[Dialogue] Moving Beyond Kyoto

Sun Jul 1 23:02:10 EDT 2007

Moving Beyond Kyoto, By AL GORE  

Published: July 1, 2007, Nashville

WE — the human species — have arrived at a moment of decision. It is  
unprecedented and even laughable for us to imagine that we could actually make a  
conscious choice as a species, but that is  nevertheless the challenge that is 
before us. 
Our home — Earth — is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not  
the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human  
beings.  
Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so  
much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we  
have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we don’t  
stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase to 
levels  humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate balance on 
which  our civilization depends. 
In the last 150 years, in an accelerating frenzy, we have been removing  
increasing quantities of carbon from the ground — mainly in the form of coal and  
oil — and burning it in ways that dump 70 million tons of CO2 every 24 hours  
into the Earth’s atmosphere.  
The concentrations of CO2 — having never risen above 300 parts per million  
for at least a million years — have been driven from 280 parts per million at  
the beginning of the coal boom to 383 parts per million this year. 
As a direct result, many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer 
 to several “tipping points” that could — within 10 years — make it 
impossible  for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet’s habitability for 
human  civilization. 
Just in the last few months, new studies have shown that the north polar ice  
cap — which helps the planet cool itself — is melting nearly three times 
faster  than the most pessimistic computer models predicted. Unless we take 
action,  summer ice could be completely gone in as little as 35 years. Similarly, 
at the  other end of the planet, near the South Pole, scientists have found new 
evidence  of snow melting in West Antarctica across an area as large as 
California. 
This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue, one that affects the  
survival of human civilization. It is not a question of left versus right; it 
is  a question of right versus wrong. Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the  
habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that  
follows ours.  
On Sept. 21, 1987, President Ronald Reagan said, “In our obsession with  
antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of  
humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to recognize this  
common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences would vanish if we  
were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” 
We — all of us — now face a universal threat. Though it is not from outside  
this world, it is nevertheless cosmic in scale.  
Consider this tale of two planets. Earth and Venus are almost exactly the  
same size, and have almost exactly the same amount of carbon. The difference is  
that most of the carbon on Earth is in the ground — having been deposited 
there  by various forms of life over the last 600 million years — and most of the 
 carbon on Venus is in the atmosphere. 
As a result, while the average temperature on Earth is a pleasant 59 degrees, 
 the average temperature on Venus is 867 degrees. True, Venus is closer to 
the  Sun than we are, but the fault is not in our star; Venus is three times 
hotter  on average than Mercury, which is right next to the Sun. It’s the carbon  
dioxide. 
This threat also requires us, in Reagan’s phrase, to unite in recognition of  
our common bond.  
Next Saturday, on all seven continents, the _Live Earth_ 
(http://www.liveearth.org/)   concert will ask for the attention of humankind to begin a 
three-year campaign  to make everyone on our planet aware of how we can solve the 
climate crisis in  time to avoid catastrophe. Individuals must be a part of the 
solution. In the  words of Buckminster Fuller, “If the success or failure of this 
planet, and of  human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I 
be? What would I  do?” 
Live Earth will offer an answer to this question by asking everyone who  
attends or listens to the concerts to sign a personal pledge to take specific  
steps to combat climate change. (More details about the pledge are available at  
_algore.com_ (http://www.algore.com/) .) 
But individual action will also have to shape and drive government action.  
Here Americans have a special responsibility. Throughout most of our short  
history, the United States and the American people have provided moral  
leadership for the world. Establishing the Bill of Rights, framing democracy in  the 
Constitution, defeating fascism in World War II, toppling Communism and  landing 
on the moon — all were the result of American leadership.  
Once again, Americans must come together and direct our government to take on 
 a global challenge. American leadership is a precondition for success. 
To this end, we should demand that the United States join an international  
treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90  
percent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the  
next generation to inherit a healthy Earth. 
This treaty would mark a new effort. I am proud of my role during the Clinton 
 administration in negotiating the Kyoto protocol. But I believe that the  
protocol has been so demonized in the United States that it probably cannot be  
ratified here — much in the way the Carter administration was prevented from  
winning ratification of an expanded strategic arms limitation treaty in 1979.  
Moreover, the negotiations will soon begin on a tougher climate treaty. 
Therefore, just as President Reagan renamed and modified the SALT agreement  
(calling it Start), after belatedly recognizing the need for it, our next  
president must immediately focus on quickly concluding a new and even tougher  
climate change pact. We should aim to complete this global treaty by the end of  
2009 — and not wait until 2012 as currently planned. 
If by the beginning of 2009, the United States already has in place a  
domestic regime to reduce global warming pollution, I have no doubt that when we  
give industry a goal and the tools and flexibility to sharply reduce carbon  
emissions, we can complete and ratify a new treaty quickly. It is, after all, a  
planetary emergency. 
A new treaty will still have differentiated commitments, of course; countries 
 will be asked to meet different requirements based upon their historical 
share  or contribution to the problem and their relative ability to carry the 
burden of  change. This precedent is well established in international law, and 
there is no  other way to do it. 
There are some who will try to pervert this precedent and use xenophobia or  
nativist arguments to say that every country should be held to the same  
standard. But should countries with one-fifth our gross domestic product —  
countries that contributed almost nothing in the past to the creation of this  crisis 
— really carry the same load as the United States? Are we so scared of  this 
challenge that we cannot lead? 
Our children have a right to hold us to a higher standard when their future — 
 indeed, the future of all human civilization — is hanging in the balance. 
They  deserve better than a government that censors the best scientific evidence 
and  harasses honest scientists who try to warn us about looming catastrophe. 
They  deserve better than politicians who sit on their hands and do nothing 
to  confront the greatest challenge that humankind has ever faced — even as the 
 danger bears down on us.  
We should focus instead on the opportunities that are part of this challenge. 
 Certainly, there will be new jobs and new profits as corporations move  
aggressively to capture the enormous economic opportunities offered by a clean  
energy future.  
But there’s something even more precious to be gained if we do the right  
thing. The climate crisis offers us the chance to experience what few  
generations in history have had the privilege of experiencing: a generational  mission; 
a compelling moral purpose; a shared cause; and the thrill of being  forced by 
circumstances to put aside the pettiness and conflict of politics and  to 
embrace a genuine moral and spiritual challenge.  

Al Gore, vice president from 1993 to 2001, is the chairman of the Alliance  
for Climate Protection. He is the author, most recently, of “The Assault on  
Reason.” 

Cynthia N.  Vance
Strategics International Inc.
8245 SW 116 Terrace
Miami, Florida,  33156
305-378-1327; fax 305-378-9178
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