There is an air of unreality in debating these arcane points when the world is changing in such dramatic ways right in front of our eyes because of global warming.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of addressing crucial global issues like climate change rather than getting lost in trivial debates.
Al Gore highlights the urgency of confronting the realities of global warming and the significant changes it brings to the world. He suggests that focusing on obscure debates seems irrelevant when faced with the dramatic transformations occurring in our environment, underscoring the need for immediate action and awareness regarding climate change.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about environmental policy can underscore the need for urgent action.
Global warming is real and human activity is the main cause. The consequences are mainly negative and headed toward catastrophic, unless we act. However, the good news is that we can meet this challenge. It is not too late, and we have everything we need to get started.
The climate crisis is not a political issue; it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
I think it's harder for people than it should be. But as more and more of us become carbon neutral and change the patterns in our lives to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, we are now beginning to see the changes in policy that are needed.
We have a planetary emergency. We have to find a way to create, in the generation of those alive today, a sense of generational mission.
CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization, literally... Changing that pattern requires a scope, a scale, a speed of change that is beyond what we have done in the past.
Well-established theories collapse under the weight of new facts and observations which cannot be explained, and then accumulate to the point where the once useful theory is clearly obsolete.
Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict.
You know what the lowest rated episode we ever had was? Where Captain Kirk kissed Uhuru - a white man kissing an African-American woman. All the stations in the American South - in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana - refused to air it. And so our ratings plummeted.
Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.
Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
I knew hundreds and hundreds of women like me, who had traveled in and out of prison in a revolving door. They needed support and help just like I had received. And it could make a difference, just like it had made a difference in my life. I wanted to see them come back to the community and have a chance at a different life, too.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
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