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Gore calls for carbon-free electric power
Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.
“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”
Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal. He said the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision, although he said it would require fundamental changes in political thinking and personal expectations.
“This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” Mr. Gore said in his remarks at the conference. “It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life — to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”
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Click on the link for the full article. Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and r... more -
Al Gore: Energy crisis threatens U.S. survival
The United States should be making all of its electricity with renewable and carbon-free energy in 10 years, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday.
"The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said.
In a speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, Gore touched on an array of the nation's current woes, saying the economic, environmental and national security crises are all related.
"I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said.
To begin to fix all the problems, Gore said, "the answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels."
Gore called on the country to produce all of its electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources in 10 years, a goal he compared to President Kennedy's challenge for the country to put a man on the moon in the 1960s. He chastised those who have proposed opening new areas for oil drilling as a solution to U.S. energy problems.
"It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil 10 years from now," Gore said. The United States should be making all of its electricity with renewable and carbon-free energy in 10 years, former Vice President Al ... more -
A new generation of carbon-free musicians brings pedal to the people
sweet inspiration.
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(link/article for full story)
"... A fresh undercurrent of musical culture is reinventing what’s cool — and taking gasoline out of the equation. Around the country, musicians are embracing pedal-power, biking from show to show, city to city, even nation to nation.
The movement arrives as a reaction to the trends of global hip-hop and mass-produced rock, worlds in which stars may preach socio-political and environmental righteousness yet indulge in glamorous, grossly extravagant limo lifestyles."
But not the Ginger Ninjas. In April, this folk-ska band from North San Juan, California (fronted by Xtracycle co-founder Kipchoge Spencer) completed a fully pedal-powered tour of 5000 miles from Lake Tahoe to Chiapas, Mexico. The Ninjas’ tour — called Pleasant Revolution — included 80 dates. So did the Rolling Stones’ 2006 Bigger Bang Tour, but the tired supergroup’s tour also included 80 semi trucks, a jet plane and 37,000 barrels of oil — each incinerated, of course. The Ginger Ninjas, who employed a pedal-powered sound system at most shows, estimate they expended a third of a barrel of oil on their journey.
In San Francisco, Fossil Fool, “The Bike Rapper,” has achieved an unlikely alchemy. Known more casually as Paul Freedman, the innovative vocalist and tech wizard has blended the shadowy realm of streetside rap with the gentle notion of the bicycle. He rides a massive, self-designed pedal-powered chopper from gig to gig. It’s a bike mean as hell and cool as night. It glows when pedaled and serves as a human-powered P.A. system at Fossil Fool’s mobile street parties, and it gets great gas mileage between venues — which is to say none.
“My character when I perform is a rapper born in an alternate universe where bikes are cool and cars are lame,” says Freedman. “There’s no doubt we live in a car culture, but I also have no doubt that bikes are way cooler. People are sick of the hip-hop culture where the rapper has the newest Mercedes.” sweet inspiration. - (link/article for full story) ... more
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