http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/9/18/154846/236 contains the text of Gore's Sept 18th address at a college. Wow. Just wow. He has GOT IT.
If you haven't seen the Google TED videos yet, check out Gore's new climate control presentation. This is the guy who came off as a wooden block in election debates? Holy smokes. I actually *like* him, just from listening to him speak. Can imagine having a good conversation with the guy. No, that doesn't happen with many people, it's a gestalt kind of thing. The only two public figures I can think of that I've felt that way about are Bill Maher and now Al Gore.
The part I got to that blew me away enough that I *had* to post is this:
“Here in the US the extra cost of efficiency improvements such as thicker insulation and more efficient window coatings have traditionally been shunned by builders and homebuyers alike because they add to the initial purchase price–even though these investments typically pay for themselves by reducing heating and cooling costs and then produce additional savings each month for the lifetime of the building. It should be possible to remove the purchase price barrier for such improvements through the use of innovative mortgage finance instruments that eliminate any additional increase in the purchase price by capturing the future income from the expected savings. We should create a Carbon Neutral Mortgage Association to market these new financial instruments and stimulate their use in the private sector by utilities, banks and homebuilders. This new “Connie Mae” (CNMA) could be a valuable instrument for reducing the pollution from new buildings.”
Wow, he totally *gets it*. Creating CNMA is something that could actually *happen* and *work*, not a blue-sky idea. Holy crap, lions!
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