“Some still doubt that we have the will to act, but I say the will to act is itself a renewable resource.” - Al Gore

Last week I got the opportunity to see Al Gore speak at the TED 2016 Conference in Vancouver, Canada. This time around, he gave a much more optimistic talk on climate change than he was able to give almost 10 years ago after the release of An Inconvenient Truth. The film addressed the extremities of man-made climate change and the importance of cutting down on fossil fuels to reduce heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere. An idea that is not new and had had been explored by world renowned historians and people of note, such as Baha'u'llah, the prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith over 100 years ago:

“Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men. These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal.” -Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 68.

It was a decade ago when the public began to debate about the realities before us, but this time around, Gore gave us good reason to believe in a far better future. He noted that climate change is no longer a partisan issue, fossil fuel use is dying out and quickly being replaced by clean energy, and globally we are exponentially surpassing our goals.

He begins with the reality that still exists.

“We still rely on dirty, carbon-based fuels for 85 percent of all the energy that our world burns every year… Each day, global-warming pollution traps as much heat energy as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs.”

He goes on to explain the consequences that science has revealed from this fact. Heat trapped in our oceans causes stronger ocean-based storms like typhoons and excessive flooding. The sea levels continue to rise with continually melting ice-caps leaving big coastal cities at high risk. After an annual survey of 750 economists at the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, it was said the climate crisis is now the number one risk to the global economy. It’s been made obvious that we need to act. And though we still have a long way to go, so far we’ve acted remarkably.

Gore recognized that we are beginning to move past partisan issues by acknowledging the eleven House Republicans who signed a resolution recognizing that humans have a role in climate crisis. He continued by showing us how we have surpassed our goals:

• The best projections in the world 16 years ago were that by 2010, the world would be able to install 30 gigawatts of wind capacity. We beat that mark by 14 and a half times over.
• The best projections 14 years ago were that we would install one gigawatt per year of solar energy 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.

Solar energy has become much more affordable and globally, we’ve become much more committed to fight climate change together. He ends with noting that we will continue to change for the better since as humans we have within us the renewable resource of the will to act for the betterment of our world.