.
- 🌍 The speaker discusses the climate crisis, emphasizing the importance of reducing carbon emissions and the role of individuals and businesses in addressing the issue.
- 🏡 He points out that buildings contribute more to global warming pollution than cars and trucks, underscoring the need for efficiency in all sectors.
- ⚡ The potential of renewable energy and carbon capture technology is highlighted as crucial for mitigating climate change.
- 🌿 Practical steps for individuals are suggested, such as reducing emissions at home, buying green electricity, and considering carbon offsets.
- 💼 The speaker encourages businesses to become carbon neutral and integrate climate solutions into their innovations.
- 💡 He calls for a shift in investment strategies to prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains.
- 🗣️ There's a call to action for the audience to become catalysts for change, teaching others about the climate crisis and advocating for political and societal shifts.
- 🌱 The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for a collective effort to address the climate crisis, suggesting that it's not just a political issue but a moral and practical one.
Q & A
What was the speaker's initial reaction to the conference and the audience's response?
-The speaker expressed extreme gratitude and was blown away by the conference. They also sincerely appreciated the nice comments about their previous speech.
Why did the speaker mention flying on Air Force 2 for 8 years?
-The speaker mentioned flying on Air Force 2 to highlight the contrast between their previous lifestyle with the privileges of being a vice president and their current, more ordinary life.
What was the 'phantom limb' analogy referring to?
-The 'phantom limb' analogy was used to describe the speaker's feeling of missing the motorcade and the attention that came with their former position.
Why did the speaker and Tipper drive themselves to a farm after leaving the White House?
-They drove themselves to experience a more normal life and to enjoy the freedom of not having a motorcade or the usual entourage that came with their previous roles.
What was the story about Shy's restaurant meant to illustrate?
-The story was meant to illustrate the drastic change in the speaker's life after leaving office, going from a high-profile position to being recognized and discussed by ordinary people in a low-cost family restaurant.
Why did the speaker decide to tell the Shy's restaurant story in Nigeria?
-The speaker wanted to share a personal and relatable story to connect with the audience and to highlight the universality of the experience of change in status.
What was the misunderstanding about the speaker's speech in Nigeria that led to humorous reactions?
-There was a misreporting that the speaker and his wife had opened a low-cost family restaurant named Shony, which led to jokes and humorous reactions from talk show hosts and the public.
What did the speaker initially plan to talk about at the conference, and why did they change the topic?
-The speaker initially planned to talk about information ecology but changed the topic to discuss the climate crisis, as it was a more pressing concern expressed by the conference attendees.
What are some of the actionable steps the speaker suggested to combat the climate crisis?
-The speaker suggested reducing emissions in homes, buying green electricity, considering carbon-neutral living, making businesses carbon neutral, integrating climate solutions into innovations, investing sustainably, and becoming a catalyst for change.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of efficiency and conservation in energy use?
-The speaker emphasizes efficiency and conservation because they are profitable investments that pay for themselves and effectively reduce the contribution to global warming.
What is the significance of the speaker's call for a mass persuasion campaign?
-The speaker calls for a mass persuasion campaign to change public opinion on climate change, as politicians currently do not have the public's permission to take the necessary actions to address the crisis.
Outlines
🌐 Reflecting on Public Life and Climate Change
The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to address the audience and reflects on the conference's impact. They share a personal anecdote about adjusting to life after the White House, highlighting the drastic change from flying on Air Force 2 to driving a rented car. A humorous story is told about being recognized in a low-cost restaurant, leading to a misreported news story about them opening a restaurant. The speaker transitions to discuss the climate crisis, emphasizing the importance of taking action and the need for a collective effort to address the issue.
🌡️ Tackling Climate Crisis with Actionable Solutions
The speaker delves into the climate crisis, presenting updated data on temperature records and emphasizing the urgency of the situation. They discuss various strategies to reduce emissions, such as improving energy efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and adopting carbon capture technologies. The audience is encouraged to take personal responsibility by reducing emissions in their homes, making green consumer choices, and considering carbon neutrality. The speaker also suggests integrating climate solutions into business practices and investing sustainably.
