It's 1968 again! Gore calls for sit-ins

Former Vice-President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore called yesterday for civil disobedience to block the construction of coal-fired power plants. He told the audience at the Clinton Global Initiative conference:

• 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

He also suggest legal attack:

• 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. I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that.

So maybe the youth of today can have a cause as exciting and involving as those in the '60s did. And when you really think about it, global climate disruption is a much bigger issue than the war in Vietnam was. Maybe it will stimulate a hundred times more outrage. Or are the times so different that young people will just shrug their shoulders. Interesting times.

See Reuters report here.