Now the long awaited (slight exaggeration) conclusion of our in-depth recounting of the Letterman/Gore interview. The Nobel Prize Laureate appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which is an eco-friendly follow up to his Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. We pick up near the end of multi segment interview when the conversation shifted to the ever-growing global population.

Dave said that two million women a year die in childbirth and one billion humans go hungry.  He then asked if it is possible that we are not supporting the population of our world and should the population issue be a cause for concern? Gore said that this is a complicated issue as fantastic growth has helped to create the collision between people, earth, and the environment. In the last one hundred years the population of the earth has quadrupled.  It is estimated that the population will continue to grow from 6.8 billion (currently) to over 9 billion, where is should stabilize in 2050. The fact that the population is stabilizing illustrates that the issue is being addressed successfully, Gore called it “a success story in slow motion”. The stability of the population is largely dependent on four factors:

1. The education of girls and women
2. Women having a say in their lives and communities
3. Women having control over their fertility
4. Higher child survival rates

Basically, when women have a say in their lives and are employed, they are predisposed to having smaller families. Additionally, when children survive at a higher rate, parents have a natural preference to have a smaller family. This shift happened in the United States decades ago and is now occurring all over the world.

The next issue that Letterman brought up has been a plank in the platform of every politician running in the United States in the last few years, which is the dependence on foreign oil. Gore shared that as long as the U.S. remains as dependent on foreign oil as they are, there will be a national security threat as well as an eco-friendly one. The reason for this is that oil reserves are mainly located in the Middle East, the largest of which are owned by the Saudis. Gore feels that to do right by the planet, future generations of children and the security the country, Americans need to be using renewable energy. When relying on foreign oil, any unrest in the Middle East is a threat, as the supply could be cut. Gore said that millions of new jobs could be created by retro fitting homes, putting up windmills, solar panels, and geo thermal installation.

All of these are not jobs that can be outsourced, so this is an eco-friendly solution to the economic plight of the country. Letterman then said that coal is a major problem and Gore agreed. Gore says clean coal does not exist, but they are looking for a way to capture the CO2 once it is emitted and bury it. In Finland it is being stowed under the sea bend in the North Sea; where as in Norway it is being buried one mile under the bottom of the ocean. Research shows that if done carefully it should be safe and the longer the CO2 stays under ground it will dissolve. For a coal plant to be clean it would need to use 1/3 of the energy it generates to capture the CO2 it emits, thus making it a very expensive endeavor. In his book Gore says that all types of renewable energy – solar, wind, and geothermal – are needed to stop the dependence on oil and coal. Yes, these technologies are very expensive but as was once the case with computers, the greater the demand the more likely it is for prices to drop as the technology is refined. Over the last two years wind has been the primary source of new power in the U.S.

Dave brought up the fact that Gore stands to make money on the success of renewable technology.  To that end Gore replied that you need to invest with your beliefs and convictions – it is rare today for a public figure to literally put their money where their mouth is.

An eco-friendly lecture is rarely as engaging and entertaining as this interview was. We must give credit to Letterman for devoting a large portion of his program to this topic; it was clear that he has a real friendship and healthy respect for Mr. Gore. Last but not least a thank you to Mr. Gore for making a dry subject palatable and engaging. It was facilitating to see two educated, well versed men dissect environmental issues in a positive way.