Comments on: Is Al Gore nuts?

Former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech calling for a mission to the moon for renewable energy. This article disagrees.

[orkidiziner]

I believe Al Gore is right in that we need to do something in the next ten years towards changing our way of using up our planet .Far Fetched?Yesterday I saw "Solient Green "on the TV,that movie came out in the 70"s and Wow,its not that far fetched!Wake up people,we need to step up and commit to saving the world for our Grandchildren and theirs.Besides the earth only took 7 days to create , we can commit to 10 years.

[verycold]

Does anybody think that using corn for energy was a good idea? If you thought it was a good idea back when Gore saved ethanol, then you would have to admit something in the planning went very wrong. Good intentions do not always equate to an answer resolved. Food and transportation costs are a bigger slice of the pie for those middle class Americans. So a family of 4 with an income of 35,000 will have considerably less money after paying for groceries and gas compared to a family of 4 with an annual income of 100,000. Can we all agree on that? Al Gore is actually getting richer preaching doom and gloom while the rest of us have less money in our pockets at the end of the day. When was the last time that Al gassed up the cars he now is a passenger in?

The idea of letting the private sector come up with the answers is fine and dandy except NO subsidies for any form of energy. Look at the fact that we were still applying subsidies to oil and now ethanol? It never stops. It is like once approved always approved. We need solutions that can stand on their own and that are financially feasible.

Why not start with what we know we can do. We need to build more nuclear facilities near the source of the need. We need to drastically overhaul our rail system. The automakers need to hear the message that they will go broke unless they offer cars with super gas mileage. I don't care if it is a box. Every family can buy the box and still have a car for longer trips. How about building smaller homes on smaller plots that are innovative with energy demands as a priority? Why does Al Gore need a mansion to live in? How about banning all lawn sprinkling in all states since at some point water will be in short supply if not already in some states.

The car manufacturers already make cars for other countries that use propane, natural gas and so why not here? There are so many answers but NOT one answer. What we should instead being discussing is the pros and cons to all the energy ideas. Be truthful with a look to the future.

I think we can all agree that reducing our paycheck to the ME would be a pleasure.

[jgroves76]

Who cares what Al Gores energy bill is? Damn, my energy bill is about 900kwh on average, but I get 100% Wind Energy. So, my bill could be 1800 per month but I'm still CARBON FREE which is what Al Gore is pushing. The bigger point is that I don't care if he walks the walk, what he says is 100% true. So until you "Al Gore haters" can prove that he is not carbon free....SHUT UP already! You are not telling the truth. PROVE that his electricity is not carbon free. (don't waste your time...you can't do it).

Second, what the author fails to note here is developing technology. Ten years ago, what was the fastest computer your buy? Think....1998. If someone were to say "lets have internet access without plugging in at all Starbucks" you would have said it's crazy. Ten years is a LONG TIME and if we had not choice but to do this, are you telling me that it could not be done? It absolutley can. You can't do a search on an environmental website without seeing all the new technolgies being developed now without the backing of the Gov't. What if the Gov't did back the research? Think about how fast it would grow.

Keep going Al!

The current estimate for our "investment" in Iraq is $3 TRILLION. Even current subsidies for individual conversion to alternative energy end at year's end and so far extensions have failed in Congress. The author conveniently ignores the quickly progressing fields of organic photovoltaics, thin-film amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels.

Yes, 100% alternative in ten years was more for shock value, but please contrast that with the past eight years spent in fervent denial of man-caused global warming, paltry investment in alternatives, and no vision beyond more drilling.

I'll take Al Gore anyday. At least the man has a brain!

[hartiberlin]

Al Gore is right.
This author has not the slighest notion about the topic.
If we succeed soon the rebuild of the Steven Mark TPU device or
if Methernitha releases their Testatika design, we at
www.overunity.com will achieve the energy independence
maybe in just one year from now...

So better be aware, that the change will come sooner
as you might think.

Regards, Stefan.

