by Al Gore
Keith Bradsher, “Budding Environmental Movement Finds Resonance Across China,” New York Times, July 4, 2012.
337 gone up more than 150 percent, surpassing
Goldman Sachs, “Sustainable Growth in China: Spotlight on Energy,” August 13, 2012, http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/topics/environment-and-energy/sustainable-growth-china.html.
338 70 percent of its energy from coal
“Coal Industry in China—Coal Accounts for About 70% of China’s Total Energy,” BusinessWire, December 14, 2011.
339 to a level three times that of U.S. coal consumption
Goldman Sachs, “Sustainable Growth in China: Spotlight on Energy,” August 13, 2012, http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/topics/environment-and-energy/sustainable-growth-china.html.
340 two and a half times more than the U.S.
Osamu Tsukimori, “China Overtakes Japan as World’s Top Coal Importer,” Reuters, January 26, 2012.
341 is equivalent to all of the U.S. annual consumption
Mikkal Herberg, New America Foundation, “China’s Energy Rise and the Future of U.S.-China Energy Relations,” June 21, 2011, http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/china_s_energy_rise_and_the_future_of_us_china_energy_relations.
342 though many experts are skeptical about their ability to stay within the cap
Susan Kraemer, “China to Simply Cap Coal Use Within 3 Years,” Clean Technica, March 8, 2012, http://cleantechnica.com/2012/03/08/china-to-simply-cap-coal-use-within-3-years/.
343 first decade of this century, and is now second only
Herberg, “China’s Energy Rise and the Future of U.S.-China Energy Relations.”
344 Saudi Arabia’s oil exports to China
Ibid.
345 will import three quarters of its oil within the next two decades
U.S. Energy Information Agency, “Country Analysis: China,” September 4, 2012, http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=CH.
346 engagement with oil-rich countries in the Middle East and Africa
Ibid.
347 Chinese became the largest investor in Iraq’s oilfields
Ibid.
348 energy consumption in China is only a fraction
Heather Billings and Sisi Wei, “China’s Energy Grab,” Washington Post, October 30, 2011.
349 per capita CO2 emissions are approaching those of Europe
Duncan Clark, “Average Chinese Person’s Carbon Footprint Now Equals European’s,” Guardian, July 18, 2012.
350 letting all energy prices float further upward to global market levels
Keith Bradsher, “China Sharply Raises Energy Prices,” New York Times, June 20, 2008.
351 lagging behind other leading global economies
Danielle Kurtzlaben, “China, European Countries Best U.S. on Energy Efficiency,” U.S. News & World Report, July 12, 2012.
352 it will invest almost $500 billion in clean energy
Esther Tanquintic-Misa, “China Leads Global Investments in Renewable Energy,” IB Times, December 5, 2011, http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/261083/20111205/china-leads-global-investments-renewable-energy.htm#.UFJWkhg-KP0.
353 Chinese make use of “feed-in tariffs”
Coco Liu, “China Uses Feed-in Tariff to Build Domestic Solar Market,” ClimateWire, September 14, 2011.
354 subsidy plan that worked extremely well in Germany
Cristoph Stefes, “Room for Debate—The German Solution: Feed in Tariffs,” New York Times, September 21, 2011.
355 renewable energy percentage targets on utilities
Pew Charitable Trusts, “Global Clean Power: A $2.3 Trillion Opportunity—Appendix: China,” December 8, 2010, p. 48.
356 targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions per unit of economic growth
Bill McKibben, “Can China Go Green?,” National Geographic, June 2011.
357 “miracle will end soon, because the environment can no longer keep pace”
“The Chinese Miracle Will End Soon,” Der Spiegel, March 7, 2005.
358 factories and even blackouts in order to ensure that the goals were met
Jonathan Watts, “China Resorts to Blackouts in Pursuit of Energy Efficiency,” Guardian, September 19, 2010.
359 central government has linked promotions
Alexandre Kossoy and Pierre Gioan, World Bank, “State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2012,” May 2012, pp. 96–99, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTCARBONFINANCE/Resources/State_and_Trends_2012_Web_Optimized_19035_Cvr&Txt_LR.pdf.
