Gore - "What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project,

[Dover]

the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan".


------------------------------------

From the Fortune article:

Al Gore's next act: Planet-saving VC

The recovering politician is teaming with a legendary venture capitalist and bigtime moneyman to make over the $6 trillion global energy business.

...snip...

Already they've begun to pool information. Generation came across a small company engaged in carbon trading that Kleiner is analyzing, and Kleiner has shared intelligence about which startups could threaten the established companies in Generation's portfolio. In the long term, though, they want to help drive something much larger, "bigger than the Industrial Revolution and significantly faster," as Gore puts it.

They argue that to halt global warming, nothing less will be required than a makeover of the $6 trillion global energy business. Coal plants, gas stations, the internal-combustion engine, petrochemicals, plastic bags, even bottled water will have to give way to clean, green, sustainable technologies. "What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally," Gore continues. "It'd be promising too much to say we can do it on our own, but we intend to do our part."

Does that sound grandiose? Sure. Will they be accused of being partisan? Probably. Is there something incongruous about globetrotting rich guys jetting between multiple homes and lecturing the rest of us about climate change? Of course.

But there are good reasons to take Gore and Doerr seriously. Gore, who never seemed fully at ease as a presidential candidate, has demonstrated a real knack for using mass communications to influence public opinion. (He estimates that he's shown his homespun slide show on global warming more than 1,000 times, while the documentary version, An Inconvenient Truth, won him an Oscar.) Doerr, meanwhile, has displayed a real talent for deploying venture capital to create or disrupt whole industries.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/11/news/newsmakers/gore_kleiner.fortune/index.htm

[shance]

1. Whah???

Would somebody please explain this to me?

It sounds like the New World Order deluxe package plan.

[Dover]

2. Have you read the article?...n/t

[AlGore-08.com]

7. He means: it will take a huge, organized effort to switch to clean energy & reverse global warming

The technology is not mature enough for the transition yet, and before Gore joined this group, nobody was really investing in new ideas and technologies and companies on the right scale to create that huge, organized effort. The government isn't doing it - - and when the government was doing it (back in the 1990s) the existing companies were unwilling to make the major changes the government was researching. (Best example: if Detroit had run with their own PNGV results, hybrids like the Prius might have been marketed in America first - - and Detroit would be hiring like crazy, not laying off more and more people.)

The areas that Gore will be in charge of in this Venture Capital company will be responsible for investing in alternative energy & carbon reduction companies. For example, suppose I have THE idea that will make electric cars practical and affordable. I have spent every last penny I have creating a demonstration model, and it works great. But in order to manufacture these cars, I either have to try to sell this idea to the existing automakers (and they've shown how eager they are to produce electric cars) or try to get the money together to make them myself. If I go to a regular bank and ask for a business loan to make electric cars, unless my family is obscenely wealthy and I have tons of collateral to put up, odds are that I won't be able to borrow the kind of money I need. I would need something like this venture capital company and somebody like Gore who was dedicated to new clean/sustainable companies in order to get anywhere with my electric car company.

This is a very positive development. Even if we get a Democratic President and Democratic Congressional majority in 2008, we're still going to need folks in the business community supporting green initiatives, rather than working against them.

[IndyOp]

3. I am fascinated. Indeed, I am. Go Al ! (n/t)

[whistle]

4. Those projects for their time were costly

Cost of the Manhattan Project (1941-1945) $20.0 billion
Cost of the Marshall Plan (1946 to 1951) $11.0 billion
Cost of the Apollo Program (1955 to 1969) $100.0 billion

In todays dollars the costs for saving our planet may run into the trillions of dollars and may be unavoidable

[Dover]

5. A drop in the bucket compared to the cost (human and economic) of the "War on Terra"

Yes, 'terra' is an intentional play on both meanings.

[tridim]

6. It's still cheaper than Iraq, and will also provide thousands of good jobs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. And the cost of NOT doing this

is incalculable.

[applegrove]

8. It isn't grandiose. It is what is needed. A revolution in technology. And

it should have started a decade ago.

[kestrel91316]

9. He'll get more done in this capacity than as President, where the RW

would just hound him and interfere with every single move of his.

He's out of politics. I'm sure of it. Time for me to move on........sigh.

[Dover]

10. Maybe he needs a personal assistant!

:patriot: Go work for him in his new capacity.

He'll be free to make significant change outside this system.

[kestrel91316]

12. My skill set as a feline veterinarian is probalby not quite what he needs, lol.

[The2ndWheel]

13. Laugh or cry? Maybe sit with my hands on my temples, quietly wondering WTF?

We can't stop, but we can't keep going. It's the goddamn scale of our solutions that is the problem. It is un-frikkin'-real the way we keep doing this.

[Odin2005]

16. What Al isn't a technology basher like you? the HORROR!!! *SARCASM*

Technology got us in this mess and it will get us out, too.

[razzleberry]

14. What is Gore waiting for?

I would suggest Gore go to some country that would
grant building-permits quickly,
and start suppling the clean energy.

US's permission not needed.
Then, others would copy.

[Nihil]

15. Yeah ... good one!

> US's permission not needed.
> Then, others would copy.

Have you not heard of the NIH syndrome? Not Invented Here.

It is the motto of the American car industry (amongst others) and
serves to prevent smart ideas developed elsewhere in the world
making it into American products (and hence to American consumers).

*THAT* is why Gore needs to get major US support rather than just
going to "some country that would grant building-permits quickly".

:eyes:

[razzleberry]

17. c'mon, NIH does not apply to China or Japan

When Gore decides to finally take some action,
numerous countries will copy it.
Best if the US stays on the sideline.

[NNadir]

18. If the implication is that more "R&D" will save the world, I'm afraid it won't work.

All the time we hear this "Apollo project," "Manhattan Project," stuff.

Both "projects" brought forms of energy to the forefront, and both forms of energy are fully developed about as far as they are going to go.

Fermi built the first nuclear reactor in 1942 and the first commercial reactors for producing electrical and heat energy began to operate in the 1950's. They worked quite well, for the most part, and the rest, a few minor set backs nothwithstanding - and yes, I am including Chernobyl here - has mostly been public hysteria and public ignorance.

Unless people learn to count exajoules, and over the years I've discovered, much to my continual shock, that getting people to something as simple as count is often not just difficult, but impossible.

The problem is that there is always an ignorant mass which believes that that which has no been shown to work is superior to that which is known. As long as this silly mentality is allowed to prevail, nothing more than talk and posturing will be the result.

Al Gore cannot save the planet. It's beyond his reach now, and has been for quite some time. No one can save the day. All the treatments left are palliative and not curative, and oh, yes, they are radiation treatments.

If you have children, try to make eye contact as much as you can in the next year. In twenty years, you will not be able to look them in the eye, and for good reason.

[phantom power]

20. I foresee something like the old CCC.

maybe the reference to the Marshall Plan is alluding to the same idea.

[jpak]

21. Yup - Congress should end all federal nuclear power R&D and subsidies

It's a mature energy industry (minus all the "minor" mishaps like Chernobyl - not)

After all, R&D won't save the world...

[Javaman]

19. As much as I like Gore, how are we supposed to pay for all of this?

with our current national debt nearing 10 TRILLION bucks???

moron* has sold us down the river.

If something doesn't change for the better within the next 3 years, we are going to be totally fucked. right now were are only merely fucked.