🌿 Becoming Carbon Neutral and Driving Change
The speaker provides practical advice on how individuals and businesses can become carbon neutral, including using a carbon calculator to measure and offset emissions. They announce plans to train people to deliver a slideshow on the climate crisis, which will be regularly updated. The speaker calls for political activism, advocating for capping carbon dioxide emissions and supporting market-based solutions. They stress the need for a mass persuasion campaign to change public opinion and empower politicians to take necessary action on climate change.
🌱 Uniting for a Sustainable Future
In the final paragraph, the speaker calls for unity and collective action, emphasizing that the climate crisis is not a political issue but a human one. They encourage the audience to use their influence to bring about change, regardless of political affiliation. The speaker suggests rebranding global warming as 'climate crisis' to better convey the urgency of the situation. They conclude by thanking the audience and expressing hope for a coherent and unified approach to solving the climate crisis.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Climate Crisis
💡Efficiency
💡Renewables
💡Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)
💡Carbon Neutral
💡Carbon Offsets
💡Global Warming Pollution
💡Phantom Limb Pain
💡Cap and Trade
💡Mass Persuasion Campaign
💡Bipartisan Issue
Highlights
Speaker expresses gratitude for the opportunity to address the conference for the second time.
Speaker shares a personal anecdote about adjusting to life post-White House, highlighting the change in lifestyle.
A humorous story is told about being recognized in a low-cost family restaurant, illustrating a shift in public perception.
Miscommunication leads to a humorous media mix-up about the speaker opening a restaurant, showcasing the speed of misinformation.
Speaker emphasizes the importance of efficiency and conservation in energy use, framing it as a profitable investment.
The speaker points out that buildings contribute more to global warming pollution than cars and trucks.
Speaker discusses the potential of renewable energy to make a significant difference in combating climate change.
Carbon capture and sequestration is introduced as a 'killer app' for safe fossil fuel use.
Speaker outlines practical steps individuals can take to reduce emissions in their homes.
The concept of living a carbon-neutral life is introduced, with a call for branding suggestions to make it more relatable.
Speaker encourages businesses to become carbon neutral and integrate climate solutions into their innovations.
The importance of sustainable investing is discussed, linking it to long-term business success.
Speaker announces a plan to train individuals to give the slideshow presentation in communities across the country.
A call to action for political engagement on climate issues, emphasizing the need for bipartisan support.
Speaker suggests a mass persuasion campaign to change public opinion on climate change, as a precursor to political action.
The speaker concludes with a reflection on the importance of the human capacity for reason and action in addressing the climate crisis.
Transcripts
thank you so much Chris and it's uh it's
uh truly a great honor to have the
opportunity to come to this stage twice
I'm extremely grateful I have been blown
away by this conference and I want to
thank all of you for the the many um
nice comments about what I had to say
the the other night and I and I say that
sincerely partly because I need
that put yourselves in my
position I flew on Air Force 2 for 8
years now I have to take off my shoes or
boots to get on an
airplane I'll tell you one quick story
to
illustrate what that's been like for
me this a true story every bit of this
is true soon after Tipper and I left the
White House I
we were driving from our home in
Nashville to a little farm we have 50 Mi
east of
Nashville driving
ourselves I know that sounds like a
little thing to you
but I
uh I looked in the rear view mirror
and uh all of a sudden it just hit me
there was no motorcade back
there you've heard of phantom limb
pain
this this was a rented Ford
Taurus uh it was dinner time and we
started looking for a place to eat uh we
were on I40 we got to uh exit 238
Lebanon Tennessee we got off the exit
started looking we found to shon's
restaurant lowcost family restaurant
chain for those of you who don't know it
we went in and sat down at the booth and
the waitress came over uh made a big
commotion over
Tipper she took our order and then went
to the couple in the booth next to us
and she lowered her voice so much I had
to really strain to hear what she was
saying and she said yes that's former
vice president Al Gore and his wife
Tipper and the man said he's come down a
long way hasn't
he there's been kind of a series of
