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Political Will Is a Renewable Resource
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Political Will Is a Renewable Resource

Al Gore
World Economic Forum, 2018
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A dearth of political will has impeded the fight against climate change for decades, but as environmentalist Al Gore attests, political will is a renewable resource. At the World Economic Forum’s Sustainability Development Impact Summit in New York in 2018, Gore argued that the solution to climate change requires local, regional and national governments to broaden how they tackle the crisis – a cure-all that sounds simpler in its explanation than its execution. Nevertheless, until society heeds Gore’s message, the climate crisis will continue to devastate the planet and all that live on it. 

Summary

Humankind’s continued use of fossil fuels is devastating the Earth.

Though the sky may seem like an endless space, the atmosphere is not a vast thick expanse. Rather, it is a fragile, thin shell that encases the Earth. The planet’s 7.6 billion inhabitants, as well as the technologies they use, derive 80% of their energy from fossil fuels. As a result, an additional 110 million tons of “man-made heat-trapping global warming pollution” is released into the atmosphere daily.

Each day, the human-generated pollution trapped within Earth’s atmosphere absorbs additional heat energy equivalent to half a million Hiroshima-grade atomic bomb explosions.

Global warming is disrupting the distribution of heat on Earth and destabilizing the entire climate system.

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About the Speaker

Al Gore is a politician, environmentalist and influencer who champions the fight against global warming.

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