The Future (96 page)
Authors: Al Gore
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 Times
, 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 CO
2
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
.
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)
Former vice president A
L
G
ORE
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 co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.