An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Page #3

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And I've always

started my slideshows

with those pictures.

When people can see

the Earth from space,

they naturally find it easier

to feel a connection

to our shared home.

And the last image

from the Apollo program,

The Blue Marble,

the one picture of the entire

Earth fully illuminated,

completely changed the way

people think about the planet.

It energized the modern

environmental movement.

I put that picture

on my office wall

in the West Wing

of the White House,

and I looked at it every day.

I called up NASA and I said,

"Hey, I've been looking

at this same picture here,"

"and I'm just wondering

if there's another one."

I thought, what if we could

have images on a daily basis?

Might that help to build

the commitment people have

for saving the climate balance?

And that's when I learned

there's really not another one.

That's what led to the idea

of the DSCOVR satellite.

Not only for these pictures,

but because of

the amazing scientific

data gathering that you can do

from that special point

in space.

There was opposition

in the Congress.

I was about to run

for president,

and that may have had

something to do with it.

But once I finally

got it approved,

other instruments

started being added to it.

And one was the crucial

early-warning device

for solar storms

that threaten electric

utility grids and pipelines.

And NASA built the satellite,

gave it a launch date.

And then after

the Supreme Court decision

and the inauguration

of Bush and Cheney,

they canceled

the satellite launch.

Please stand for the invocation.

Reverend Graham.

The new administration,

they didn't really realize

they were also canceling

this solar storm

early-warning system.

And the businesses

that depend on it

started making a lot of noise.

And they proposed

to resolve that quandary

by taking all of

the climate instruments

and the camera

off of the satellite,

replacing them with

the equivalent of sandbags

and only leaving

the one instrument

that these powerful industries

wanted to be put into orbit.

I thought,

"Wow, that is extremism."

By the end of it,

this satellite was

put in storage.

We had a real opportunity

to start building

enough public support

to really get on track

to solving the climate crisis.

But we lost that opportunity.

And now, we cannot afford

to lose it again.

Okay, Bo.

This house was my home

when I was growing up as a boy.

My mother and father built it.

LBJ came to this farm.

He fell out with my dad

when my dad became one of

the leading opponents

of the Vietnam War,

but they served in the Senate

together a long time.

Here's a picture of my dad

doing Meet the Press, and...

Then, many years later,

me doing Meet the Press.

Here's a, uh,

handwritten note that

my second-oldest daughter,

Kristin, wrote back in 1987,

when we had

a family meeting to go over

whether or not

I should run for President.

It's divided into good parts

and bad parts.

"Number 1:
Wants to do it."

"Number 2:
Has a good chance."

"Number 3:
A lot of people"

"who know the other candidates

don't like them."

Um...

"He might get elected."

"It would be a good time

to run things."

"He thinks

he could solve problems."

"The bad points. Number 1:

He would not be here a lot."

"Number 2:
Uh..."

"It would be hard to

get more publicity"

"than some of the others."

"Number 3:
"

"Would not like to have Social

Security around all the time."

Meaning the Secret Service,

of course.

Just moments ago,

I spoke with George W. Bush

and congratulated him

on becoming

the 43rd President of

the United States.

Neither he nor I anticipated

this long and difficult road.

Let there be no doubt

while I strongly disagree

with the court's decision,

I accept it.

I accept the finality of

this outcome,

which will be ratified

next Monday

in the Electoral College.

And tonight, for the sake of

our unity as a people

and the strength of

our democracy,

I offer my concession.

I had a detailed plan

for my life.

But it turned out that life

had a different plan for me.

You know, anybody

who decides to be a part of

helping to solve

the climate crisis has

a constant struggle

between hope and despair.

Uh, and so when you see

these slides about

all the damage

that's being done, hang on,

because hope is coming.

Don't sink too low!

Despair can be paralyzing.

But we're building up speed

and we're seeing

a tremendous amount of

positive change

that gives me the optimism

that I feel about this.

Let me give you some exciting

examples. Look at wind.

One day this month,

Scotland got 100% of

its electricity from wind.

In Portugal,

they had four days straight

last May on

renewable energy alone.

And on a global basis,

wind alone can supply

40 times the entire

global demand for energy.

But let's look at solar.

This, to me, is the most

exciting new development.

Fourteen years ago

the best projections available

were that we would be able

to install worldwide

one gigawatt of

solar electricity per year.

Well, when 2010 arrived,

we beat that goal by

17 times over.

Last year, we beat that goal

58 times over.

This year, we're on track to

beat that goal 73 times over.

This is an exponential curve,

and it is astonishing!

And it continues to go up

at a steeper rate

because the cost of

silicon solar cells

continues to go down.

I wish that every state

would encourage solar.

Including Florida.

You know, Florida's called

the Sunshine State?

The head of the second-biggest

fossil fuel utility there

was actually quoted as saying,

"Yes, we're the Sunshine State,"

"but, remember, we're also

the partly cloudy state."

And they have lobbied

the state legislature

to basically make it illegal

to lease a solar panel for

your rooftop from anybody

but the

fossil fuel-burning utility!

And they're trying to use

their legacy political power

to bend the politicians

to their will.

What the public wants

doesn't seem to matter.

It's pathetic!

In

Campaign 2016 segment tonight,

an interview with Donald Trump.

Not a believer

in global warming.

Obama thinks it's

the number one problem

of the world today,

and I think

it's very low on the list.

If you were President,

would you invest

a lot of money in

alternative energy

to get away from fossil fuels?

Now solar always

sounds better than it is.

You know, you get

your money back in 36 years.

The problem is the panels

destroy themselves

after ten years.

...you know, one of the top,

top professors at MIT.

Hey!

Hey, Mr. Vice President,

thank you so much for coming.

Thank you.

So, we're

in relatively early stages

of the investigation, but

some of these companies

and the denial organizations

and groups like the

American Petroleum Institute

have been actively seeking

to distort the market,

to suppress investment

in renewables

through this relatively

new line of propaganda,

which is,

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