Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis



Our Choice: the Solutions Sequel5
Our Choice is wonderfully accessible and pragmatic. Its eighteen chapters are a lavishly illustrated menu of choices which is at once expansive and credible. Our Choice clearly conveys the scope of solutions to the climate crisis, solutions which are promising, practical and potent. The solutions taken together meet the challenge, with speed and at scale.

It is the perfect sequel to An Inconvenient Truth.

I'm particularly struck by Gore's tone in Our Choice: he is sober and thoughtful and opinionated but not pedantic. This is not a superficial, how-to "101 Ways to Go Green," or an encyclopedic compendium of mind-numbing minutiae.

Rather, Our Choice is a survey at just the right level of detail. It covers our sources of energy, how we use it, and the obstacles we must overcome. An important highlight is the discussion of living systems, our forests, soil, and population, which is missing in most writing about climate crisis.

Gore's work comes at a crucial moment in time. The U.S. is vigorously debating climate legislation. Policy makers and parents, students and teachers, entrepreneurs and scientists are all energized. For example, fully one-third of the faculty at MIT wants to work on clean energy technologies. Our Choice will tempt and magnify those passions. It is a manual and manifesto for change, a good guide with a clear view of both the forest and the trees. It comes on the road to Copenhagen, but its best use is the path beyond.

OK, I'll admit (with pride) I'm a huge fan of Al Gore's. But not withstanding our friendship, this remarkable work IS the real thing. It is the product of countless hours of research and interviews, reading and listening, writing and rewriting, debate and critical thinking.

My daughter said "Dad, your generation created this problem. You'd better fix it." Our Choice is the Field Guide to fixing the climate crisis, a set of solutions worthy of your consideration.

Read this book. If you must, burn (and sequester) the others. And recycle the rest!

When mankind confronts and conquers the climate crisis it will be because one man made Our Choice clear.

An important book about our future4
This is a creative and useful book on the subject of climate change.

Al Gore has been a true profile in courage since he won the popular vote for President in 2000 but was denied the Presidency. In 2002 he was one of the few leading Democrats who had the courage to oppose Bush's disastrous plans for war in Iraq in a forceful manner.

His actions on global warming have been historic. He truly deserved the Nobel Prize.

I found the best chapters to be Chapters 9 and 10, dealing with forests and soil. How many people know that the third and fourth largest problem nations are Brazil and Indonesia due to their huge levels of deforestation?

Page 210 is a particularly disturbing page. Check it out. Look what happens if the Siberian permafrost gets too warm.

Page 335 is very useful in showing the true value of nature in economic terms.

For some strange reason there are no footnotes in the book for the sources of information in each chapter. However, they do exist. They are in the web site for the book. The address of the web site is listed in tiny print in the lower left hand corner of the back cover. You can also reach it via Al Gore's web site. A nice thing about the notes on the web is that they are often live links which enable you to go directly to studies that he cited.

I would also recommend a related new book for 2009 Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Substantially Revised). This helps place the issue of climate change in the context of the global environmental situation.

A hopeful sequel to Inconvenient Truth4
Except for it's last chapter, the book reads like a particularly engaging text book. Most of the information on clean technology was familiar. I think the book shines the most in its chapters on political and psychological barriers to addressing climate change as well as its final chapter -- an imagined speech to future generations.

People on the right like to score easy points by bashing Gore instead of actually grappling with his arguments. This book demonstrates that Gore is no slouch. He knows what he's talking about when he says we can reduce the atmosphere's carbon overload.

About Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis detail

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #88 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-11-03
  • Released on: 2009-11-03
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 416 pages

Features

Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis Description

It is now abundantly clear that we have at our fingertips all of the tools we need to solve the climate crisis. The only missing ingredient is collective will. Properly understood, the climate crisis is an unparalleled opportunity to finally and effectively address many persistent causes of suffering and misery that have long been neglected, and to transform the prospects of future generations, giving them a chance to live healthier, more prosperous lives as they continue their pursuit of happiness. Our Choice gathers in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now and that, together, will solve this crisis. It is meant to depoliticize the issue as much as possible and inspire readers to take action—not only on an individual basis but as participants in the political processes by which every country, and the world as a whole, makes the choice that now confronts us. There is an old African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." We have to go far, quickly. We can solve the climate crisis. It will be hard, to be sure, but if we can make the choice to solve it, I have no doubt whatsoever that we can and will succeed. —AL GORE, from the introduction

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