Al Gore to advise Gordon Brown on climate change
MICHAEL SETTLE and CATHERINE MacLEOD October 30 2006
Gordon Brown will today announce that Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, has agreed to become his international adviser on climate change. The appointment of the leading Democrat politician, who has won worldwide acclaim for his film, An Inconvenient Truth, on the dangers of global warming, follows that earlier this year of Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, as the Chancellor's international economic adviser. It comes as Sir Nicholas Stern this morning issues a dire warning of the devastating economic consequences if the world fails to act decisively to meet the environmental challenge.
Al Gore Appointed International AdvisorMore at the link
Congratulations, Mr. Gore.
This is along the lines of what
I had requested from the UN in establishing a Global Environmental Ambassador postwith Mr. Gore being first to assume it. I have received a response from the United Nations on that BTW, so firstly, let me state that the letter I received from the United Nations was very respectful and professional. The message of the letter was that at this time such a position could not be entertained by the Secretary General.
However, based on my letter to him of 8 September, I believe it was part of the catalyst for Mr. Gore doing his climate change presentation there on 28 September which makes me very happy. And the United Nations agreed that he is indeed a Global Environmental Ambassador with or without that title.
They also thanked me for my dedication and my desire to educate others on this issue. I am then very happy with this response, and am simply gratified I received one at all since so many people and organizations you write to do not even take the time to respond to you personally.
Hopefully,
November 4 and the following week will see a mass of people coming forward globally to speak out about the importance of making the climate crisis the central issue of this century.Believe it or not, there are other threats besides terrorism that we as a species must deal with now.
Thank you to the United Nations and the Office of the Secretary General for giving this request consideration and respect, as this is an issue I will be dedicated to for the rest of my life.
And that is why I am so grateful that Mr. Gore is out here doing all of this for our world.
I read an article yesterday where it was noted that
North America isn't even close to being energy efficient yet and that on the whole we here have a long way to go. And since we are the ones putting most of the global warning pollution in the atmosphere and the effects of that are already being felt in our world elsewhere by those less fortunate than we are, we have a moral obligation to step up to the plate now before that 10-15 year window closes.
There is nothing more important than stepping up to that plate now. But in this article it was also stated that
politicians and people really do not understand the urgency of this crisis, which tells me that Mr. Gore and others who are spreading this truth have a 24 hour seven day job just trying to do that!And while there are groups in this country and people working to change how business is done in order to hopefully mitigate the effects of our destructive behavior within the timeframe given by a consensus of scientists, it still does not seem to have reached the level of urgency in this country that it needs to reach. As one who understands that urgency, I don’t know how much longer we can wait to reach that level before action is taken.
That is why I am very excited for Mr. Gore regarding this appointment and any appointment he gets regarding this issue, because he understands the urgency and that this is a moral issue that requires all of us doing our part now. That means a fire has to be lit under people to move, and that doesn't mean just shouting 'run al run' everyday or cornering him at a slideshow presentation to talk about websites you started to get people to pledge to vote for him as if you just don’t get it, when we all should be pledging to do something to alleviate the effect we are having on our planet and stand with him in this fight now.
Will it have to take part of the Greenland or Arctic ice shelf falling into the ocean or some other catastrophe to make people in this country see the urgency of what we are doing here and how important Mr. Gore's contributions to this are now in lighting that fire on a moral level?
Is it simply inherent in humans to wait until the situation is so dire that nothing can be done before we say something must be done? Do we have such a destructive streak in us as a species, that even when we see the danger we refuse to acknowledge it? We cannot do that with this crisis. There are no walls you can build to hide this problem.
We have the power to reverse a good portion of the damage we have done and to keep more damage from being done to the only home we know. Al Gore is one of those who is leading the way on a global scale. What will you do to lead? It's obvious the current regime running the United States of America into the ground doesn't want to lead on the most important issue of our time, so it is the people who will have to do it with the help of those governments in the world who do have a moral conscience and are based in reality.
From the BBC:
Climate Change Fight Can't Waithttp://progressivesforgore.blogspot.comAlso, it won't be easy, as I am sure there are many people who will be skeptical of the economic picture Sir Nicholas desribed in his report. I hoped to see some conversation on that here, especially in regards to the poor of this world who are already feeling the effects of this crisis the most, but I suppose that isn't as important as using this as well to cheerlead for 2008 instead of really discussing the problem at hand. I would hope Mr. Gore takes that into consideration in his advisement to the British government, as he is truly dedicated to this issue. 20% of the worlds GDP having to be spent on paying for the effects of this crisis because of our own hand is ludicrous and immoral. Just changing our own habits and looking at our own moral responsibility regarding this would go a long way in reducing that expense.
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