Interesting article on healing the climate from Al Gore in The New York Times, today.  (Gore was vice president from 1993 to 2001; was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007; founded the Alliance for Climate Protection; created An Inconvenient Truth; and invests in alternative energy companies.)

Gore says that after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, the evidence for global warming is unequivocal.  Our children and grandchildren are relying on those who still dismiss the urgent alarms to wake up before it’s too late.

The good news is that the steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are the exactly the same steps that are needed to solve the economic crisis.  Economics across the spectrum agree that the best way to revive our economy is large and rapid investments in jobs that help us decrease our dependence on oil.  To do this, we have to discard the fatally flawed definition of the problem we face.  Producing more oil domestically, or creating “clean coal” does not offer enough investment value.

We are faced with a new difficulty and need to discard the fatally flawed definition of the problem we face.   Producing more oil domestically will not solve the problem because there isn’t enough investment value in domestic production or in “clean coal”.  Neither will make a difference in protecting national security or the global climate.  We have to quit basing human survival strategies on a cynical, self-interested illusion.

Gore offers some ideas for what we can do - now:

We can make an immediate and large strategic investment to put people to work replacing 19th-century energy technologies that depend on dangerous and expensive carbon-based fuels with 21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth.

He offers a 5-part plan to repower America with 100 percent of our electricity coming from carbon-free sources within 10 years.  This plan would move us toward providing solution to the climate crisis and the economic crisis at the same time.  And it would create millions of jobs that can’t be outsourced.

First, the new president and the new Congress should offer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of concentrated solar thermal plants in the Southwestern deserts, wind farms in the corridor stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced plants in geothermal hot spots that could produce large amounts of electricity.

Second, we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used. New high-voltage, low-loss underground lines can be designed with “smart” features that provide consumers with sophisticated information and easy-to-use tools for conserving electricity, eliminating inefficiency and reducing their energy bills. The cost of this modern grid — $400 billion over 10 years — pales in comparison with the annual loss to American business of $120 billion due to the cascading failures that are endemic to our current balkanized and antiquated electricity lines.

Third, we should help America’s automobile industry (not only the Big Three but the innovative new startup companies as well) to convert quickly to plug-in hybrids that can run on the renewable electricity that will be available as the rest of this plan matures. In combination with the unified grid, a nationwide fleet of plug-in hybrids would also help to solve the problem of electricity storage. Think about it: with this sort of grid, cars could be charged during off-peak energy-use hours; during peak hours, when fewer cars are on the road, they could contribute their electricity back into the national grid.

Fourth, we should embark on a nationwide effort to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. Approximately 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States come from buildings — and stopping that pollution saves money for homeowners and businesses. This initiative should be coupled with the proposal in Congress to help Americans who are burdened by mortgages that exceed the value of their homes.

Fifth, the United States should lead the way by putting a price on carbon here at home, and by leading the world’s efforts to replace the Kyoto treaty next year in Copenhagen with a more effective treaty that caps global carbon dioxide emissions and encourages nations to invest together in efficient ways to reduce global warming pollution quickly, including by sharply reducing deforestation.

We must re-establish the U.S. as a country with the moral and political authority to lead the world to a solution.  That is the best way to secure a global agreement to safeguard our future.  Gore says we have the ability and the courage to to make the changes that will save our economy, our planet and ourselves.