Talk is cheap. Between the election victory, and the time he takes office, 2 cents are being thrown at him from a multitude of directions about what Obama should get to work on first and foremost. The opinions vary as widely as each source's personal social priorities - repairing the economy, universal health care, the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, etc., etc., etc.

As one of those "special interests", Al Gore immediately steps forward with his suggestions. Amidst all the pundits who extol their personal plans for U.S. redemption during the next several years, Mr. Gore's outline strikes me as most cogent and broad-ranged - solving several problems simultaneously, and then providing the resources to work towards solution of many of the other ancillary social ills:


Excerpt:

"Here’s what we can do — now: we can make an immediate and large strategic investment to put people to work replacing 19th-century energy technologies that depend on dangerous and expensive carbon-based fuels with 21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth.

I am a believer in both the problem and the need for change. However I have a serious problem with your refusal to acknowledge, as virtually the entire rest of the world has, that nuclear energy also has an important role to play in combating climate change. It is one of the largest, non carbon emitting sources of electricity today....

What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced."

Read More:

New York Times OpEd 11/9 - "The Climate For Change" - by Al Gore