Al Gore’s TED Talk - summary of what I learned during Al Gore\'s TED talk PDF

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summary of what I learned during Al Gore's TED talk...

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During Al Gore’s TED Talk, he asks if we really have to change, and that answer would be yes we must change. As a planet we still rely on dirty carbon based fuels. After world war II the emission rates started to skyrocket. The temperatures we used to have considered normal, have shifted towards warmer than average over the decades. The extreme hot days are now more common than cooler than average days. The hottest year ever measured was 2015. The oceans are becoming much warmer, thus created vicious storms like Hurricane Sandy. Tropic diseases are also on the move and spreading rapidly, due to hotter temperatures. The climate crisis is considered the #1 risk to the global economy. For his second question, Al Gore asks “can we change?” and that answer would also be yes! In 2000, the projection for world wide wind capacity was to reach 30 GW by 2010. But, by 2015 that goal was exceeded by a factor of 14.5x. In 2002, the projection for the growth of the solar energy market was 1 GW per year by 2010. The goal was exceeded by 17x! In 2016, it would have exceeded by as much as 68x. Investments in renewable electricity generation energy have also surpassed fossil fuels. Low initial costs make small solar systems affordable and accessible in developing countries such as India where many people, more people that the population of the united states don’t have electricity. We have enough solar energy every hour to fill all the world’s energy needs for a full year. Al Gore’s final question is will we change? In the 2015 Paris Agreement, virtually every nation in the world agreed to work together to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions. China announced they will launch a national carbon market by 2017 and will cut down emissions from six industrial sectors. Coal Plants in the U.S for the last 10 years have been proposed and canceled which is a great thing. Existing coal plants were also retired, and existing coal plants have announced retirement. Al Gore is very hopeful that we will win this and makes other people hopeful too....