Straight from GreenBeat 2009, we bring you former vice president and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. I’ll be live-blogging this session — so it won’t be perfect or word-for-word, but it will be fast! We’ll pull out the gems as soon as we can.

Laura Ipsen, Cisco System’s smart grid guru is introducing Al Gore right now, highlighting his many achievements and awards. He’s been a mentor for Cisco linking climate change to good business. Cisco will be launching its telpresence system at the climate talks in Copenhagen this December. Incidentally, Gore will be making another cameo on 30 Rock tonight. Don’t miss it.

Acknowledging his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, including yesterday’s keynote speaker John Doerr.

- “I am Al Gore I used to be the next president of the United States.” A good opening…

- “Thanks for mentioning my new book, Laura, Our Choice.” All of the profits from the book will be donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

- I was advised before coming on stage that the legislation haven’t been discussed in detail at GreenBeat yet.

- Expectations for Copenhagen have been scaled back because negotiators aren’t going to be able to reach agreement on a legally-binding treaty, but the heads of state that are gathering there agree they will seek a binding political agreement with as much specificity as they can muster. To provide a set of guidelines for negotiators to complete their work in the first part of the year.

- They are trying to get this done so it can be announced before Copenhagen to give more impetus to the talks there — the window for passing serious legislation in 2010 will close around the time the spring ends, or even before that, but there is a determined effort by the White House and Congress to get that done and then resolve the international treaty’s details during a conference in June in Mexico City.

- Because the Senate requires 60 out of 100 votes and has grown sclerotic in its approach to anything like reform, it has become a challenge. There is good news though: Some Republicans led by Senator Lindsay Graham have joined with Senator Kerry and Senator Boxer to arrive at consensus around a bill that will probably add some subsidies for nuclear and some provisions on natural gas.

- There is a chicken and egg relationship between Copenhagen and the legislation working its way throug the Senate in the U.S. The climate bill isn’t as strong as I would have wanted but could achieve real reductions in emissions.

- I remember a story when I was a young congressman, 30 years old, I used to do townhall meetings all the time and most weekends I’d do lots. One Saturday I finished my fifth meeting and was driving home in Tennessee listening to the Grand Old Opry. Back in those days there was a famous comedienne named Sarah Cannon — she told a story as I was driving and I almost ran off the road. She told of a farmer in an accident who sued for damages and the driver of the other vehicle hired a lawyer that cross examined the farmer. He asked the farmer isn’t it true that you said you felt fine after the accident. The farmer says he was driving his cow home and the other vehicle crossed the meridian. The lawyer cut him off and restated the question. The farmer starts over saying the truck hit him right on, throwing his cow out of the car. The cow was immediately shot in front of the farmer. So when he was asked how he felt, of course he said “I feel fine” — at least in comparison to the cow. This got big laughs…

- This relates to the global climate change conversation because it’s not as bad as it could be.

- The ice and snowy regions are in the process of melting — they are definitely beginning to melt at a more rapid rate. If that process crosses a tipping point then the sea level will reach a catastrophic rate. The other impacts, I won’t go through here, but more storms, deeper droughts, famine, tropical disease, a disruption of the basis for the conditions that have been favorable to the rise of human civilization. We really have to act.

- One of the reasons for rapid movement toward a need to act is that in our country, for example, there is a sense that solutions to the climate crisis will help with the economic crisis as well. A set of solutions that also enhance our national security by making us less dependent on the international oil market, controlled by sovereign states in the Persian gulf which are not transparent about their operations.

And with that, the inaugural GreenBeat conference has come to a close. Thanks to everyone who attended and who supported the event. More insights and takeaways to come.

Straight from GreenBeat 2009, we bring you former vice president and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. I’ll be live-blogging this session — so it won’t be perfect or word-for-word, but it will be fast! We’ll pull out the gems as soon as we can.

Laura Ipsen, Cisco System’s smart grid guru is introducing Al Gore right now, highlighting his many achievements and awards. He’s been a mentor for Cisco linking climate change to good business. Cisco will be launching its telpresence system at the climate talks in Copenhagen this December. Incidentally, Gore will be making another cameo on 30 Rock tonight. Don’t miss it.

Acknowledging his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, including yesterday’s keynote speaker John Doerr.

- “I am Al Gore I used to be the next president of the United States.” A good opening…

- “Thanks for mentioning my new book, Laura, Our Choice.” All of the profits from the book will be donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

- I was advised before coming on stage that the legislation haven’t been discussed in detail at GreenBeat yet.

- Expectations for Copenhagen have been scaled back because negotiators aren’t going to be able to reach agreement on a legally-binding treaty, but the heads of state that are gathering there agree they will seek a binding political agreement with as much specificity as they can muster. To provide a set of guidelines for negotiators to complete their work in the first part of the year.

- They are trying to get this done so it can be announced before Copenhagen to give more impetus to the talks there — the window for passing serious legislation in 2010 will close around the time the spring ends, or even before that, but there is a determined effort by the White House and Congress to get that done and then resolve the international treaty’s details during a conference in June in Mexico City.

- Because the Senate requires 60 out of 100 votes and has grown sclerotic in its approach to anything like reform, it has become a challenge. There is good news though: Some Republicans led by Senator Lindsay Graham have joined with Senator Kerry and Senator Boxer to arrive at consensus around a bill that will probably add some subsidies for nuclear and some provisions on natural gas.

- There is a chicken and egg relationship between Copenhagen and the legislation working its way throug the Senate in the U.S. The climate bill isn’t as strong as I would have wanted but could achieve real reductions in emissions.

- I remember a story when I was a young congressman, 30 years old, I used to do townhall meetings all the time and most weekends I’d do lots. One Saturday I finished my fifth meeting and was driving home in Tennessee listening to the Grand Old Opry. Back in those days there was a famous comedienne named Sarah Cannon — she told a story as I was driving and I almost ran off the road. She told of a farmer in an accident who sued for damages and the driver of the other vehicle hired a lawyer that cross examined the farmer. He asked the farmer isn’t it true that you said you felt fine after the accident. The farmer says he was driving his cow home and the other vehicle crossed the meridian. The lawyer cut him off and restated the question. The farmer starts over saying the truck hit him right on, throwing his cow out of the car. The cow was immediately shot in front of the farmer. So when he was asked how he felt, of course he said “I feel fine” — at least in comparison to the cow. This got big laughs…

- This relates to the global climate change conversation because it’s not as bad as it could be.

- The ice and snowy regions are in the process of melting — they are definitely beginning to melt at a more rapid rate. If that process crosses a tipping point then the sea level will reach a catastrophic rate. The other impacts, I won’t go through here, but more storms, deeper droughts, famine, tropical disease, a disruption of the basis for the conditions that have been favorable to the rise of human civilization. We really have to act.

- One of the reasons for rapid movement toward a need to act is that in our country, for example, there is a sense that solutions to the climate crisis will help with the economic crisis as well. A set of solutions that also enhance our national security by making us less dependent on the international oil market, controlled by sovereign states in the Persian gulf which are not transparent about their operations.

And with that, the inaugural GreenBeat conference has come to a close. Thanks to everyone who attended and who supported the event. More insights and takeaways to come.