Jonathan Leake
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ONCE he was the nearly man of American politics, but this weekend Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s former sidekick, made it clear he was back, no longer just a politician but a phenomenon: the first global green celebrity.
As the Live Earth concerts rolled out around the globe, each blessed with Gore’s presence, either live or on giant screens, it became clear that the failed presidential candidate has metamorphosed into a prophet.
In an interview with The Sunday Times before yesterday’s Live Earth concert at Wembley, the former vice-president revealed that the concerts are only part of a grand excercise whose ambitions are nothing less than the rebranding of climate change.
“The Live Earth concerts are just the opening shot,” he said. “We’re following it with a three-year global campaign to win popular support for reducing emissions.
“What is holding the world back from dealing with global warming is the lack of public understanding.
“If the majority of people here, where there has been so much excellent media coverage of global warming, still don’t accept the scientific consensus, then we need to increase awareness some other way. That is why politicians cannot do anything about it. And that is why we’re doing this concert.”
Live Earth, with concerts in all seven continents including Ant-arctica, is thought to have been one of the biggest coordinated global events in history.
Critics question whether a pop concert, however large, really has the power to make people take climate change more seriously. Others point to deeper contradictions. How, they ask, can an event epitomising global consumerism be a valid way of tackling a problem largely created by the West’s conspicuous overconsumption?
Gore believes that such objections are trivial. “Our team has done a great job in offsetting the emissions we create,” he said. “In any case, how else can we get the attention of the world onto this crisis?”
At the heart of Gore’s hopes for Live Earth’s success are seven climate pledges. These call on supporters to cut their own carbon dioxide emissions; to deal only with companies with similar ideals, and to put pressure on politicians, businesses and other organisations to do the same.
“If we can get just 50%-60% of people to accept the scientific consensus on climate change, then we would make it possible for political leaders to take the strong action we need,” he said.
He is cautious about describing just what kind of action that might be and Gore is unwilling to go too far. “I agree we need to change our living patterns,” he said, “but I think it will be new ideas and technological developments that will make it possible to sharply reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.”
Gore praised Britain for the high profile it had taken in combating climate change, but said its actual record of rising emissions was disappointing.
“Last week there was a Mori poll showing that even in Britain nearly 60% of people do not accept that humans are the main cause of climate change. Those people think, wrongly, that the scientific debate is still raging.
“Britain’s emissions have been rising in recent years. That is just another reason why it is so important to bring about a massive shift in public opinion, so that more pressure is put on politicians.”
The campaign was never meant to be a vehicle for Gore’s political return, but, in many people’s eyes, progress on dealing with climate change, especially in America, is now inextricably bound up with his own political future.
When he accepted defeat by George W Bush in the 2000 pres-diential election, even though he won the popular vote, it seemed that he was finished. But in 2001 he began travelling the world delivering a lecture and slide-show on global warming that he had perfected before becoming vice-president in 1992.
Gore had been obsessed with climate change since he was a student at Harvard in the 1960s. After election to the House of Representatives, aged 28, he held the first congressional hearings into global warming in 1980, and in 1992 he wrote Earth in the Balance, a book setting out the climate change challenge. His lecture, rather than his books or politicking, lies behind his rise to cult status.
That began in 2005 when Lau-rie David, a former comedy producer but now an environmental activist, brought Gore to Hollywood’s Beverly Hilton hotel. Among the audience was Law-rence Bender, producer of Pulp Fiction, who immediately saw the potential. “I thought to myself, this has got to be a movie,” he said.
The result was An Inconvenient Truth, the first film based on a PowerPoint presentation to win an Oscar. It has also turned Gore from a has-been back into a gonna-be who understands the need to maintain momentum.
Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University, believes that Gore is also rebranding himself, using the modern obsession with celebrity to bypass the political process. “Gore has successfully harnessed the appeal of celebrity culture to boost his moral crusade,” said Furedi. In America there are “Draft Gore” websites and a political action committee. When pressed, Gore will say only that although he is reluctant to run again he is “not ruling it out completely”.
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60% of people wrongly believe that the scientific debate is still raging? That is the problem with Gore worshippers. To people like the writer of this article, anyone that doesn't follow the faith haven't accepted the truth. Only problem is, that the majority of the population are not that gullible.
Anita, Melbourne, Australia
You know, it's people. That's the problem. If there were no people on this planet and all that existed were plants and animals there would be no debate. It seems that going green has everything to do with saving the planet and not saving people. When the planet becomes more important than people then I must question, when will I be judged and condemned by the government for not doing my part and being on a low carbon diet.
Bill Brewster, Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
what a load of hot air - "global warming"/"climate change" - the biggest scam of our time - the new "opiate" of the masses.
