Al Gore Encourages Civil Disobedience To Stop Coal Plants

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the world has lost ground to the climate crisis."

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.

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Comments

[docfink420]

Start it up Al

[Yermammy]

This is a hard problem to crack. They have a FutureGen project (here in central Illinois) that would be a boon to local tradesmen, but a bust to the environment. Man I wish we could put that CEO golden runawaywit­hyourmoney money into building Wind Power Generators. I'm positive a huge hot air exhaust fan in the Capitol would light the City.

[steamboat]

Since you live in central Illinois, you shouldn't have a problem. Reason: You got the big nuclear plants (Dresden, Quad-Cities). Especially the one in Braidwood.­..Oh yeah, Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, was on the advisory board for ComEd concerning the nukes. Something the media is quiet about.

[hotwire]

Sequestration? Is that anything like castration?

[All57States]

Another Saul Alinsky disciple.

[Huffingtonposter231]

Isn't it time for Gore to do what he advocates for others, to violate the law and get arrested? Is he a leader or just a self aggrandizing cult leader?

[gascelebrations]

Do what he advocates.­.. like, be vice-president? I guess yeah, that's not much in the grand scheme of what you've probably accomplished in your lifetime.

[Yermammy]

Why would we want to listen to someone whose sole purpose of being here is to cause dissent? Or, Why listen to a troll? (rethugs tend to drift off on long sentences).

[RTIII]

Long sentences are fine - it's not having a coherent thought to vocalize yet doing so anyway that's the problem.
.

[Fez]

Here's the perfect location to exercise some civil disobedience: the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired powerplant in northwest New Mexico that has recently been granted an air quality permit by EPA. This plant, to be co-owned by Sithe Energy and the Navajo Nation, will be located within 30 miles of of two other coal-fired plants (San Juan Generating Station and Four Corners Powerplant) and within 125 miles of 4 major surface coal mines. The local Navajo residents have organized against this new plant for the past three years, but the Navajo Nation Tribal Council has sold out its own people and is agressively pursuing all permits for this plant. The State of New Mexico and some environmental groups are appealing the air quality permit. So here we would have 3 coal-fired plants and 4 major surface coal mines all within a 125-mile radius. The regional haze from these operations (which is supplemented by emissions from thousands of coal-bed methane wells in NW New Mexico) has degraded visibility and introduced pollution (which includes CO2, NOx, ozone, mercury, selenium, and vanadium) over thousands of square miles. The Desert Rock plant should be the focus of civil disobedience against irresponsible coal (and hydrocarbon) development.

[OkieMon]

major problem with coal is mercury and bush's repeal of mercury restrictions on coal plants is equivalent to murder in the first degree....­.

[JulieSA]

The part of the article that gave me the creeps was where he said that carbon companies who say that CO2 isn't a big threat should be PROSECUTED.

He's not a big fan of the First Amendment, apparently.

[Yermammy]

I'm not big on outright liars that benefit from destroying life on earth as we know it, either. Yes, they need to be prosecuted and sent to South Africa for punishment­... oh wait! LOL

[JulieSA]

So you're ok with prosecuting people for voicing their opinions then. Aren't you one of the ones pushing these rumors about the impending fascism in this country? And yet you advocate prosecuting people for free speech. Are you for gun control too?

What does South Africa have to do with anything?

[gumbygirl]

They have a right to their free speech as long s they're not LYING. If you genuinely believe that coal companies and other large corporations have our best interests at heart, then how do you explain Love Canal? Bhopal, India? I remember going to Lake Erie in the 60's and seeing a huge fish kill-dead and dying fish by the thousands-because of a toxic spill by one of the large manufacturing companies along the lake. Talk about a pleasant summer day-trip to the beach. I can still see the poor dying fish gasping for air on the shoreline. You make me sick, and I hope it's you, and not my family, who ends up sick from the toxic brew you ignorantly endorse.

[JulieSA]

Prove to me that they're lying. You can't, because there is no conclusive proof. You can't criminalize differences of opinion.

[RTIII]

Just as you are not permitted to yell fire in a crowded theater - UNLESS there is actually a fire! - so, too, is it criminal to yell "NOT A PROBLEM!" when you kill people and the whole planet, intentionally.

This is EXACTLY the same free-speech issue.
.

[JulieSA]

Not the same. Scientists differ on how culpable CO2 is in global warming, or if it's even happening. It can't be empirically proven either way, because we don't have a control earth to experiment on, and the natural systems are so complex. There is legitimate scientific disagreement on this as well as on thousands of other hypotheses.

You are advocating the criminalization of scientific inquiry. This will kill off science, and we'll return to the dark ages.

[JulieSA]

Gore is doing what he accuses Bush of doing. he's intimidating those who ahve a different opinion than his, by threatening them with DoJ. It's like Obama threatening to pull the licenses of stations that broadcast ads he doesn't like, even though they're true.

Democrats do not like the first amendment. i do NOT want them in charge.

[EducatedDerelict]

Really Gore? Really? Give me a break: Stop flying around in your jets and living in your compound that is nowhere near green...an­d suggesting it is you think that other people's children ought to be doing. Get your own house in order before you lecture. It's not right (in my mind) to judge others; but it's perfectly human think that what others do (with the planet, to animals and, most important, to people) is wrong.

And it is perfectly reasonable to act in accordance with your beliefs (within the limits of the law and as long as you're not living your life in a hypocritical way): Argue for modification of laws, change your lifestyle, so that it is green, give money to organizations that support your agenda. Don't lecture when you're own house isn't in order. Or, to put it another way: Don't throw stones, if you live in a glass compound, Fmr. Vice Pres. Gore.

[WoodyCPM]

You need to update your Limbaugh memo. Gore has retrofitted his Nashville house with solar and other environmentally conscious heating and cooling equipment. Give the Limbaugh BS a rest. The world is moving on and you cretins who blather on about the way Gore lives are going to be Left Behind.

[EducatedDerelict]

This goes out to the 3 of you - Ginger, Blu and Woody:

It is time to get past the old partisan divisions and only offering this world (or fellow involved citizens who disagree with you...and passionately) searing personal attacks fueled by partisan passion.

And it is time to be adults. That is to say, believe whatever conclusions the evidence you've gathered brings you to; but why not share them with me in a way that is likely to change my mind and leave me feeling informed. To defensively batter and verbally assault others is contrary to the goal of unity that to humanity is so important.­..and the reason that Sen. Obama moves so many of us.

Why not try to rise above partisanship in order to reaffirm what it truly means to be American; communicate with people (those who agree and disagree with you) with the dignity and respect and integrity that you would like to be shown; and stop to think how successful is your message (outside the choir who is already singing your tune, though how you can claim to know my worldview - who I am, what I believe or what I support is beyond me) when you use a child's tricks (name-calling, verbal abuse and teasing) to convey it.

[bluprojekt]

The name EducatedDerelict doesn't befit your response. UneducatedDerelict would be more appropriate.

"Now Go Away or I Will Taunt You a Second Time."

[GingerB]

Try to keep up, McBushie.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/gore.home.ap/index.html

[windyYooper]

ghandi defeated the british empire with civil disobedience.
key word, civil.
no fires no stones no molotovs
just sit in their way, impede their agenda
but he did not have the american cop to deal with.
these guys will beat you blood

[gascelebrations]

No, they had worse. They had armies.

[twofish]

Ghandi had to leave South Africa defeated. They were not going to dismantle apartheid just because some Indian lawyer thought they should, and they let him know what bad things would happen if he didn't leave. He "won" in India because after the war, the British didn't have the army or the political will to hang on to it with violence. Ghandi's tactics only work against people who are not willing to kill extensively and go on killing. Now, which do you think the Bush regime more closely resembles, old South Africa or post-war Britain? Choose your tactics appropriately.

[Puzzles]

"Ghandi's tactics only work against people who are not willing to kill extensively and go on killing."

