Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Hummer: a potent symbol of gas-guzzling fuel inefficency. Governor Arnie's
former favourite military vehicle is no longer manufactured in the US.
verted one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen, and another to biofuels.
Under Schwarzenegger, California has resumed its pioneering US role in
progress towards a low-carbon economy. He signed legislation in 2006
setting a mandatory cap on greenhouse-gas emissions in California, the
first such move in the US.
Al Gore's tendency to take himself a mite too seriously was considered
a weakness as a politician, and he has been dubbed the “Goracle” by
some, both affectionately and pejoratively. But his seriousness of purpose
appears eminently suited to campaigning for climate action. It is not so
much that he was a particularly successful Vice President (to Bill Clinton)
from 1992 to 2000: the Clinton administration did not have an especially
distinguished environmental record. It is more that very many people
considered that, as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2000, he was
the moral victor of that election, because he won more votes than George
W. Bush even though the latter triumphed on the arcane arithmetic of the
electoral college.
Gore's moral authority to speak out on the environment was further
enhanced, in the eyes of many, by the Bush administration's rejection of
the evidence of climate change, of the Kyoto Protocol and of the need to
take any substantive climate action. The only drawback of having such a