360 exports 95 percent of the solar panels it produces
David Pierson, “China Offers Measured Response to U.S. Tariffs on Solar Panels,” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2012.
361 50 percent of all the windmills installed globally were in China
Global Wind Energy Council, “China Wind Energy Development Update 2010,” 2010, http://www.gwec.net/china-wind-energy-development-update-2012/.
362 connected to lines that cannot handle the electricity flow
Mat McDermott, “One Quarter of China’s Wind Power Still Not Connected to Electricity Grid,” TreeHugger, March 7, 2011, http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/one-quarter-of-chinas-wind-power-still-not-connected-to-electricity-grid.html.
363 “almost the equivalent of rebuilding”
Jeff St. John, “HVDC Grows on the Grid from China to Oklaunion,” August 28, 2012, Greentech Media, http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hvdc-grows-in-smart-grid-from-china-to-oklaunion/.
364 the Middle East to large electricity consumers in Europe
Beth Gardiner, “An Energy Supergrid for Europe Faces Big Obstacles,” New York Times, January 16, 2012.
365 Mexico can easily provide all of the electricity needed
Thomas L. Friedman, “This Is a Big Deal,” New York Times, December 4, 2011.
366 India
Brad Gammons, “India Set to Leap-Frog Ahead with ‘Smart Grid’ Energy Strategy,” International Business Times, September 8, 2011.
367 Australia
Fran Foo, “ ‘EnergyAustralia’ Bags $93m Smart Grid Contract,” Australian, October 8, 2010.
368 more than $200 billion per year
National Energy Technology Laboratory, “Modern Grid Benefits,” 2007, p. 14, www.netl.doe.gov/smartgrid/referenceshelf/whitepapers/Modern%20Grid%20Benefits_Final_v1_0.pdf.
369 problems in managing electricity flows through the antiquated grid
Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi, “India Blackout, on Second Day, Leaves 600 Million without Power,” Washington Post, August 1, 2012.
370 majority of their time in garages or parking spaces
Matthew L. Wald, “Better Batteries: Not Just for Cars Anymore,” New York Times, Green blog, October 31, 2011, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/better-batteries-not-just-for-cars-any-more/?scp=14&sq=energy%20storage&st=cse.
371 impressive movement by many companies to take advantage
Amory B. Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute, Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011).
372 wave and tidal energy are both being explored
U.S. Department of Energy, “DOE Reports Show Major Potential for Wave and Tidal Energy Production Near U.S. Coasts,” January 18, 2012, http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=664.
373 that they may have great potential in the future
Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Tidal Power: The Next Wave?,” New York T
imes, October 20, 2010.
374 “unlikely to significantly contribute to global energy supply before 2020”
O. Edenhofer et al., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation—Press Release,” 2011, http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/press/content/potential-of-renewable-energy-outlined-report-by-the-intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change.
375 significant contribution in nations like Iceland
Christopher Mims, “One Hot Island: Iceland’s Renewable Geothermal Power,” Scientific American, October 20, 2008.
376 New Zealand
New Zealand Geothermal Association, “Geothermal Energy & Electricity Generation,” http://www.nzgeothermal.org.nz/elec_geo.html.
377 Philippines, where there is an abundance
Dan Jennejohn et al., Geothermal Energy Association, “Geothermal: International Market Overview Report,” May 2012, http://www.geo-energy.org/pdf/reports/2012-GEA_International_Overview.pdf.
378 serious ecological risks in particular locations
Arun Kumar, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation-Hydropower,” 2011, pp. 437–96.
379 use of biomass is expanding
Toby Price, “Power Generation from Biomass Booms Worldwide,” Renewable Energy, September 13, 2012.
380 though enforcement of this mandate has been lagging
“An Overview of China’s Renewable Energy Market,” China Briefing, June 16, 2011, http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/06/16/an-overview-of-chinas-renewable-energy-market.html.
381 storage of the CO2 that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere
Barbara Freese, Steve Clemmer, and Alan Nogee, Union of Concerned Scientists, “Coal Power in a Warming World: A Sensible Transition to Cleaner Energy Options,” October 2008, p. 18, http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/Coal-power-in-a-warming-world.pdf.
