Al Gore presents Our Choice

Now we begin to know just how serious is our problem with global warming.   

Al Gore is getting out a ruthlessly realistic message: civilization needs to choose - although he does not own this message.   Gore is just a vehicle for connecting with millions of viewers.  On the Late Show with David Letterman he was promoting his book - Our Choice.  He speaks directly about the extent of the problem to a serious and respectful Letterman; later too with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Gore on David Letterman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQSfXJzXQs
alternate link http://www.watch-letterman.com/2009/november-03-2009-al-gore-brad-paisley

And Jon Stewart also had Gore on his show
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-05-gore-on-the-daily-show-extended-dance-remix/

This is a sea change, a paradigm shift.   The issue is now mainstreamed.   And in the coming months, in Copenhagen and in unfolding climate events - the issue will saturate the public.

Climate Progress calls it a must read book.
http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/05/new-york-time-al-gore-carbon-billionaire-not-fox-news/
http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/01/al-gore-our-choice-a-plan-to-solve-the-climate-crisis-by-al-gore-solutions-book/

We are getting the sense that governments are unable to solve our really big problems - and the very biggest, climate destabilization cannot be solved, it can only be mitigated and adapted to.   We can no longer squander carbon for transitory comfort because it robs from the future.   Facing a painful future of our own making, we now must reshape our social/psychological lives.   The destabilzation of climate extends to civilization itself.

The debate on the realities of both climate change and Peak Oil has moved from ‘are they real?’ to questions concerning timing, magnitude and impact.  At the same time, expanding research in ‘temporal discounting’ in economics (called ‘impulsivity’ in psychology), is shedding light on how steeply we value the present over the future, a trait with ancient origins.  Knowing this tendency, how can we expect factual updates on peak oil and climate change to behaviorally compete with Starbucks, sex, slot machines, and ski trips? Science is rapidly increasing our knowledge about the planet.  To affect change however, we might have to become equally knowledgeable about ourselves. Living for the Moment while Devaluing the Future   From the OilDrum.com 2007

We should act without fear and move forward.   And we want to avoid the irrational narcotic effect of hope because it allows us to ignore and delay.   Too much hope fosters inaction and inattention.  We hope for yet uninvented technology, hope for unrealized political and superhuman industrial solutions and most of all we hope for a leap in human evolution that might enable it all.   Last year, William Prust delivered a simpatico idea in his popular message “Our Time” at the site http://localsteps.org/   Gore is just saying it is Our Choice to make.   William Prust is just saying right now is the time.   Meanwhile, Gore is trying to lighten up just a bit when appearing on The Colbert Report: