The Future (94 page)
Authors: Al Gore
245
frenzy of exploration for shale gas in China, Europe
Bryan Walsh, “In Hunt for Energy, China and Europe Explore Fracking,”
Time
, May 21, 2012.
246
Africa, and elsewhere
Ruona Agbroko, “S Africa Lifts Fracking Ban,”
Financial Times
, September 7, 2012.
247
U.S. horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies to China
Jerry Mandel, “Will U.S Shale Technology Make the Leap Across the Pacific?,”
E&E News
, July 17, 2012,
http://www.eenews.net//files/09/02/90/f090290/public/energywire/2012/07/17/1
.
248
particularly in northern and northwestern China
“Water, Water Everywhere,”
China Economic Review
, July 26, 2012.
249
the switch from coal to natural gas by electric utilities
Kevin Begos, “CO
2
Emissions in US Drop to 20-Year Low,” Associated Press, August 17, 2012.
250
Coal has the highest carbon content
U.S. Energy Information Agency, “How Much Carbon Dioxide Is Produced When Different Fuels Are Burned?,” 2012,
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=73&t=11
; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Air Emissions,” 2007,
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/air-emissions.html
.
251
Harriman, Tennessee, in my home state four years ago
Bobby Allyn, “TVA Held Responsible for Massive Coal Ash Spill,”
Tennessean
, August 23, 2012.
252
principal source of human-caused mercury in the environment
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Mercury: Basic Information,” February 7, 2012,
http://www.epa.gov/hg/about.htm
.
253
include at least some amount of methyl-mercury
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “What You Need To Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish,” June 20, 2012,
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/outreach/advice_index.cfm#isthere
.
254
cancellation of 166 new coal plants
Mark Hertsgaard, “How a Grassroots Rebellion Won the Nation’s Biggest Climate Victory,”
Mother Jones
, April 2, 2012.
255
1,200 new coal plants are now planned in 59 countries
Ailun Yang and Yiyun Cui,
Global Coal Risk Assessment: Data Analysis and Market Research
(Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2012).
256
65 percent in the next two decades
International Energy Agency, “World Energy Outlook: Executive Summary,” 2011,
http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/publications/weo-2011/
.
257
the CO
2
emissions would continue destroying the Earth’s ecosystem
Kurt Kleiner, “Coal to Gas: Part of a Low-Emissions Future?,”
Nature
, February 28, 2008.
258
70 to 75 percent of the carbon in coal for each unit of energy produced
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Air Emissions,” December 2007.
259
more expensive to produce and carry even harsher impacts for the environment
Bryan Walsh, “There Will Be Oil and That’s the Problem,”
Time
, March 29, 2012.
260
three quarters of the amount in the atmosphere
Rattan Lal, “Carbon Sequestration,”
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
, February 2008.
261
his successor has made policy changes that are reversing
Jeffrey T. Lewis, “Pace of Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon Falls,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 28, 2012.
262
dramatic “dieback” of the Amazon at mid-century
Justin Gillis, “The Amazon Dieback Scenario,”
New York Times
, Green blog, October 7, 2011.
263
Indonesia and Malaysia—in order to establish palm oil plantations
Brad Plumer, “EPA Faces Crucial Climate Decision on Diesel Made from Palm Oil,”
Washington Post
, April 27, 2012.
264
peatlands contain more than one third of all the global soil carbon
Reynaldo Victoria et al., United Nations Environment Programme, “UNEP Yearbook: The Benefits of Soil Carbon,” 2012.
265
80 percent of global forest cover is in publicly owned forests
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010,” 2010, p. xxiv,
http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/
.
266
Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Borneo, and the Philippines
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “State of the World’s Forests 2011,” 2011,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2000e/i2000e00.htm
.
267
especially cattle ranching
Doug Boucher et al., Union of Concerned Scientists, “Solutions for Deforestation-Free Meat,” 2012,
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/forest_solutions/solutions-for-deforestation-free-meat.html
.
268
as much as 22 percent of all carbon stored
Sharon Oosthoek, “Boreal Forests Ignored in Climate Change Fight,” CBC News, November 12, 2009,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/11/11/boreal-carbon-climate-change.html
.
269
symbiosis between the larch and the tundra is thereby disrupted
Douglas Fischer and Daily Climate, “Shift in Northern Forests Could Increase Global Warming,”
Scientific American
, March 28, 2011.
270
reproducing three generations per summer rather than one
Noah S. Diffenbaugh et al., “Global Warming Presents New Challenges for Maize Pest Management,”
Environmental Research Letters
3 (2008).
271
“unprecedented outbreak of the mountain pine beetle”
David A. Gabel, “Expanding Forests in the Northern Latitudes,” Environmental News Network, March 23, 2011,
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/42501
.
272
“the real culprit is water stress caused by climate change”
Justin Gillis, “With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors,”
New York Times
, October 1, 2011.
273
direct proportion to the rising temperatures
“More Large Forest Fires Linked to Climate Change,”
ScienceDaily
, July 10, 2006,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060710084004.htm
; Gillis, “With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors.”
274
in the trees and plants themselves
Gillis, “With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors.”
