Environmental activism of Al Gore
He was vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2000, and the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Gore stated in an interview for The New York Times that his interest in environmentalism began when he was a teenager: As I was entering high school, my mother was reading Silent Spring and the dinner table conversation was about pesticides and the environment ...
[1][5] In 1989, while still a Senator, Gore published an editorial in The Washington Post, in which he argued: Humankind has suddenly entered into a brand new relationship with the planet Earth.
[7] The Concord Monitor says that Gore "was one of the first politicians to grasp the seriousness of climate change and to call for a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases".
He launched the GLOBE program on Earth Day 1994, an education and science activity that, according to Forbes, "made extensive use of the Internet to increase student awareness of their environment".
[15] He also began promoting a NASA satellite that would provide a constant view of Earth, marking the first time such an image would have been made since The Blue Marble photo from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission.
[16] This satellite would allow the measurement of the earth's changing reflectivity (albedo) due to melting ice caps, but the project was put on hold by George W. Bush's administration.
Turnover at the London-based operation was £293m with distributed profits of £193m to the firm's 32 members, one of the senior staff receiving £41m (The Sunday Times (UK), September 16, 2018).
Gore and The Alliance for Climate Protection created the We Can Solve It organization, a web-based program with multiple advertisements on television focused on spreading awareness for climate crisis (global warming) and petitioning for the press putting more attention on the crisis, the government doing more to help the environment, and their ultimate goal is the end to global warming.
[1] In recent years, Gore has remained busy traveling the world speaking and participating in events mainly aimed towards global warming awareness and prevention.
[24] He used a famous World War II poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller to describe how the international community is eerily accomplishing nothing in the face of the greatest crisis in human history.
"[26] During Global Warming Awareness Month, on February 9, 2007, Al Gore and Richard Branson announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, a competition offering a $25 million prize for the first person or organization to produce a viable design that results in the removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
[27] A public lecture at University of Toronto on February 21, 2007, on the topic of global warming, led to a crash of the ticket sales website within minutes of opening.
[28] In March 2008, Gore gave a talk via videoconferencing in order to promote this technology as a means, he argued, of fighting global warming.
[29] On July 17, 2008, Gore gave a speech at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in which he called for a move towards replacing a dependence upon "carbon-based fuels" with Green energy by the United States within the next ten years.
Gore stated: "When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal.
According to the BBC, "Robby Diamond, president of a bipartisan think tank called Securing America's Future Energy,[32] said weaning the nation off fossil fuels could not be done in a decade.
'"[33] On July 21, 2008, Al Gore used a speech to challenge the United States to commit to producing all electricity from renewable sources (AERS) like solar and wind power in 10 years .
[37] On September 24, 2008, Gore made the following statements in a speech given at the Clinton Global Initiative: "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.
[41] In February 2012 the Climate Reality Project organized an expedition to the Antarctic with "civic and business leaders, activists and concerned citizens from many countries".
"[45] In a plenary session of the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos of Switzerland on January 18, 2017, Al Gore urged Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to stop building the coal-powered Rampal Power Station close to the largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans.
"[55] In response to these criticisms Gore stated that it is "certainly not true" that he is a "carbon billionaire" and that he is "proud to put my money where my mouth is for the past 30 years.
[51] Several of these, such as the statement that climate change was a main cause of coral reef bleaching,[58] and that polar bears were drowning due to habitat-loss as a result of ice-cap melting,[59] have been subsequently backed up by stronger evidence than the court was able to locate at the time.
"[61][62] In reporting on TCPR's claims, MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann noted that the house has twenty rooms and home offices and that the "green power switch" installed increased their electric bill while decreasing overall carbon pollution.
[64] A few months later, the Associated Press reported on December 13, 2007, that Gore "has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly ... 'Short of tearing it down and starting anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher,' said Kim Shinn of the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.
"[69] Media Matters for America also discussed the fact that "100 percent of the electricity in his home comes from green power" and quoted the Tennessee Valley Authority as stating that "[a]lthough no source of energy is impact-free, renewable resources create less waste and pollution.
Additionally, Gore owns two other residences – a penthouse in San Francisco and a farmhouse in Carthage, Tennessee – making his carbon footprint even larger than what was reported.
Gore was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which was shared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri (Delhi, India).
[93][94] In the Lecture he delivered on December 10, 2007, in Oslo, fece to the Royal Highnesses of Norway, to the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and to the other ladies and gentlemen, who attended the ceremony for the Nobel prize-giving, he made this surprising statement: Last September 21, as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is "falling off a cliff."
Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as 7 years.In a talk given during March 2008 in Delhi, Gore argued that India, as a leader in information technology, is in a particularly strong position to also lead the way in climate change.