epiphanies the very next day continuing
a totally true story I got on a G5 to
fly to Africa to make a speech in
Nigeria in the city of Lagos on the
topic of energy and and I began the
speech by telling them the story of what
had just happened the day before in
Nashville and I told it pretty much the
same way I've just shared it with you uh
Tipper and I were driving ourselves
Shy's lowcost Family Restaurant CH what
the man said they
laughed uh I gave my speech then went
back out to the airport to fly back home
I fell asleep on the plane until during
the middle of the night we landed on the
Azor islands for refueling I woke up
they opened the door I went out to get
some fresh air and looked and there was
a man running across the
runway and he was waving a piece of
paper and he was yelling call Washington
call
Washington and I thought to myself the
middle of the night middle of the
Atlantic what in the world could be
wrong in Washington I remembered it
could be a bunch of
things
and but but what it turned out to be was
that my staff was extremely upset
because a u one of the wire services in
Nigeria had already written a story
about my speech and it had already been
printed in cities all across the United
States of America was printed in Montery
I
checked uh and the story began former
vice president alore announced in
Nigeria yesterday quote my wife Tipper
and I have opened a lowcost family
restaurant named shony and we are
running it
ourselves before I could get back to us
soil David Letterman and Jay Leno had
already started in on one of them had me
in a big white chef's hat Tipper was
saying one more burger with
fries 3 days later I got a nice long
handwritten letter from my friend and
partner and colleague Bill Clinton
saying congratulations on the new
restaurant out
we like to celebrate each other's
successes in
life um was going to talk about
information
ecology but I was thinking that uh since
I plan to make a lifelong habit of
coming back to Ted that maybe I could
talk about that another
time it's a deal okay
I want to
focus on what many of you have said you
would like me to elaborate on what can
you
do about the climate
crisis uh I I want to start with a
couple of I'm going to show some new
images and I'm going to
recapitulate just a uh four or five now
oh the slideshow I I update the
slideshow every time I give it I add new
images because I learn more about it
every time I give it uh it's like beach
combing you know every time the tide
comes in and out you find some more
shells uh just in the last two days we
got the new uh temperature records in
January this is just for the United
States of America historical average for
January is 31° last month was
39.5 de now I know that you wanted some
more bad news about the environment I'm
kidding
uh but these are the
recapitulation slides and then I'm going
to go into new material about what you
can do but I wanted to elaborate on a
couple of these uh first of all this is
where we're projected to go with the US
contribution to global warming under
business as usual efficiency in
use electricity and inuse of all energy
is the lwh hanging fruit efficiency and
conservation it's not a cost it's a
profit the sign is wrong it's not
negative it's positive these are
investments that pay for themselves but
they are also very effective in
deflecting our
path cars and trucks I talked about that
in the slideshow but I want you to put
it in
perspective it's an easy
visible Target of concern and it should
be but there is more global warming
pollution that comes from buildings than
from cars and trucks cars and trucks are
very significant and we have the lowest
standards in the world and so we should
address that but it's part of the puzzle
other transportation is efficiency is as
important as cars and trucks Renewables
at the current levels of technological
efficiency can make this much difference
and with what venod and some uh and uh
John door and others many of you here a
lot of people directly involved in this
this wedge is going to grow much more
rapidly than the current projection
shows it carbon capture and
sequestration that's what
CCS stands for is likely to become the
killer
app uh that will enable us to continue
to use fossil fuels in a way that is
safe not quite there yet okay now uh
what can you do
reduce emissions in your
home most of these expenditures are also
profitable insulation better design buy
green electricity where where you can I
mentioned
automobiles buy a hybrid use light
rail figure out some of the other
options that are much better it's
important be a green consumer you have
choices with everything you bu between
things that have a harsh effect or a
much less harsh effect on the on the
global climate crisis consider this make
a decision to live a carbon neutral life
those of you who are good at branding
I'd love to get your advice and help on
