Al Gore Is Speaking Out Against A Global "Block And Delay" on Climate Action

I am fairly sure that we would not be in quite the dire climate catastrophe that we are in now if Al Gore had won the 2000 US Presidential election (and as a corollary, I blame Ralph Nader's maniacal third party candidacy for the current situation). But, that is backwards looking.

Looking forward, I am absolutely sure that the fossil fuels industry cannot be counted on for solutions to climate change. I have seen through my work in the industry over the last few decades that it is comprised of not very creative people whose business it is to focus myopically on extraction and refinement. Absent regulation with significant penalties, the industry has done very little over this time to properly handle methane (a harmful by-product of their production). Much of the industry's research into things like algae and direct air capture could be better characterized as straight out green washing designed to justify unabated continuation and growth of the extraction and refinement businesses.

There are, of course, some notable exemptions to this. Both Orsted and Iberdrola completely transformed themselves to work in the wind industry, with Orsted quickly disposing of all of its oil producing assets and Iberdrola doing it in a slower manner. But, it takes a complete conversion away from fossil fuels for a company to become part of the solution and free itself of the carbon lobby and not many corporate leaders are willing to - or can - take that step.

Hence, we find ourselves in a ridiculous position where we are in the midst of a climate crisis and the UN and the Biden Administration, under John Kerry's direction, are allowing the world's major oil producing companies to control the narrative around climate change solutions (and conferences that provide the only global dialogue, like COP27 and COP28). Every day it continues, our children are victims of a global strategy of blocking and delaying.

Therefore, I was pleased to see that the Financial Times reported that Al Gore came out forcefully yesterday when he stated: "It is rather absurd that the world has to go and beg Saudi Arabia for permission, please, to talk about solutions to the climate crisis."

The same FT article points out that Al Gore's Generation Asset Management produced a report indicating that wind and solar, together with heat pumps and electric vehicles, can meet all new energy demand.

Al Gore is quoted as being optimistic that the report bodes well for our future. It is human nature to be optimistic, and we all should be since humans have the tools and capacity to solve these issues. However, the facts remain that we need to move faster than ever to convert the global economy from carbon.

It is going to be disruptive to break the global stranglehold of the fossil fuel industry and certain major global banks that is preventing us from getting going on this. But, it is going to be disruptive for our financial system if our ecosystem is completely destroyed. Al Gore is not providing a comprehensive solution here, but removing fossil fuel companies from the equation is absolutely necessary to focus on producing solutions that force banks and other global institutions to move rapidly.