When I heard that Liberal Drinker, incredibly dedicated campaign worker, and survivor of the Purple Tunnel of Doom, Atul Shah, went to Boston to see Al Gore I asked him (through my wife) to write something up about his visit, which he was nice enough to do. Gore was in Boston to talk about climate change. Atul’s report follows:
Before Al Gore’s talk, a very small number of protesters, mostly global warming deniers, were gathered outside holding up signs and handing out propaganda. One sign, held by a man and his son, read “Coldest winter in years. Record lows. Where is your Global Warming now?” One man, probably in his thirties, tried to hand me some “literature” (a.k.a. propaganda); when I asked him if he was a global warming denier, he used the euphemism “truther” to describe himself, saying that he didn’t deny that the planet is warming, but he didn’t accept (what is almost unanimously the consensus of mainstream scientists) that it is caused by human activity.
Inside, it appeared that most of the seats in the Wang theatre were filled – although I did notice some empty seats in the orchestra pit (where I had a second row seat approximately 10 feet away from Mr. Gore’s lectern which was just about directly in front of me). The face value of tickets for these seats was $200 (with other charges, the total was $221), and as I found out after the fact (unfortunately), entitled ticket holders entrance to a pre-talk meet-and-greet reception and photo-op with the man who should have been our 43rd President.
The format of the event was for the former Vice President to give a brief talk, followed by a sit down question and answer session with a reporter from the Boston Globe (I can’t remember her name). The account to follow is off the top of my head, may contain some inaccuracies, and is far from an exhaustive description of all of the issues discussed.
After a brief introduction by a couple of speakers, Mr. Gore came out to a standing ovation and loud cheering and applause. He then spent perhaps 15-20 minutes speaking eloquently, often interrupted by applause, about the many crises we currently face as a nation and world. The key issues he discussed were the environmental, economic, and security threats. He explained how all three were tied to our current carbon-based energy economy. At one point during his talk, he mentioned his belief that the Iraq war was the single biggest foreign policy mistake in our nations history; this obviously drew loud applause. In articulating the goal of switching to a renewable infrastructure (I believe he mentioned a preferred time horizon of ten years), he invoked President Kennedy’s call in 1961 to send a man to the moon and bring him back. Mr. Gore compared the many critics currently dismissing calls for switching to renewables to those in the 1960s who said sending a man to the moon couldn’t be done. In pointing out that within eight years, JFK’s vision was accomplished, he also mentioned that the average age of the scientists working on that mission was 26, meaning that they were just in their late teens when the goal was initially set. The obvious analogy being that we have many young, idealistic citizens ready to take on our current challenges. In one of his more powerful statements regarding how we deal with climate change, he pondered whether future generations would look back on us and ask themselves “what were they thinking?”, or, preferably, “where did they find the moral courage?”, and he called upon everyone to help get the message out about the crisis we face.
The sit down question and answer session lasted a little over an hour and was of a casual conversational format, with both Mr. Gore and the interviewer sitting in a mock living room setting. There was a range topics discussed, including some issues found in “The Assault on Reason” and “An Inconvenient Truth”. When asked if he thought that, having been denied the Presidency, perhaps he has been able to have more impact through his projects since leaving government, Mr. Gore indicated his belief that there is no more powerful office than the U.S. Presidency when it comes to being able to have an impact. Among the topics, there was some discussion of the dismal state of newspapers and print media. While indicating that the days of the newspaper as we know it are numbered, Mr. Gore expressed optimism that a new model for journalism will eventually emerge. As an analogy, he reminded everyone how Napster’s original threat to the recording industry eventually led to the iTunes model where users are willing to pay a reasonable price for legal downloads. Additionally, to put things in perspective and illustrate how quickly society can change and adapt with technology, he mentioned that when he and President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, there were only 50 websites on the internet. Similarly, he referred to a book written by Bill Gates in the 1990s in which the internet wasn’t mentioned even once. At one point when talking about the general problem of an uninformed electorate, Mr. Gore mentioned that the average person now spends eight hours a day in front of a screen of some sort (e.g. computer, TV, etc.) and that the average time spent in front TV every day is some obscene number (was it 4?). He remarked how we humans can’t help but be distracted by the motion on a TV screen – we have been evolutionarily programmed to react to such cues. With some humor, he pointed out that if we played tennis for that many hours every day, our muscles would be well-exercised; he then rhetorically asked what that many hours of watching TV would exercise. Another question asked by the interviewer was in regard to climate change and whether we already may be past the so-called “tipping point”. In responding that it’s not to late to act, he did mentioned that we probably won’t get back to normal in our or our childrens’ lifetimes, but that it could happen within our grandchildrens’ lifetimes.
When asked about his opinion of President Obama’s handling of the economic crisis thus far, he had positive things to say, but also reminded everyone that Obama has only been in office for two months and has a lot on his plate. Regarding the economy, the interviewer asked Mr. Gore his thoughts about the future of capitalism, given the current crisis. His response was that both the Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” were written in 1776, and both have been important to the development of our country. While articulating his view that capitalism has led to much innovation and has generally worked for us, he pointed out that regulation is necessary for its proper functioning. There were a number of other topics touched upon which I can’t think of at the top of my head.
All in all, it was an excellent event – well worth the $221 I spent for my ticket (although I do wish I had known that I could have gone to the meet-and-greet reception). Mr. Gore showed himself to be an extremely knowledgeable, articulate, humorous and intelligent individual who would (and should) have made a great 43rd President. It boggles the mind to think how things would be today if it weren’t for the butterfly ballot!
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