EXACTLY! He timed it right and knew that the empire no longer had the power to hide their oppression from the world. They knew it too. Hence with in two decades independence was "granted" to almost every colony. South Africa on the other hand was willing to be a Pariah state for decades.

[Danny]

So you have seen the movie "The Battle in Seattle"? Even though the police were brutal, the kids made their point loud and clear, and their cause prevailed. Heroes.

[JulieSA]

What was their point? No one could ever figure it out, and certainly no one remembers it. All I remember was a bunch of young thugs damaging small businesses, and blocking traffic to impede working people from getting to work, school, or the doctor.

Whatever their cause is, I'm against it, because if mindless vandals are for it, it can't be good.

[degenerate1991]

Bankruptcy, not Ghandi, defeated the British empire.

[RTIII]

We don't look to be too far behind, unfortunately.
.

[Puzzles]

The American cop? Ghandi was dealing with British troops that believed it was their divine right as a superior culture to defeat the brown upstart and his followers. Please look in to Brittan's history with it's colonies. Brutal. As an ex-subject of the queen I can vouch for the violent legacy they left the world over.

On his visit to London.

Reporter: Mister Ghandi, what do you think of Western Civilization?
Ghandi: I think it would be a good idea.

[frank1569]

What about a little civil disobedience to stop Bush from handing trillions of our dollars to the criminal Wall Street cartel? Is stopping a coal plant from being constructed more important than saving what's left of our money, our economy and our Constitution right about now?

Hint: millions of angry Americans gridlocking the streets of D.C. and NYC until our will is done. Not for an hour, or a few hours - all day, all night, 24/7, everyday. Hurry, before NORTHCOM can train and deploy the troops!

[WoodyCPM]

YOu need to develop a little perspective. Both the mess on Wall Street, the more pressing problem, and the collapse of the environment sufficient to sustain human life are both important. The issue isn't "stopping a coal plant from being constructe­d." Gore doesn't have a vendetta out against coal plants. Can you guess what his message is or are you a typical functionally illiterate American who can call out the words but doesn't understand what they just read?

Yeah the mess on Wall Street in the shortest of terms is important, but in the bigger picture dude, without a sustainable environment you have no economy at all.

[Citizen54]

Don't confuse the man with the message.

And for all the fascist commenters, civil disobedience used to be an American tradition before we all were bamboozled into thinking we're all shareholders in corporate America. Read some Thomas Jefferson, or Thoreau, or Sam Adams, or Martin Luther King, for god's sake.... for the country's sake.

[Zoidie]

Thank you Citizen54.

You give me hope.... indeed for country's sake - Read.

[WoodyCPM]

More Citizen54s, please!

[LiberalBuzz]

RIGHT ON GORE!!!

IF not for CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE This great country would not be in existence.

Sometimes the people have GOT to stop the robber barons from ruining the land the people live on and off of and if it takes an act of civil disobedience to do so, then more power to them.

When the powers that be pass laws to protect the thieves of our lives then it is time to rise up.

If I can, I will be happy to join them.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

[Phisheye]

Coal plants are a big problem. Try living in close proximity to one.

http://www.fightinggoliathfilm.com/

[WoodyCPM]

When I was a child
My family would travel
Down to western Kentucky
Where my parents were born

There's a backwards old town
That's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Oh daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
We'll I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mr. Peabody's coal train done hauled it away.
- John Prine

There really was a Paradise, Ky. I spent nights with a school buddy who lived there when I was kid. It had a population of about 200 people. In the 1960's TVA built the world's largest single unit coal burning power plant less than a mile away. Eventually, the town had to be bought out and bulldozed over. The coal plant still operates today. Peabody was the name of a major coal producer in Muhlenberg County.

[TimmySlagle]

And ELECRTRICITY is the name of the product that the coal plant produced, which allowed you to post this.

There are trade-offs in life. Very few of us are willing to go back to the age, of reading by candlelight.

[realpolitic]

Slagle leaves his Hummer idling all night so it is nice and warm in the morning.

[MourningDude]

Does this mean we can arrest him for 'contributing the to delinquency of a minor'?

Book, 'im Danno!