Al Gore and the environmental crisis.

I agree with a lot of this, and it's one of most considered posts on this topic I've read.

A point I wanted to make: in Australia it was important to us that our winning political party had a strong position on climate change. So even if it wasn't important to our government theoretically, they had to be seen taking it seriously or they would not have recently won.

I acknowledge that corporate CEO's or governments may 'get something' out of supporting climate change - but so do people that vote, and corporate share-holders. Discussions around climate change have encouraged us to re-use, to not waste, no pollute - all good things as kat pointed out, no matter what your position on the 'future' of climate change may hold. Just my opinion.

Again, thanks for a thoughtful post. Kudos.

That's the problem with this debate. Both sides have very good, solid evidence. So figuring out which 1 is right is a little hard. I think I've heard that most scientists are actually somewhere in the middle. Industry DOES create excess green gases, and the Earth IS warming up naturally. The biggest thing they disagree on, is how much is natural and how much is man-made. I've also heard the consequences have been completely blown out of proportions, mostly thanks to Hollywood. That doesn't mean it won't be a big deal, but it won't be an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it catastrophe either.

The-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it catastrophe is when we run out of oil without a viable alternative for energy production. This will make the issues in the Middle East seem like child's play. Think Mad Max and the like, it is likely an accurate portrayal of the pending situation(or maybe not). Seriously though, it will be catastrophic. We need to end our dependence on oil, mainly because it takes millions of years to create and we are running out. Any environmental gains from this would be good of course, but not as clear as the economic/social impact of such a discovery.

I totally agree with this assessment.
It always perplexes me when i hear of another wind farm (one of Australia's largest resources given the amount of useless desert we have) thats been stalled by gov policies, or funding withdrawl.
Not to mention solar, deep core and i recently heard about one that uses the oceans current to create energy (sorry, no idea of the tech term!)
Why arent these all up and running better?
Ive heard the 'too expensive' debate, RUBBISH.
Maybe a long term investement, but surely eventually it would save a fortune in oil purchases.(not to mention said catastrophe)

I guess though it all comes down to control.
Reminds me of the electric car story....