M Johnson, London,
Big Al is hoping that the people of America demand he become president to save us from the ecoboogeyman of his creation, thereby allowing him to skip those messy primaries. Unfortunately as noted in the above column, he's hitched his wagon to a bunch of phony hollywoood celebrities that each have larger carbon footprints than does Dow Chemical. The average American will see the hypocrisy of someone like Al and Leonardo claiming to believe we are in a crisis while burning more carbon-based energy in their mansions than twenty US households.
Diggs, Colorado Springs, CO
Looks like the "Bushies" are out tonight! Wherever the truth is; there they will be fighting it to the death. Too stupid to realize that the truth cannot be defeated! They snarl and bite while screaming "It's a lie for profit!". Meanwhile their master destroys nations after blatant accusations of those nations prove false! The hypocracy is staggering and so obvious that it could confound Soloman himself. The pure idiocy and desparation of the "right wing blowhards" has revealed itself as a scab on their ass, and his name is George W. Bush!
Chip Lewis, Portland, Oregon
I don't know why so many bloggers all over are so judgemental on Gore and caste such intense aspersions on his efforts. But he is a product of the sixties and seventies generation and in that he is sincere about enviromental issues. How can improving your garden have any down side?
Being human he has mixed this up with his political persona and probably his asperations for public office. But he is offering us awareness of a growing problem as we progressively overpopulate our earth. Anyone who has taken a beginning course in college chemistry and biology or gone camping can see the problem without question. In ways Gore sold out to the establishment before by not being an activist, simply to hold political office. This should tell us something about wasted opportunities and the failure of our government to do anything really productive.
Brian Stewart, los angeles,
IT'S JAZZY, POLITICALLY CORRECT, ROCK STAR, PSUEDO-SCIENCE...PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
Climate change occurs naturally, as it has for millions of years in the past. It will also occur naturally for millions of years into the future! ! !
Droughts, famines, heat waves, ice ages, dust bowl eras...are all parts of our relatively RECENT history!
It's been that way...it will continue to be that way!!!
It's good to reduce pollution in the air...but climate changes will occur regardless of what we do.
The Earth warms...The Earth cools down! Al Gore should go and cool down!
Scaring people into believing that "The End of the World is at hand! Repent ...and pay me lots of money!!!"...ranks right up there...sorry, I meant..
" right down there"...with prostitution, as one of the World's oldest professions.
Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA
Scientific consensus is meaningless if it doesn't comport with the truth. There was a scientific consensus 80 years ago that the continents were immobile. Back then you would have been a "denier" of the "proven" science of static continents if you supported the view that they moved. But guess what, the scientific consensus was meaningless because it was flat out wrong. Al Gore doesn't seem to understand how science really works. He's talking like a politician, not a scientist. He says we have to convince people to go along with the consensus, as if the so-called consensus is some sort of holy revelation ordained by God. It's not. The consensus, to the extent it exists, is an opinion held by fallible human beings. It's no more inviolable than the opinion that continents don't move. If the facts are wrong it's a pointless consensus. Plenty of us don't believe that the evidence presented thus far sufficiently proves the case AGWers are attempting to make. It's that simple.
kcom, Atlanta, USA
Even if you only tell one person you change consciousness.
Think how these simultaneous Live Earth concerts to millions have changed consciousness now and in future generations.
So Be It.
Rich Lampe, Tenino, WA
Thank God for Al Gore!
His actions on the pressing needs of environmental
action will drawf any political concerns.
Linda Shaddock, Texarkana, TX
Gee Al,
I didn't see one single fluorescent stage light only those energy wasting incandescent bulbs. And all the rock stars...jetting to the concert...then the limos toget them to the site.
Do as I say, not as I do,huh Al?
John Urban, Howard Beach, NY
Someone has to tell them the truth, after all there's millions spent by the poluters every year to discredit the truth. I'd rather Al Gore became a billionaire by saving the planet than some oil tycoon stayed a billionaire by destroying it.
Jo Jo was wrong, Portsmouth, Englant
Thanks Al. I guess we the public are just so stupid that we need really smart people like you to spend the next 3 years telling us we are stupid for not supporting your latest investment scam, carbon credits. Boy I guess making you richer and everyone else paying more so you can get richer makes sense.
Jo Jo is Right, Cincinnati, USA
Hmmm, he's been saying we only have 10 years left to do something for 2 years. Shouldn't he be saying 8 years now? Or does get so used to reciting his junk science that he forgets about basic counting?
And did they buy the "offsets" for the concerts from his investment company? If so, Gore will be really green with all the money he's generating. Other than that, he just keeps spewing CO2 flying all over the place. I'll make a pledge that I won't let my carbon footprint for my life grow larger than that of Al Gore's. Heck, I couldn't afford to produce as much CO2 as he happily does on his preaching tours.
Erick, Knoxville,