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July 22, 2008
Al Gore's Doomsday Clock
Al Gore gave a speech last week "challenging" America to run "on 100% zero-carbon electricity in 10 years" -- though that's just the first step on his road to "ending our reliance on carbon-based fuels." Serious people understand this is absurd. Maybe other people will start drawing the same conclusion about the man proposing it.
The former vice president has also recently disavowed any intention of returning to politics. This is wise. As America's leading peddler of both doom and salvation, Mr. Gore has moved beyond the constraints and obligations of reality.
His job is to serve as a Prophet of Truth.
In Mr. Gore's prophesy, a transition to carbon-free electricity generation in a decade is "achievable, affordable and transformative." He believes that the goal can be achieved almost entirely through the use of "renewables" alone, meaning solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels.
And he doesn't think we really have any other good options: "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," he says, with his usual gift for understatement. "And even more -- if more should be required -- the future of human civilization is at stake."
What manner the catastrophe might take isn't yet clear, but the scenarios are grim: The climate crisis is getting worse faster than anticipated; global warming will cause refugee crises and destabilize entire nations; an "energy tsunami" is headed our way. And so on.
Here, however, is an inconvenient fact. In 1995, the U.S. got about 2.2% of its net electricity generation from "renewable" sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. By 2000, the last full year of the Clinton administration, that percentage had dropped to 2.1%.
Mr. Gore's argument would be helped if he were also willing to propose huge investments in nuclear power, which emits no carbon dioxide and currently supplies about one-fifth of U.S. electricity needs, and about three-quarters of France's. Britain has just approved eight new nuclear plants, and the German government of Angela Merkel is working to do away with a plan by the previous government to go nuclear-free.
But Mr. Gore makes no mention of nuclear power in his speech, nor of the equally carbon-free hydroelectric power. These are proven technologies -- and useful reminders of what happens when environmentalists get what they wished for.
Then there are biofuels, whose recent vogue, the World Bank believes, may have been responsible for up to 75% of the recent rise in world food prices. Save the planet; starve the poor.
None of this seems to trouble Mr. Gore. He thinks that simply by declaring an emergency he can help achieve Stakhanovite results. He might recall what the Stakhanovite myth (about the man who mined 14 times his quota of coal in six hours) actually did to the Soviet economy.
A more interesting question is why Mr. Gore remains believable.
Or maybe he is believed simply because people want something in which to believe. "The readiness for self-sacrifice," wrote Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer," "is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. . . . All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. . . . To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible."
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Wild Thing's comment........
What the hell is wrong with the Left? For a bunch that is so adamant about "separation of Church and state" they sure are obsessed about Prophets (Gore) and Messiahs (Obama).
"100% zero-carbon electricity"... ......use of "renewables" alone, meaning solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels.
Hellloooo? Al needs a basic science lesson. Biofuels are made from plants, which contain carbon.
Remember when Gore said "Climate Crisis Worse Than Terrorism"? !!
"Former Vice President Al Gore (D) offered the opinion that global warming, not terrorism, is the biggest threat to America. The former VP said that it is imperative that the nation go “green” before it is too late.“Terrorists may kill thousands,” Gore said. “Warming will kill billions and destroy civilization. If the government doesn’t take immediate action, the survival of the United States as we know it is at risk.”
Posted by Wild Thing at July 22, 2008 04:40 AM
Comments
Al Gore's fantasy ideas will kill billions and destroy civilizations. America is sitting on centuries supply of oil, gas and coal. Technology has enabled us to recover it and refine it cleanly. The politicians know this. They just want to be in charge and put our energy totally under their control.
Most of our politicians are socialists. They want to be an elite that completely controls all aspects of American life. They legislate more and more and ignore the Constitution more and more. America is moving toward the loss of freedom like so many European countries. Orwell is at work in our government.
Posted by: TomR at July 22, 2008 11:19 AM
I was over at our dear friend Linda's yesterday and put this there, it fits environmental First Lord Albert Gore(Gulliver) and his minions(Houyhnhnms and Yahoos) quite well. Some things never change. He's still a horse's ass.
Jonathan Swift was born before his time. "Indeed I must confess, that as to the people of Lilliput, Brobdingrag (for so the word should have been spelt, and not erroneously Brobdingnag), and Laputa, I have never yet heard of any Yahoo so presumptuous as to dispute their being, or the facts I have related concerning them; because the truth immediately strikes every reader with conviction. And is there less probability in my account of the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many thousands even in this country, who only differ from their brother brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a sort of jabber, and do not go naked? I wrote for their amendment, and not their approbation. The united praise of the whole race would be of less consequence to me, than the neighing of those two degenerate Houyhnhnms I keep in my stable; because from these, degenerate as they are, I still improve in some virtues without any mixture of vice.
Do these miserable animals presume to think, that I am so degenerated as to defend my veracity? Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Houyhnhnmland, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master, I was able in the compass of two years (although I confess with the utmost difficulty) to remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my species;especially the Europeans."
Posted by: Jack at July 22, 2008 12:13 PM
GORE- THE BIG BAD BOOGIE MAN!! I hope he scares himself to death!!!! this guy is to whacked-- his mother must of dropped him on his head when he was a baby- if he ever was a baby LOL!!!
Posted by: Cheryl Zee at July 22, 2008 05:19 PM
Tom, I think so too, they really want everything they can to be under their control.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 22, 2008 05:36 PM
Jack, wow thank you so much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 22, 2008 05:37 PM
Cheryl, LOL maybe that is what happened. I agree he is insane.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 22, 2008 05:39 PM