[cnyman]

Big Oil does not want renewable energy, they say it is coming. Funny how 30 yrs ago it was coming when
I was working w/ solar. Big Oil will only except renewables when they control it. Well guess what, the oil era is over. The cats out of the bag. So more your money out of oil stocks and get with it. Energy can be clean and plentiful.

[dlauber]

Computer oriented sites are so much fun for these discussions because so many rightwingers just love to throw mud. Sadly they remain in denial as to the severity of the environmental problems this nation -- and the world -- faces. So they revert to calling those like Al Gore who are so far ahead of them at understanding the issue "elitists" when, of course, they are anything but elitists. (Kind of like the rightwing smear of Senator Obama as an elitist when its George W Bush and John McCain and their families that are the actual elitists who have no idea of what we ordinary people face in our daily lives (inflation, gas costs, health care, housing costs, all of the hassles of simply surviving day to day). I guess Cindy McCain's comment that the only way to get around Arizona is by jet isn't elitist.

But I digress. As an urban planner for 36 years I've seen so much evidence of the extent of global warming and environmental damage we've produced that it's just plain scary. And I must question those "elitist" proponents of nuclear energy who just won't answer the question of where they'll dispose of the nuclear waste (don't propose 45 new nuclear plants unless you can safely dispose of the nuclear waste, Senator McCain!). It's time for thoughtful, fact-based discussion of environmental policy -- not the type name calling know-nothingness that fills these pages.

(And for those deniers who will no doubt attack my comments with name calling -- our two cars are a Honda Insight hybrid we bought in 2001 which gets 60-70 mpg highway and a 2006 Honda Fit (that's our "big" car) that gets 39 mpg highway, 25-28 city.

[theflyingdutchman]

...and the answer is....YES YES YES YES YES

[Apolune]

Dikeman, you are utterly pathetic. It's that "can't do" philosophy that is making the US an international joke.

Good thing you weren't around to warn John Kennedy that man could not be on the moon within a decade when he issued a similar challenge to the cuontry.

Go back to your cave, you fearful, trapped-in-the-past loser.

[mjvtz]

there are always naysayers .. hopefully we ll ignore them as did the Wright Bros
but face this truth
A nuclear accident is an INEVITABILITY no one can afford.

[betomiller]

While I agree that Gore places a challenge to American society, it is more a matter of political will than over-optimism. The changeover from a peacetime economy to one that supported World War II was accomplished in a relatively short period of time. If Congress and the President can focus on energy and put aside their bickering and competitive mindset, the conversion of this country to energy sources that are not oil-based is within the realm of possibility within 10 years.

[fraz2006]

but what you are saying by this statement "That statement is about like challenging your 2 year old to finish college by the time she is 12. Not exactly practical, more than a little crazy, and likely to be either ignored, or if you push it, to cause lots of therapy sessions by the time she is 8.", is that however unlikely we can accomplish the task in 10 years, it is possible.

[sexydarin]

Yes al gore is nuts but also stands to make a lot of money through promoting climate hysteria. Let innovation and the free market do what it does best and let it happen naturally. Renewable energy will gradually start to take over once all the bugs and price efficiencies are worked out. All things happen in due time. The car wasn't meant for the 19th century, it was meant to happen in the 20th century. In due time.

[jafinnie]

Basic Supply and demand economics. Something Sir Albert of Gore doesn't know, but then he sells carbon credits.

Supply goes up, demand goes up,
Supply exceeds demand, price goes down, demand exceeds supply price goes up. Unless you live in a socialist society.

We are importing gasoline, not just oil. Why, tree huggers not Big Oil. We haven't built a new refinery in over 30 years. Oil company leases allow for exploration to find it but does not allow them to take one drop out without the federal governments approval, which has been denied so far. This includes natural gas, which we have in abundance but can't touch.

France is about 70% nuclear and we are just a few percent. The French aren?t better than us, We are just not allowed to build the Plants without years of red tape and billions upon billions of dollars in stupid regulation. We know how to build them safe and there is this thing called preventative maintenance. Forcing companies to guarantee a part for 100 years is ridicules and stupid.

Nuclear is a big way out of this but tree huggers won't have it.