275
rather than a net “sink,” withdrawing CO
2
as the trees grow
Ben Bond-Lamberty et al., “Fire as the Dominant Driver of Central Canadian Boreal Forest Carbon Balance,”
Nature
, November 1, 2007; “Wildfires Turning Northern Forests into Carbon-Dioxide Sources,” CBC News, October 31, 2007,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2007/10/31/boreal-forests.html
.
276
eastern North America, Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia
Gabel, “Expanding Forests in the Northern Latitudes.”
277
$3.7 trillion in environmental costs
Pavan Sukhdev et al.,
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: A Synthesis of the Approach
. Bonn: TEEB, 2010.
278
40 percent as many trees as the rest of the world put together
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “State of the World’s Forests 2009,” 2009,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0350e/i0350e00.htm
.
279
required to plant at least three trees per year
“China’s Hu Takes Part in Tree Planting,” UPI, April 5, 2009.
280
approximately 100 million acres of new trees
Gillis, “With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors.”
281
in trees include the U.S., India, Vietnam, and Spain
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “State of the World’s Forests 2011.”
282
compared to the rich variety supported by a healthy, multispecies primary forest
Jianchu Xu, “China’s New Forests Aren’t as Green as They Seem,”
Nature
, September 21, 2011.
283
carbon sequestered in the first few feet of soil
Damian Carrington, “Desertification Is Greatest Threat to Planet, Expert Warns,”
Guardian
, December 15, 2010.
284
10.57 percent of the Earth’s land surface covered by arable land
CIA World Factbook
,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
285
health of the soil and interfere with the normal sequestration
Tom Philpott, “New Research: Synthetic Nitrogen Destroys Soil Carbon, Undermines
Soil Health,” Grist, February 24, 2010,
http://grist.org/article/2010-02-23-new-research-synthetic-nitrogen-destroys-soil-carbon-undermines/
.
286
by pushing subsistence farmers to clear more forests
David Lapola et al., “Indirect Land-Use Changes Can Overcome Carbon Savings from Biofuels in Brazil,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, January 2010.
287
have proven that assumption to be wrong
Claude Mandil and Adnan Shihab-Eldin, International Energy Forum, “Assessment of Biofuels: Potential and Limitations,” February 2010,
http://www.ief.org/news/news-details.aspx?nid=311
.
288
20 to 50 percent of all living species on Earth within this century
Nicholas Stern,
The Economics of Climate Change
.
289
Approximately one third of all amphibian species
Camila Ruz, “Amphibians Facing ‘Terrifying’ Rate of Extinction,”
Guardian
, November 2011.
290
hit by a spreading fungal disease
Michelle Nijhuis, “A Rise in Fungal Diseases Is Taking Growing Toll on Wildlife,”
Yale Environment 360
, October 24, 2011.
291
the encroachment of human activities
Owen Clyke, “The Militarization of Africa’s Animal Poachers,”
Atlantic
, July 31, 2012; David Braun, “Human Encroachment Threatens Thousands of Gorillas in African Swamp,”
National Geographic
, November 24, 2009; Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “West African Wildlife: A Resource in Jeopardy,” 1998,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/s2850e/s2850e05.htm
.
292
caused by a large asteroid crashing into the Earth
Anthony Barnosky et al., “Has the Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction Already Arrived?,”
Nature
, March 2011.
293
“precipitated entirely by man”
Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin,
The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind
(New York: Anchor Books, 1995), p. 235.
294
average 3.8 miles per decade toward the poles
Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe, “A Globally Coherent Fingerprint of Climate Change Impacts Across Natural Systems,”
Nature
, January 2003.
295
half of the mountain species had moved, on average
Craig Moritz et al., “Impact of a Century of Climate Change on Small-Mammal Communities in Yosemite National Park, USA,”
Science
, October 2008.
296
reach the poles and the mountaintops and can go no farther
Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Climate Threatens Birds from Tropics to Mountaintops,”
New York Times
, January 21, 2011.
297
at risk because they cannot adapt to climate change quickly enough
Kai Zhu et al., “Failure to Migrate: Lack of Tree Range Expansion in Response to Climate Change,”
Global Change Biology
18 (November 2011).
298
according to scientists, are facing a rising risk of extinction
Lucas Joppa et al., “How Many Species of Flowering Plants Are There?,”
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
, July 2010.
299
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity notes
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, “Global Biodiversity Outlook 3,” January 2010,
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/gbo-3_90.html
, p. 51.
300
as a precautionary measure for the future of mankind
John Roach, “ ‘Doomsday’ Vault Will End Crop Extinction, Expert Says,”
National Geographic
, December 27, 2007.
301
carbon tax to the taxpayers but would have applied one third
Matt Kasper, “Rep. Jim McDermott Introduces Carbon Tax Law,” August 6, 2012, ClimateProgress,
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/06/641831/rep-jim-mcdermott-introduces-carbon-tax-law/
.
302
go to carbon fuel companies
John Broder, “Obama’s Bid to End Oil Subsidies Revives Debate,”
New York Times
, January 31, 2011.
303
the dirtiest liquid fuel, kerosene, is heavily subsidized
Narasimha Rao, “Kerosene Subsidies in India: When Energy Policy Fails as Social Policy,”
Energy for Sustainable Development
, March 2012.
304
only a few years away from reaching that threshold
Alex Morales and Jacqueline Simmons, “Renewables from Vestas to Suntech Plan Profit without Subsidy,” Bloomberg, January 26, 2012.