2. Cities Need to Invest in Renewable Energy, Clean Air, and Energy Efficiency
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore says that cities need to invest in renewable energy. He addressed this issue at a summit meeting of city leaders called CityLab. Besides being a former vice president of the United States, Al Gore is also famous for producing a movie about global warming and climate changed called An Inconvenient Truth, and he has also been a social activist for climate change reduction measures for years.
Gore says that cities should “go whole hog on electrification,” and he also encouraged cities to install more solar panels and explore other ways to produce renewable energy. As a solution to emissions and global warming, Gore suggested planting more trees and other greenery.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, says that carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas produced by human activities. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen as they grow, and that is why the growth of additional greenery helps reduce high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Besides working to produce clean and renewable energy, Gore also urged cities to work on making existing buildings more energy efficient. He says that one solution is to install smart thermostats in older buildings even if they are too expensive for renovations.
He says that cities will actually save money because they will use less energy, and they can also help curb the problem of global climate change at the same time.
One of the most alarming comments that former Vice President Al Gore made was the quantity of greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere every day because of human activities.
He said that the cumulative amount of extra heat that gets trapped every day because of manmade greenhouse gas emissions is equal to the amount of energy that would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.
