Gore on Oprah: Global Warming 101 - Democratic Underground

usregimechange

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Dec-05-06 10:09 PM
Original message

Gore on Oprah: Global Warming 101

For the past 20 years, former Vice President Al Gore has been traveling the world speaking about global warming, a passion of his since college. In 2006, his lecture was made into the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Now available on DVD, this is the third highest grossing documentary of all time.

In his lectures, book and documentary, Gore explains that if we continue to ignore what we are doing to our planet, we risk destroying the very future of our civilization. And the former vice president says that we must act before it's too late.

"Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point-of-no-return, beyond which it's much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future," Gore says.

"I believe that everybody should see ," Oprah says. "You should get it for your friends and family this holiday season."
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_101.jhtml

What causes global warming?

First, it's important to understand that the atmosphere is extremely thin. "The late Carl Sagan used to say if you had a globe with a coat of varnish, the thinness of that varnish relative to the globe is similar to the thinness of the atmosphere to the planet," Gore says.

That atmosphere, which is just a few miles above the Earth's surface, traps some amount of the sun's energy, or light radiation, as it hits the Earth. "That's a good thing, the natural trapping of , because it keeps the temperatures within comfortable boundaries," Gore says. While other planets are either much too hot or much too cold, Earth is just like Goldilocks—just right for life.

As humans add pollution like carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) into the air, the Earth's atmosphere becomes thicker. The thicker atmosphere traps more of the reflected radiation, raising overall temperature. This process is what we call "global warming." Other major factors adding to global warming, Gore says, include the burning of coal, oil, gasoline and forests.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_102.jhtml

One place that already feels the effects of the melting North Pole is Shishmaref, a small Alaskan village just south of the Arctic Circle. The Inupiak people have lived here for generations, but in the past 30 years, they've witnessed dramatic changes.

As illustrated in the documentary Everything's Cool, warming temperatures are causing the icy barriers that once protected Shishmaref to form later in the season. This leaves the village vulnerable to fierce waves that pummel and eat away at the coastline.

As a result, entire foundations of houses have been destroyed as the ground has receded into the sea. Already 18 houses have been relocated to higher ground and rising water could eventually engulf the entire island. The estimated cost to relocate the village is $100 million.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_105.jhtml

A map of Antarctica shows what appear to be black dots in the middle of the continent. These, Gore says, are pools of water. Initially scientists assumed that these pools would freeze and fill up with ice. Instead, they burrow like termites all the way through the ice "and make it like Swiss cheese," he says.

Larsen B, an enormous ice shelf in Antarctica, was thought to be safe for at least 100 years despite global warming. After all, it had already been there for tens of thousand of years. "But starting at the end of January 2002, in a period of 35 days, it completely broke up," Gore says. "They were shocked. The scientists still haven't gotten over that."

When land-based ice like the Larsen B ice shelf falls into the sea and melts, Gore says it raises sea levels much more rapidly than the slow melting of mountain glaciers.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_106.jhtml

If Greenland and Antarctica continue to melt, Gore says the maps of the world will need to be redrawn. Low-lying areas near southern Florida, Manhattan and the area surrounding the San Francisco Bay could end up under water, Gore warns.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_108.jhtml

In August 2005, millions of Americans were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful hurricanes in recent history. Gore says people should expect more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes if the ocean waters continue to warm.

"Ocean-based storms stronger because when the top layer of the water gets warmer, the wind speed in these hurricanes goes up and the moisture content goes up," Gore says.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_110.jhtml

You are not helpless in the fight against global warming. Gore goes inside a Lowe's Home Improvement store outside Nashville, Tennessee, to show you the five things you can buy that will help solve the climate crisis…and save you a few bucks!

Compact fluorescent light bulbs

Outdoor solar lighting

Programmable thermostats

Air filters

Electric hot water heater blanket

Can you join us on Saturday December 16th, and host an Inconvenient Truth house party? We're reaching out to our friends and neighbors and spreading the word. It's easy to sign up to host or to attend a party. Just go here: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=69&rc=algore

When: Saturday, December 16th, 7pm ET
Where: Your House
What: Spreading the word about global warming.
http://www.algore.com/

Watch the Trailer:
http://www.climatecrisis.net/trailer/
Buy:
http://www.amazon.com/Inconvenient-Truth-Incomvenient/dp/B000ICL3KG/sr=1-3/qid=1158270805/ref=sr_1_3/102-4383335-8949754?ie=UTF8&s=dvd