If the campus wifi permits, I’ll be live-blogging today’s presentation by Al Gore, starting at noon. Got my copy of An Inconvenient Truth for autographing, just in case.
11:29: Off to Building 33!
11:52: At Building 33, after some wifi fear, we seem to be up and running.
12:04: And we’re off.
12:05: Standing O – “I used to be the next President of the US!”
12:06: I am streaming Gore live at http://qik.com/galasyn
12:08: Mentions ocean acidification right out of the gate. Awesome.
12:12: I’m not in a favorable location for my Qik stream. :(
12:15: The new book is 99% about solutions.
12:17: Solar PV drives a new, distributed energy production system, similar to the internet for information.
12:18: Chapter Two is about wind. US wind production is expanding rapidly.
12:20: Geothermal is widely misunderstood. Now dominated by new drilling tech from the oil and gas industry.
12:21: Gore: The geothermal system for his house completely eliminated his nat. gas bill.
12:22: 35,000-year supply of energy in the US from enhanced geothermal.
12:23: Biofuels are controversial, but corn-based ethanol has been a disappointment. Competition with food prices is more perceived than real.
12:25: Nuclear and CCS have a limited benefit. Cost is prohibitive.
12:27: CCS carries a "burden of implausibility."
12:28: Gore used to represent oak Ridge, TN, where everybody is immune to radiation. "Homer sometimes makes mistakes."
12:29: Nuclear plants come in only one size: Extra large.
12:31: Gore sees nuclear weapons proliferation as a big drawback for nuke power.
12:32: We are burning and cutting and destroying so many of the forests, that 20% of CO2 emissions come from deforestation.
12:34: Industrial agriculture serves to decarbonize the soil.
12:35: Shout out to Bill and Melinda Gates, for funding a new global soil survey.
12:37: How many in this room had grandparents with five or six siblings? All hands go up. How many here have that many children? One. "Congratulations, sir."
12:38: Gore favors both a revenue-neutral carbon tax and cap-and-trade.
12:40: We have the capacity for multi-generational planning -- Medieval cathedrals, for example.
12:41: This is not a political issue. It is fundamentally a moral issue.
12:44: Q & A now: "Developing nations are following our bad development example. What can be done?" Gore answer: Developed nations must assist in "leap-frogging" to clean technologies.
12:45: China plants 2.5 times more trees than all the world together.
12:47: Steady stream of nonsense from one cable network in the US.
12:50: US in the only country where there's still doubt about climate science.
12:55: "What advice have you given Pres. Oama on climate change, and is he following it?" Gore laughs.
12:56: Praises Obama's and EPA's efforts so far. The US record on international negotiations has not been as stellar.
1:00: And now I’m trapped behind the book-signing line.
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