ATLANTA — Al Gore seems to be everywhere lately, be it his recent cameo on Saturday Night Live, gracing the cover of the November 9 issue of Newsweek, and now a nation-wide book tour for his latest publication, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” The former Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Academy Award winner visited the Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Atlanta on Nov. 23 to present a lecture entitled, “Solutions to the Climate Crisis: The opportunities and choices we must make in the US and around the world.”

“I am Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States. I don’t think that’s particularly funny. I am a recovering politician. I’m on about Step 9,” he began in a lighthearted manner. After a few jokes and stories, he got down to the grit of the lecture, beginning with his greatest concern that we must solve the climate crisis because “it connects to the economic and national security crisis that comes about as a result of our dependence on foreign oil.”

Mr. Gore noted that just six months ago, the International Energy Agency issued its first comprehensive report on 300 of the largest pools of oil in the world. “What they found is that the decline of oil production has been accelerating at triple the rate it had been predicted,” he said. Since the demand for oil has been rising, he believes “we have to do something to protect our own national security” in the event that oil becomes scarce in the future.

In order to break away from our dependence on oil and coal, Mr. Gore advocates the development of renewable energy in the forms of solar, wind, and geothermal energy. Ground source heat pumps, a form of geothermal energy, are where an unlimited source of heat is generated from several meters below the earth’s surface. “Tipper and I installed 7 of these geothermal wells in our house in Nashville and completely eliminated our natural gas bill and cut our electricity bill,” he said.

Mr. Gore also spoke of two other sources of renewable energy: carbon capture and sequestration and nuclear energy. While he is not opposed to either, he thinks they are likely to play only a small role in the overall solution to the climate crisis.

In his book, Mr. Gore mentions that, “We have to pay attention to the living systems that are connected to this crisis.” Such examples of this are the growing population, soil, which stores large amounts of carbon, and trees. “I sometimes hear scientists say ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could develop a technology that would scavenge CO2 out of the air and sequester it?’ Well ya know, we have such a device. It’s called a tree. If you take that technology to a scale, it’s called a forest,” he joked.

Mr. Gore, who is no stranger to governmental resistance, recognizes all too well that Congress is amongst one of the many obstacles we need to overcome in order to use the tools and knowledge we have to solve the climate crisis. “Our political system has become sclerotic,” he says. Regarding climate change legislation, “It’s passed the House of Representatives, it’s pending in the Senate. The United States Senate has been unable to act. . .There are a lot of senators all over our country who have been unwilling to act on this.”

Enthused, Mr. Gore told the congregation that the one message he wanted to impart most of all was for the public to involve themselves with government activity and decisions about the environment. “The most important part of the answer is for individuals to get involved in the political system. . .It is important to change your light bulbs and your windows. . .but it’s a lot more important to change our laws and our policies,” he said. He suggested that citizens start by logging on to repoweramerica.org, a site where they can voice their opinion about why it is important to solve this climate crisis.

He ended the speech with a wish he has for future generations: He wants them to look back at us and ask, “How did you find the moral courage to rise up and solve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve? We have everything we need to answer that question. . .we have everything, with the possible exception of political will. . .but political will is a renewable resource.”