OUR CHOICE
A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis
Al Gore
EMMAUS, PA, and NEW YORK, NY, November 3, 2009—Rodale Books is proud to announce the publication of OUR CHOICE: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (Rodale Books; November 3, 2009; ISBN 978-1-59486-734-7; $26.99; 416 pages w/ 4-color illustrations throughout) by former Vice President Al Gore. OUR CHOICE is the pioneering follow-up to Gore’s bestselling An Inconvenient Truth, in which he unequivocally laid out the case for climate crisis. With OUR CHOICE, he gives us the tools to solve it.
During the three and a half years since the release of An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore has organized and moderated over 30 lengthy and intensive “Solutions Summits”, where the world’s leading experts (from fields as diverse as neuroscience, agriculture, economics, information technology, and more) have come to discuss and share their knowledge with the goal of finding the most effective courses of action. OUR CHOICE is result of the groundbreaking insights offered by these participants, whose expertise has made it possible to construct a fresh and unique approach not seen before.
Gore underscores the fact that we have at our fingertips the tools we need to implement change—all we need is the collective will. Better still, the collateral benefits of seeking these solutions can also help overcome extreme poverty, widespread hunger, and other problems that have been allowed to fester for centuries. The security crisis, economic crisis and climate crisis seem unsolvable in isolation—but a closer look reveals a common thread running thru them: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels. It is at the core of all these and many other challenges.
But there is hope. Renewable sources of energy,if developed, could completely replace CO2-rich fossil fuels. In OUR CHOICE, Gore explains how solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and nuclear energies work and lays out the pros, cons, and latest technological developments of each source along with a state of the art analysis of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
Gore looks at how deforestation, soil erosion and degradation, and population issues are contributing to the climate crisis and discusses the strategies being undertaken to counter their effects. He makes sense of the arguments on both sides of the carbon sequestration discussion and outlines the latest and most effective efficiency measure that both big business and everyday people can begin to implement. Among the most unique approaches Gore takes in the book, is showing readers how our own minds can be an impediment to change. After meeting with psychologists and neuroscientists, he reveals the brain system that can guide us in making the crucial decisions necessary to safeguard our civilization and the new approaches we need to employ in order to change human behavior.
But at the core of many of the solutions discussed in OUR CHOICE, is the value and price we put on CO2. Gore maintains that in a market economy like ours, every one of the solutions to climate crisis will be more effective and much easier to implement if we place a price on CO2 and other global warming pollutants. We’ve got to tell ourselves the truth about the economic impact of pollution, and we have to measure it. Gore likens the sub-prime mortgage crisis, to the one we will face if we continue making investments in “sub-prime carbon assets.†The bottom line is that business and markets cannot operate in isolation from society and the environment—we need, what Gore refers to as, “sustainable capitalism.â€
It’s not news that among the most debilitating obstacles to overcoming the climate crisis (in this country) is our political culture. Gore looks at how political obstacles have stood in the way of progress and turned global warming into a partisan issue. These include the use of lavishly financed misinformation campaigns aimed at misleading the public about the true nature and severity of the climate crisis—a technique pioneered by the tobacco companies; as well as the proliferation of media outlets who suggest a false symmetry between scientific understanding and political opinion.
But despite these and many other challenges, the opportunities are everywhere—especially in the form of increasingly powerful technological tools. They will allow us to move forward with the unprecedented scale and speed with which we will need in order to avert the worst impacts and set the stage for successful recovery. Ultimately, all that is required is a commitment on the part of humanity to get things done. With OUR CHOICE, Al Gore has created a powerful and inspiring call to action that will ensure that will in all of us.
