Americans Have Become a Bunch of Lazy, Worthless Citizens
Jul 21 at 11:11pm by Jagwire X
Al Gore: Green Energy by 2018
On Thursday July 17th, 2008 Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore delivered a speech on America’s future energy needs in Washington, D.C. The gist of the speech is that promises of 40 years to make changes to how we power everything is meaningless and 10 years is something people can focus on.
“Our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” the former Democratic vice president and presidential candidate in 2000 told a meeting in Washington.
“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet,” Mr. Gore said. “Every bit of that’s got to change.”
“So today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years,”
“A political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows it’s totally meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.”
Needless to say Gore was immediately attacked by big oil and coal businesses. For example the ACCCE (American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity) issued a statement saying the following: “former Vice President Al Gore associated himself with the mainstream by claiming there is scientific certainty that climate change is an issue that must be addressed in a timely fashion.” There is scientific certainty that climate change is an issue the ACCCE is deliberately denying the fact. The ACCCE state also said “we seriously question the feasibility of such a proposal and shudder to consider its costs to the American people, world leaders and key policymakers here in the U.S. do not share Mr. Gore’s notion that such a goal is necessary or achievable.” Going on to say the coal is, of course the solution. Coal is not clean or renewable under any circumstance.
Politicians, never afraid to make asses of themselves made sure to criticize Gore as well. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) had an initial one-word response — “ridiculous.” He went on to say “We could put windmills from the Atlantic to the Pacific and, yes, it will increase the amount of carbon-free energy production, but the fact of the matter is, it’s not going to get the job done. What we need to do is to look at all of the various sources of energy… We’d be much more realistic to realize that it’s going to take all of these things in order for us to meet our energy demands.” Meaning the oil and/or coal businesses that lobby me want you to buy their product and not get your power on the cheap.
So why do I say Americans are lazy, worthless citizens. It’s because we have become so. Can we convert all electricity production to cheap, clean and renewable sources in 10 years. We can if we want to, if we have the courage to do so. We put man on the moon in less than 10 years, we entered World War II and fighting on two fronts, along with out allies, won it in less than 5 years. The proliferation of the World Wide Web as a major form of communication took 10 years, mass adoption of the automobile took roughly ten years during the 1920’s and 1930’s. So don’t tell me we can’t do it. Big business doesn’t want us to do it, it would hurt their profits. Our lazy selves will just go along with whatever is marketed to us, and worthless as citizens because we won’t attend to our duty to make this country better.
What would the advantages of such a program be? For one thing, jobs, many jobs. It would fire up the economy in much the way it was fired up after World War II and during the space race and to a lesser extent the early days of the web. During those time periods the United States underwent a tremendous transformation in terms of individual prosperity as well as prosperity on a regional and national level. Another advantage that would result would be the creation of new technologies, again as with the previously mentioned periods much of the technology we have come to rely on today was developed especially in the areas of aerospace, electronic communications (i.e. computers, the internet, etc.), industrial applications and medicine. These efforts had far reaching implications both technologically and socially and helped define our present society. For the most part all of these advances have improved the standard of living in the United States.
What Gore proposes is ultimately going to have to happen at some point. Non-renewable sources of energy are, well, non-renewable. They are going to run out. But while we still have them we should use that advantage and build our foundation for the future, or if not out future, our children’s. It’s estimated that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth in 40 minutes to meet the world’s energy needs for a year, and that the winds that blow across the Midwest every day could meet the country’s daily electricity needs. Why wouldn’t we tap into that kind of energy resource? If we wait until the oil is running out and the coal is difficult to transport, we will suffer in ways that make the Great Depression seem trivial. We will be thrown back to the early 19th century in a very brutal manner.
Al Gore is not perfect but at least he’s willing to make a stand. What are you willing to do?
One Response for "Americans Have Become a Bunch of Lazy, Worthless Citizens"
July 29th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
[...] - It should probably read: FOX News Outed as Mouth of Sauron. Not particularly surprising. Americans Have Become a Bunch of Lazy, Worthless Citizens - Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore delivered a speech on America’s future energy needs [...]
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