Gore: 'Civil disobedience' needed to halt coal plant construction RAW STORY

Published: Thursday September 25, 2008





Print This Email This Former vice president Al Gore urged young environmental activists to engage in "civil disobedience" to halt the construction of coal plants that do not mitigate their carbon emissions.



Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, was speaking to a gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative, created by the former president he served with, Reuters reports. "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.



"I believe for a carbon company to spend money convincing the stock-buying public that the risk from the global climate crisis is not that great represents a form of stock fraud because they are misrepresenting a material fact," he said. "I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that." Gore and other environmentalists say coal plants are among the biggest emitters of carbon pollution, which contributes to global warming.



The New York Times reports that Gore did not provide more detail on what he wanted people to do. Mr. Gore did not elaborate on his call for action. And almost as soon as the words civil disobedience were out of his mouth, Mr. Clinton, moderating a panel that Mr. Gore shared with the singer Bono, the president of Liberia, the chairman of Coca-Cola and Queen Rania of Jordan, turned to the queen to ask whether Middle Eastern countries might ever become models of clean energy usage. The discussion continued in a less-fiery vein from there. Despite intense advertising from the industry, Gore said so-called clean coal technology "does not exist."



