The environmental defender, Nobel Laureate, and previous vice-president of the United States of America, Al Gore, spoke to the US Green Building Council (USGBC) Greenbuild International Conference and Expo this month in Phoenix, Arazona, in a talk that specified the importance of a bigger green sector for the boosting of the US (and, by association, the world) economy.

In his keynote speech for the world’s largest building conference, with 27,000 attendees, Gore used powerful rhetoric to scare, inspire and congratulate the aydience of architects, engineers, planners and other professionals, saying “This rollercoaster is headed for a crash, and we’re in the front seat”.

But it was not all fire and brimstone- Gore congratulated the attendees for their dedication and interest, telling them that “You have made a very smart choice, because you’re doing the right thing, and you’re going to prosper because of it”. Gore also stressed the power of a green sector in economic and also national security terms, stating that “We’re in a time now where we’ve got to make some big changes. The green movement is growing leaps and bounds across the US and the world–the green movement is not only good for the environment but for the economy and national security.”

He then went onto more specific points concerning these green goals, saying that “I know where we can get at least two-and-a-half million jobs, by building green buildings and retrofitting buildings to LEED standards.” (LEED is a comprehensive, third-party green building code, standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and developed by the US Green Building Council.) “Yes, it’s important to change the light bulbs and windows, but it’s even more important to change the laws and the policies,” Gore said. “We’ve got everything we need, with the possible exception of political will.”

Gore stressed that we had the tools and power to build and boost this green sector and simulatneously to help the environment: “We can solve this crisis,” he said. “We have the tools we need to solve three or four climate crises and we need to only solve one.”