green

This was an important book for me. ( )

Despite Gore being a chagrined politician and a largely discredited climate alarmist, this is the book that really thrust climate doom-saying into the spotlight and brought it from being a fringe speculative theory into mainstream public discourse. Regardless of your opinion of Gore's climate prophecies, this book raises a lot of interesting questions about energy policy and environmental ethics that are still important today (it's not all about climate change). Having been published back in 1992, it also contains a lot of humorous dire environmental predictions whose time to come to fruition has long since passed, thus revealing Gore for the false prophet he truly is. One should also remember in reading this book that it was released just before the '92 election where Gore (ozone man) was the VP candidate, thus it constitutes fairly brazen political propaganda designed to consolidate what was then the far-left green movement of mostly hippy tree huggers and bring them into the mainstream. This book and Gore succeeded to such a high degree that now apocalyptic doomsayers are calling their prophetic climate cult "science" and shouting "the end is nigh" from the highest mountains while building arks and saving the animals. ( )

You know how it is? You come to something late and get caught up in the latest writings upon the subject...

That is my only excuse for taking so long to read, what was an early(ish) entry to the ranks of books upon climate change. Al Gore has written the the definitive book on the topic and deserves huge admiration. He writes in a clear, easy to follow style that never palls. He is also refreshingly optimistic that the human race will, eventually, get it right on Global Warming. My only criticism of this book is his stated belief in capitalism's powers to be a positive force and an inability to see anything wrong with the good old US of A. Perhaps, this later point is simply because Gore knows his audience and the American people turn off when faced with a negative self view.

This book does take us through the evidence, in much the same way as many later tomes do but, it goes further by offering a blueprint for survival in the form of 'A Global Marshall Plan'. This is not an infallible document, to be adopted to the letter, but it is a starting point for discussion and, in the light of the recent COP21 agreement, it gives a spine against which to judge just how far down the road to zero emissions we are. The answer is that we still have some way to go but, I think that we all knew that.

There is an excellent bibliography of further reading, including many works which are completely new to me. I can see an added swell to my bookcases ere long!

If you, like me, have overlooked this book, then I urge you to read it and, for those wiser than myself, who have already devoured it, maybe, it is time to take another stroll through the pages... ( )

The subtitle should be a common sense perspective. Contrary to a popular misconception, Al Gore is definitely not a crackpot. Since this book was written, nearly 100% of scientists believe that global warming is a fact. Gore's ideas about a global Strategic Environmental Initiative are even more urgent today. We would be much closer to overcoming this massive problem had Gore not been cheated out of the presidency in 2000. Unfortunately this book deals mainly with governmental actions and not individual solutions. ( )