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photo by Craig Smith
Saturday, April 22, 2006
A few quotes from Al Gores article "The Moment of Truth" which is in the May 2006 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
"The rapid accumulation of global-warming pollution in the Earth's atmosphere is now confronting human civilization with a crisis no other we have ever encountered. This climate crisis is, indeed, extremely dangerous, but it also presents unprecedented opportunities. Before we can get to the opportunities, however, it is crucial to define the danger, and to discuss how it is that we in the United States seem to be having such difficulty perceiving that danger....We are melting virtually all of the mountain glaciers in the world....Since the entire climate system of Earth is formed by the planetwide pattern of wind and ocean currents, which redistribute heat from the tropics to the poles, there is growing concern that the relatively stable pattern that has persisted for 11,000 years - since the last ice age and before the first appearance of cities - may now be on the verge of radical and disruptive changes. The Gulf Stream, the monsoon cycle in the Indian Ocean, the El Nino/La Nino cycle in the Eastern Pacific, and the jet streams, among the other circulatory phenomena, are all at risk of being pushed into new and unfamiliar patterns....inconvenient truths do not go away just because they are not seen. Indeed, when they are not responded to, their significance doesn't diminish; it grows....where there is a blinding lack of situational awareness, the people perish....many Americans now believe that we have entered a period of consequences - that Katrina, as horrible as it was, may have been the first sip of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us over and over again until we act on the truth we have wished would go away....we can solve this crisis, and as we finally do accept the truth of our situation and turn to boldly face down the danger that is stalking us, we will find that it is also bringing us unprecendented opportunity....I'm not referring to new jobs and new profits, though there will be plenty of both....the new understanding we will gain - about who we really are -will give us the moral capacity to comprehend the true nature of other, related challenges that are also desperately in need of being defined as moral imperatives....Ultimately, it is not about any scientific discussion or political dialogue; it is about who we are as human beings. it is about our capacity to transcend our limitations, to rise to this new occasion. To see with our hearts, as well as our heads, the response that is now called for."
Thank You, Al Gore!
