Earth Equity News

Gore: It's Time for Civil Disobedience. By Jakebrewer, It's Getting Hot in Here, September 24, 2008. "At today's Clinton Global Initiative, Al Gore said for the first time in public that we are at a point in our world's history, and in need of such immediate action, that if you are a young person it's time for civil disobedience. In particular to bring coal plants to a halt. On a panel with Queen Rania of Jordan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Neville Isdell (the CEO of Coca Cola), and Bono -- moderated by President Clinton himself -- Gore was fiery in his calls for action and investment in new clean energy technologies. [See this post for a minute-by-minute description.] He was even more fiery in his strong denouncements of nonexistent clean coal ('There is no such thing!'), and a Congress that is today voting on an energy bill that lifts the moratorium on mining coal shale, calling it -- with dramatic pause -- 'INSANITY.' In fact, Gore used the word 'insane' or 'insanity' at least 3 times… with regard to climate… '[Our] current economic crisis was triggered by the sudden collapse of an assumption. The assumption was that if you lumped housing loans together (even bad ones), you could eliminate the risk. That assumption went splat this week'… 'We as a species have to make A decision… 'If you're a young person, I believe we've reached a point of civil disobedience'… to do things like take down coal plants." Gore Urges Civil Disobedience to Stop Coal Plants. Reuters, September 24, 2008.