Al Gore returned to the Ted stage February 2016 with yet another not to be missed TED Talk. Al Gore: The case for optimism on climate change.
The facts about climate change are scary. “Every night on the news is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.”
Yet Al Gore is optimistic. Here are a few critical reason why.
- For Solar the news is exciting. “The best projections 14 years ago were that we would install one gigawatt per year by 2010. When 2010 came around, we beat that mark by 17 times over. Last year, we beat it by 58 times over. This year, we’re on track to beat it 68 times over.”
- “Now, the business community has certainly noticed this, because it’s crossing the grid parity point.Cheaper solar penetration rates are beginning to rise. Grid parity is understood as that line, that threshold, below which renewable electricity is cheaper than electricity from burning fossil fuels……Starting in 2010, investments globally in renewable electricity generation surpassed fossils. The gap has been growing ever since. The projections for the future are even more dramatic, even though fossil energy is now still subsidized at a rate 40 times larger than renewables.”
- “Germany, an industrial powerhouse with a climate not that different from Vancouver’s, by the way — one day last December, got 81 percent of all its energy from renewable resources, mainly solar and wind. A lot of countries are getting more than half on an average basis.”
- “Last year — if you look at all of the investment in new electricity generation in the United States, almost three-quarters was from renewable energy, mostly wind and solar.”
Click here to hear the entire Ted Talk and read the transcript.