how to say this in a way that connects
uh with the most people it is easier
than you think it really is uh a lot of
us in here have made that decision and
it is really pretty easy it means it
means reduce your carbon dioxide
emissions with the full range of choices
that you make and then purchase or
acquire offsets for the remainder that
you have not completely reduced and what
what it means is elaborated at climate
crisis .n net there is a carbon
calculator uh participant Productions
convened uh with with my active
involvement the leading software writers
in the world on this Arcane science of
carbon calculation to construct a
consumer friendly carbon calculator you
can you can very precisely calculate
what your CO2 emissions are and then you
uh you will be given options to reduce
and in by the time the movie comes out
in May this will be updated to 2.0 and
we will have click through purchases of
offsets next consider making your
business carbon neutral again some of us
have done that and it's not as hard as
you
think integrate climate Solutions into
all of your Innovations whether you are
from the technology or entertainment or
design and architecture Community invest
sustainably Majora mentioned this listen
if you have invested money with managers
who you compensate on the basis of their
annual performance don't ever again
complain about quarterly report CEO
management over time people do what you
pay them to
do and if they judge how much they're
going to get paid on your uh your your
Capital that they invested based on the
short-term returns you're going to get
short-term
decisions a lot more to be said about
that become a catalyst of change teach
others learn about it talk about
it the movie comes out the movie is a
movie version of the slideshow that I
gave two nights ago except it's a lot
more
entertaining and it comes out in May
many of you here have the opportunity to
ensure that a lot of people see it
consider sending
somebody to
Nashville pick
well and I am personally going to train
people to give this slideshow repurposed
with some of the personal stories
obviously replaced with a generic
approach and it's it's not just the
slides it's what they mean and it's how
they link together and so uh I'm going
to be conducting a course this summer
for a group of people that are nominated
by different folks to come and then give
it in mass in communities all across the
country and we're going to update the
the slideshow for all of them every
single week to keep it right on the
Cutting Edge working with Larry leig it
it will be at somewhere in that process
posted with tools and limited use uh uh
copyrights so that young people can
remix it uh and use and and do it in
their own way
where did anybody get the idea that you
ought to stay arms length from politics
it doesn't mean that I'm trying to con
if you're a republican that I'm trying
to convince you to be a Democrat we need
Republicans as well this ought used to
be a bipartisan issue and and I know
that in this group it really is become
politically active make our democracy
work the way it's supposed to work
support the idea of capping carbon
dioxide emissions global warming
pollution and trading it here's why as
long as the United States is out of the
world system it's not a closed system
once it becomes a closed system with us
participation then everybody who's on a
board of direct how many people here
serves serve on the board of directors
of a
corporation once it's a closed system
you will have legal liability if you do
not urge your CEO to get the maximum
income from reducing and trading the
carbon emissions that can be avoided the
Market will work to solve this
problem if if we can accomplish
this help with a mass persuasion
campaign that will start this spring we
have to change the minds of the American
people because presently the politicians
do not have permission to do what needs
to to be done and in our modern country
the role of logic and reason no long no
longer includes mediating between wealth
and power the way it once did it's now
repetition of short hot button 30 second
28c television ads we have to buy a lot
of those
ads let's Rebrand global
warming as many of you have suggested I
like climate crisis instead of climate
collapse but again those of you who are
good at branding I need your help on
this somebody said the test we're facing
now a scientist told me is whether the
combination of an opposable thumb and a
neocortex is a viable combination
it that's really
true I said the other night and I'll
repeat now this is not a political issue
again the Republicans
here this this shouldn't be partisan you
have more influence than some of us who
are Democrats do this is an opportunity
not just this but connected to the ideas
that are here to bring more coherence to
them We Are One
thank you very much I appreciate
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