55 mph was tried before. it didn?t work then and won't work now. Most vehicles run efficiently at 60 to 65 mph. Not all, just most.
Get rid of the 40 or more blends of gas. All I have seen it do is make my cars run worse and use more fuel and burning more fuel to get the same result is nothing short of wasteful.

for the 45 years I have been driving I have always kept track of mileage on my vehicles. It has been an obsession for me. I have had mileage computers in my cars and trucks for years, and when I didn't have one I kept a notebook to keep track of it. I even kept the notebook when I had the computers. Every time the government has dictated a change in fuel mixture my mileage suffered while they tell me there will be no difference.
To lose 5 mpg on each of 3 vehicles after a certain date tells me that the ingredient may cause less pollution, but if I use more fuel in the process where is the gain? It is a joke and just adds to the cost of fuel. Maybe we should just go back to horses. Then we can produce the same thing that we are being fed on global warming.

Columbia University has built a CO2 scrubber that can take 1 ton of co2 out of the air per day. The average person puts out about 18 ton of co2 per year. (all except Sir Albert of Gore, his is at least 20 times that at his house alone in electricity. Now throw in Natural gas, his fleet of cars and the private jet he fly?s around in.) That means that if the average person runs one for 18 days, he is carbon neutral. What a way to take care of this farce called "man made climate change".
What you don't believe that it is a farce??? Then why do the greenies hate it and want nothing to do with it? They worry about methane from cows, elk and termites. What about rotting dead trees in the forests and the fires that burn California every year because you can't clean up the brush and other fire fuel?

We should use OUR resources and technology, Wind, solar, geothermal and anything else we can come up with where applicable. To restrict ourselves is stupid.

America is not the problem, Third world countries are, they have no restrictions and don't care. Instead of us killing ourselves trying to meet impossible goals let us help them clean up their act. For all the complaining about us destroying the planet, we are the cleanest country on the planet for the amount of carbon based fuel we use. We have the cleanest air and water of any other industrialized nation on the planet.

The northern ice caps are melting because of volcanic activity under the pole. But the southern ice cap is growing by leaps and bounds. What is my proof? Is Florida under water yet? Mother Nature has this thing called cycles and the sun has sunspots that cycle about every eleven years. More sunspots more heat on earth, less sunspots less heat on earth. Basic science. That is unless you went to school after 1972. I finished in 1968.

No matter what we do the tree huggers will be against it. They never did or never will have any answers, just more stupid meaningless regulations. Don?t believe me?

Wind: kills birds and they are ugly. Think of the Grand Canyon full of them.
Solar: Sorry Al, demand will not bring the price down and some nut case scientist in Europe claims that we are using more than our fair share of it and we are depriving the poor countries of their share. Wha???????
Geo Thermal: Not allowed to use it near federal lands, so screw the west.
Nuclear: something we should have more of but, NIMBY.
Hydroelectric: Fine except for aquatic life. Even fish ladders don?t matter. One poor fish could get up the ladder and get sucked back through the turbine. A no no.
Coal: The good stuff has been put off limits by Al?s old boss, and no matter how many scrubbers you put up for everything else, it just doesn?t seem to be enough.
Oil: We need more refineries HERE but first we have to be aloud to get the oil out of the ground after we find it
Natural Gas: We should be using it for homes and government regs in some places force electric producers to use it. Less for homes.

I could go on but I?m tired now. I breathe the same air everyone else does and I drink the same water. I?m not fore destroying the planet, my grand kids have to grow up and have their grand kids.
When Sir Albert of Gore unplugs his house and it still runs, he uses mass transit and fly?s commercial I will believe he is carbon neutral. Using carbon credits is a scam and had any normal citizen come up with that idea, they would have been thrown in jail for ripping off the public.

Not to long in the future some useless politician will come up with a bill to tax the co2 you exhale. Then everyone should see that climate change is a farce. If you don?t then you deserve to pay the tax.

[DH1]

The question is: "Is Al Gore Nuts?"

The answer is: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Catch a currently airing episode of Penn and Teller's "********!" discussing the global warming issue. Note the opening quote from Time magazine. ROFL!!