Gore sets the bar high on climate change
Al Gore challenges US to resort solely to renewables by 2018
The US is being challenged to ditch its dependency on oil, by its former vice president.
Al Gore is laying down the gauntlet to fellow Americans by urging them to adopt sustainable living as part of their lives and produce all the electricity they need from renewable sources by 2018.
Speaking in Washington DC, the Nobel Laureate likened his challenge to President John F Kennedy's 1961 call to "put a man on the moon within ten years".
Mr Gore said the US should abandon fossil fuel generated electricity within a decade, and switch to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources.
Warning that climate change is deteriorating quicker than expected while the economy is in "terrible shape" due to "dramatically" rising oil prices, Mr Gore said an ironically common thread runs through all these problems.
"If we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand. The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," he said.
Mr Gore claims solar power could provide all the electricity the country needs while enough wind "blows through the Midwest corridor every day" to match this.
The former vice president recently endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign and the democratic nominee has accepted Mr Gore's challenge to end the nation's dependence on oil drilling.
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