A few weeks ago Al Gore gave a seminal speech setting out the goals he sees that the US needs to set for itself in order to intelligently address the increasing shortage of fossil fuels and the need to eliminate our usage of all fossil fuels in order to prevent cataclysmic global warming and the destruction of our economy and way of life.  He has challenged us as a nation to put a huge amount of our efforts to attain 100 percent renewable energy and clean electricity within 10 years. 

After discussing the energy, environmental and security issues facing us, Gore says,

"When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges... We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change... if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand. The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels."

His site, We Can Solve It, has more details about what it will take, beginning with a carbon tax and a new national electrical grid.   

A n editorial in the PI reflects the positive response to Gore's challenge. 

"The time has come for our generation's Manhattan Project. One that balances the challenges of global warming mitigation with our need for energy (and economic) independence.

Can it be done? Yes. A carbon-free future can become reality -- if the nation is willing to invest money, creativity and national spirit. This type of impossible goal is exactly the sort of dream that's made America, well, America."

Indeed.  We may not be able to accomplish all that we will need in ten years but, as Gore says and the PI affirms, it is both necessary and doable.