382 because it begins to be absorbed into the geological formation itself
James Katzer, ed., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “The Future of Coal: Options for a Carbon-Constrained World,” 2007, p. 44, http://web.mit.edu/coal/The_Future_of_Coal.pdf.
383 political paralysis that characterizes the present state of democracy in the United States
Jeff Tollefson and Richard Van Noorden, “Slow Progress to Cleaner Coal,” Nature, April 2012.
384 Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia
Damien Carrington, “Q&A: Carbon Capture and Storage,” Guardian, May 10, 2012.
385 is to put a price on carbon
David Talbot, “Needed: A Price on Carbon,” Technology Review, August 14, 2006.
386 has had difficulties with its new generation of reactors
Liam Moriarty, “French Sour on Nuclear Power,” PRI The World, April 24, 2012, http://www.theworld.org/2012/04/france-nuclear-power/.
387 with a design that many experts believe is promising
Korea Herald, “S. Korea to Proceed with Two New Reactors,” Jakarta Post, May 6, 2012.
388 smaller and hopefully safer reactors
Clay Dillow, “Can Next-Generation Reactors Power a Safe Nuclear Future?,” Popular Science, March 17, 2011.
389 ingrained preference for single solutions
Jon Gertner, “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?,” New York Times, April 16, 2009.
390 tiny strips of tinfoil in orbit around the Earth
U.S. National Academy of Science, “Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming: Mitigation, Adaptation and the Science Base,” 1992, http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309043867.
391 giant space parasol, also intended to block incoming sunlight
Robert Kunzig, “A Sunshade for Planet Earth,” Scientific American, November 2008.
392 massive quantities of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere
Ibid.
393 existence on Earth would no longer be blue—or at least no longer be as blue
Ben Kravitz et al., “Geoengineering: Whiter Skies?,” Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012).
394 color of the night sky from black to reddish black
C. C. M. Kyba et al., “Red Is the New Black: How the Colour of Urban Skyglow Varies with Cloud Cover,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 425 (August 2012).
395 melting of glaciers and snowpacks
Tim Wall, “Peru’s Peaks Go White to Guard Glaciers,” Discovery News, December 5, 2011.
396 “We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country”
Abraham Lincoln, “Annual Remarks to Congress,” December 1, 1862.
397 that our numbers were reduced to less than 10,000 people
“Humans: From Near Extinction to Phenomenal Success,” BBC, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Human.
CONCLUSION
1 paintings in the caves at Chauvet, in France, and the figurines
Clottes, “Chauvet Cave (ca. 30,000 B.C.),” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History; Judith Thurman, “First Impressions,” New Yorker, June 23, 2008.
2 99.9 percent of them are identical in every human being
“Cracking the Code of Life,” PBS NOVA, April 17, 2001, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/cracking-the-code-of-life.html; Roger Highfield, “DNA Survey Finds All Humans Are 99.9pc the Same,” Telegraph, December 20, 2002; University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center, “Can DNA Demand a Verdict?,” http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/forensics/.
3 our 23,000 genes
“Microbes Maketh Man,” Economist, August 18, 2012.
4 millions of proteins
“Proteomics,” American Medical Association, http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-science/genetics-molecular-medicine/current-topics/proteomics.page.
5 incentives and rules that work to their advantage
Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984).
6 “weapons of reason which today arm you against the present”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (New York: Penguin, 1964), p. 106. Marcus Aurelius was praised by historians of the Roman empire, including Niccolò Machiavelli and Edward Gibbon.
BY AL GORE
The Future
The Assault on Reason
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth: Adapted for a New Generation
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family (with Tipper Gore)
The Spirit of Family (with Tipper Gore)
Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis
Our Purpose
From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government
That Works Better and Costs Less
Common Sense Government
Businesslike Government: Lessons Learned from America’s Best Companies
(illustrated by Scott Adams)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Former vice president AL GORE is co-founder and chairman of both Generation Investment Management and Current TV. He is also a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a member of Apple Inc.’s board of directors. Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of the Climate Reality Project, a non-profit devoted to solving the climate crisis. Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives four times and to the U.S. Senate twice. He served eight years as vice president. He authored the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, and Our Choice. He is a c
o-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
www.algore.com