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appropriately. We need a worldwide, global mobilization for renewable energy, conservation, efficiency and a
global transition to a low-carbon economy. We have work to do. And we can mobilize resources and political
will. But the political will has to be mobilized, in order to mobilize the resources.
Let me show you these slides here. I thought I would start with the logo. What's missing here, of course,
is the North Polar ice cap. Greenland remains. Twenty-eight years ago, this is what the polar ice cap -- the North
Polar ice cap -- looked like at the end of the summer, at the fall equinox. This last fall, I went to the Snow and
Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and talked to the researchers here in Monterey at the Naval Postgraduate
Laboratory. This is what's happened in the last 28 years. To put it in perspective, 2005 was the previous record.
Here's what happened last fall that has really unnerved the researchers. The North Polar ice cap is the same size
geographically -- doesn't look quite the same size -- but it is exactly the same size as the United States, minus an
area roughly equal to the state of Arizona. The amount that disappeared in 2005 was equivalent to everything
east of the Mississippi. The extra amount that disappeared last fall was equivalent to this much. It comes back in
the winter, but not as permanent ice, as thin ice -- vulnerable. The amount remaining could be completely gone
in summer in as little as five years. That puts a lot of pressure on Greenland. Already, around the Arctic Circle --
this is a famous village in Alaska. This is a town in Newfoundland. Antarctica. Latest studies from NASA. The
amount of a moderate-to-severe snow melting of an area equivalent to the size of California.
"They were the best of times, they were the worst of times": the most famous opening sentence in English
literature. I want to share briefly a tale of two planets. Earth and Venus are exactly the same size. Earth's
diameter is about 400 kilometers larger, but essentially the same size. They have exactly the same amount of
carbon. But the difference is, on Earth, most of the carbon has been leeched over time out of the atmosphere,
deposited in the ground as coal, oil, natural gas, etc. On Venus, most of it is in the atmosphere. The difference is
that our temperature is 59 degrees on average. On Venus, it's 855. This is relevant to our current strategy of
taking as much carbon out of the ground as quickly as possible, and putting it into the atmosphere. It's not
because Venus is slightly closer to the Sun. It's three times hotter than Mercury, which is right next to the Sun.
Now, briefly, here's an image you've seen, as one of the only old images, but I show it because I want to briefly
give you CSI: Climate.
The global scientific community says: man-made global warming pollution, put into the atmosphere,
thickening this, is trapping more of the outgoing infrared. You all know that. At the last IPCC summary, the
scientists wanted to say, "How certain are you?" They wanted to answer that "99 percent." The Chinese objected,
and so the compromise was "more than 90 percent." Now, the skeptics say, "Oh, wait a minute, this could be
variations in this energy coming in from the sun." If that were true, the stratosphere would be heated as well as
the lower atmosphere, if it's more coming in. If it's more being trapped on the way out, then you would expect it
to be warmer here and cooler here. Here is the lower atmosphere. Here's the stratosphere: cooler. CSI: Climate.
Now, here's the good news. Sixty-eight percent of Americans now believe that human activity is
responsible for global warming. Sixty-nine percent believe that the Earth is heating up in a significant way.
There has been progress, but here is the key: when given a list of challenges to confront, global warming is still
listed at near the bottom. What is missing is a sense of urgency. If you agree with the factual analysis, but you
don't feel the sense of urgency, where does that leave you? Well, the Alliance for Climate Protection, which I
head in conjunction with Current TV -- who did this pro-bono -- did a worldwide contest to do commercials on
how to communicate this. This is the winner.
NBC -- I'll show all of the networks here -- the top journalists for NBC asked 956 questions in 2007 of
the presidential candidates: two of them were about the climate crisis. ABC: 844 questions, two about the
climate crisis. Fox: two. CNN: two. CBS: zero. From laughs to tears -- this is one of the older tobacco
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