DCFOUNTAIN.COM

Stock Photo: World Economic Forum
Al Gore at World Economic Forum annual meeting,
Jan. 30, 2005, Davos, Switzerland

Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore today issued probably the most dramatic — yet surprisingly still realistic — challenge this nation has had on its table in at least a generation, maybe two. He called on all Americans to band together to pressure policy-makers to begin domestically generating 100 percent of the nation’s electricity from renewable and other clean energy sources within 10 years.

And he makes one heck-of-a strong case:

“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.”

– Al Gore

Already some are comparing Gore’s challenge to then-President John F. Kennedy’s bold 1961 visionary challenge to send an American to the moon by the end of that decade. As then, the real question today is not, “Can it really be done?”, but “How badly do we really want it?” The answer to the former is directly dependent upon the latter.

Watch Gore’s speech here, or read more about his challenge.

UPDATE: Just two days after delivering his speech, already an impressive 1.4 million Americans had signed-on to support his challenge. Not bad at all, but it’s going to need millions more to gain traction. Consider adding your voice to the chorus — it takes only a few moments and is one of the simplest things you can do to help preserve our planet from self-destruction.