Has Al Gore almost single-handedly awakened the American industrial giant to the opportunities involved in protecting the environment? According to this Editorial from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, ‘In the not-too-distant-future, the United States will be a superpower in preventing carbon dioxide emissions. Al Gore has set this movement in motion.’
By Timm Kragenow
Translated By Ulf Behncke
October 12, 2007
Germany – Financial Times Deutschland – Original Article (German)
The Nobel Peace Prize for Al Gore and the U.N.-climate council, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPPC] once and for all makes 2007 the year of protecting the climate. With no help from George W. Bush, Al Gore has managed to bring the problem of global warming to the attention of the American people.
By now, even the least-informed investor has gotten the message that the amount of exhaust the atmosphere can absorb – an essential element in future economic development – is limited. Those who depend on technologies that result in high carbon dioxide emissions, run the risk of paying a very high price for disposing of those greenhouse gasses in the future.
Up to now it has been Europe which has been the climate protection-trailblazer, with all of the advantages and disadvantages that this implies. But it’s already becoming clear that climate protection has moved to the very top of the U.S. political agenda. It’s to Al Gore’s credit that he found a way to make the dangers and potential costs of the greenhouse effect clear to the American public. That he has received the Nobel Prize for this is just as it should be: He has opened a new era in American society by dispelling ignorance and creating awareness.
American industry has already recognized that in the future, even the United States will have to limit emissions. Large U.S.-based corporations are calling for a fixed limit, because they need a reliable framework to work with. It will probably be only a matter of months or a year or two for this to happen. But the driving force of U.S. innovation has already spun into action. Venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are beginning are preparing for the day that silicon will be used not only for computer chips, but also increasingly for producing solar panels.
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