TED has introduced Al Gore’s new presentation on environmental concerns. Some of the most fascinating points that he makes is that in order to act on his new findings concerning global warming, people need to feel a sense of urgency (I guess we’re still procrastinating…) — and after listening to military historians — he suggests that we can start thinking on three levels: local, regional, and global.

What was most fascinating to me was how Al Gore compared Earth to Venus. Venus being a planet that contains majority of its carbon in the form of gas within its atmosphere while majority of Earth’s carbon is in some form of solid or fluid form. So what are we doing now? Are we striving to become Venus by taking our carbon-based resources and converting it into gaseous form?

Al Gore’s presentation displayed how frustrated he is with the current situation but also showed his deep understanding of how democracy and freedom is intertwined with the decision for people to “buy in” and support the environmental cause to change the way we live, play, and do business. The question is — when will it be too late to wait for individuals to do something on their own? Everyone procrastinates but unfortunately there is a huge chunk of the world’s population who will continue to procrastinate and consider this a low-er priority issue until it becomes urgent. Can we override the daily concerns of an average individual and place the environment as a higher or greater cause?

It is funny because on some level, we need to fight on a daily basis for our survival. We go to work; we earn a living; we purchase food; we need to rent or acquire land and shelter for ourselves and our families; we need to transport ourselves to work in order to earn a living; and we are dependent on so many factors for our daily survival. Yet we don’t see the “asteroid” that’s about to hit our planet. We know it’s there, we want to do something about it on some level, but we puzzled or we just don’t want it enough.

First step I guess is to look at how we live our daily lives. Check out the presentation below from TED. Then go to WE and sign up to take part in a global movement to help the environment.