Al Gore Sounds A Lot Like JFK

As I was flying over from New York to Austin for Netroots Nation, I caught Al Gore on CNN (thanks to JetBlue) and he had a lot to say on this hot July day about climate change. More importantly though, he had something JFK-esque about the important issue and it was certainly inspirational to anyone that gives a damn about the health of our planet.

From The SF Gate:

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are "way ahead" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.

Rising fuel costs, climate change and the national security threats posed by U.S. dependence on foreign oil are conspiring to create "a new political environment" that Gore said will sustain bold and expensive steps to wean the nation off fossil fuels.

"I have never seen an opportunity for the country like the one that's emerging now," Gore told The Associated Press in an interview previewing a speech on global warming he was to deliver Thursday in Washington.

Of course he mentioned John McCain in there because the group he chairs is bi-partisan. The Alliance for Climate Protection transcends partisanship and works hard to make sure that we become good stewards of Earth. For far too long we have been incessantly polluting our little spot in space and it has to end before we pass a tipping point that is rapidly approaching. While Bush and the G8 patted themselves on the back for the pledge to reduce carbon outputs by half in 42 years, Al Gore wants the nation to rid itself of those chemicals by 2018.

As gas prices edge up towards $5 and higher, people can only do so much by conserving, but it takes a government that can boost private industry to quickly convert itself to a pollutant-free economy in a relatively short time. Going to the moon was great for the 1960s, but here in the 21st century, we must strive to be the very best, for ourselves and the atmosphere, hydrosphere and terrasphere that we all share.