Posted on Sat, Nov. 7, 2009
Al Gore made 'em laugh yesterday when he brought his climate-change road show to Philadelphia.
Criticized by some observers for being too serious, too eggheaded, during his 2000 campaign for the presidency, Gore introduced himself during his Foreign Affairs Council keynote address with "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States."
When the audience cracked up, he deadpanned, "I don't think that's particularly funny."
He then pronounced himself "a recovering politician" . . . "on about Step Nine." (More laughter.)
But seriously, folks: The Nobel laureate and former vice president was in Philadelphia to discuss how climate change is threatening national security - not only for the United States, but for many other nations as well.
His appearance coincided with the release Tuesday of his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, which presents a prescription for the problems he presented in his previous book and movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
Signed copies were piled up in the hallway outside the Loews Philadelphia Hotel ballroom where he was speaking. With about 500 people present, it bodes well for the nonprofit to which he has promised all the proceeds, the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Gore founded it in 2006, steering Inconvenient Truth proceeds there as well. In 2007, the balance sheet showed $25.3 million in revenue.
For its 60th anniversary, the council is focusing on national security, the common thread shared by climate change and health issues, among others.
Also speaking yesterday were Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services secretary; Dennis C. Blair, national intelligence director; and Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security secretary who resigned as Pennsylvania governor to take the federal post.
Gore's thesis, which he has reiterated many times during his weeklong publicity blitz, was that Americans need to wake up from a "trance state" induced by current oil prices, which are relatively low.
The Middle East dominates the global oil market, he said, and leaders keep oil prices as high as they can as long as they can. But when public sentiment shifts toward a demand for renewable energy instead of oil, the price drops, and lethargy sets in.
He described the situation as a roller coaster, "and we're in the front car. . . . Are we going to wait for the next shock? Or can we find the ability, as Americans . . . to decide on an intelligent basis that we are going to take charge of our own destiny?"
As Gore churned out statistics, he spoke of the potential for world conflict posed by worsening storms, water scarcity, and climate-change refugees. In Bangladesh alone, he said, a one-meter rise in sea level would create 17 million refugees.
Outlining the potential of solar, wind, and geothermal energy, Gore said the world has the solution to the problem of climate change; what it lacks is the political will.
He labeled the current political system "sclerotic," saying elections have become so expensive that the only place candidates can go for the big infusions of cash they need is "organized groups that have a special agenda to pursue."
So what the country often gets are policies reflecting special agendas.
The antidote, he said, is that "all of us citizens of America have to shake off the lethargy" and get much more involved.
Future generations, he said, are depending on the current ones to make the right choices.
After his talk of about an hour, there was time for just one question.
So no one asked about the John M. Broder column in the New York Times this week, which said few are as well-positioned as Gore to profit "from this green transformation."
Critics accuse Gore of exaggerating the climate situation, the faster to become the world's first "climate billionaire."
Gore said in several television appearances this week that he's simply putting his money where his mouth is, and has been, for three decades. If he didn't, he said, he would be accused of hypocrisy.
On ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday, he told host Diane Sawyer that he still eats meat, although far less than before.
Production of meat, particularly beef, has been fingered as a major source of global-warming pollution, which Gore points out in Our Choice.
By 5 p.m. the same day, frequent critic Glenn Beck of Fox News gleefully seized the issue.
"Al, if you're seriously concerned that the Earth has a temperature," Beck said, "why don't you put down the T-bone and grab a stalk of broccoli?"
Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers at 215-854-5147 or sbauers@phillynews.com.
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