Opinion
Gore braves the ice to talk global warming
By: Jeff Dufour
Editor at Large/Columnist, "Yeas & Nays"
01/29/09 12:05 AM EST
Al’s pals
Photo: Carrie Devorah
Despite his jokes (“I’m a recovering politician, in about the ninth step”), Al Gore’s tone remained largely serious while speaking on the need to address environmental changes at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday.
Back on familiar territory, the usually bookish Nobel laureate took to the Hill Wednesday for the first time in more than a year to outline several key recommendations to fix what he called “urgent and unprecedented” environmental challenges, warning that “our home-Earth-is in grave danger.”
A glance outside at the weather might have been evidence for some skeptics looking to prove the former vice president wrong (they’ve taken to referring to “The Gore Effect,” in which cold and snow invariably accompany Gore’s talks on climate change).
But Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was ready for them. “I speak for everyone on this committee when I tell you how much we appreciate your appearing before us in what passes down here for tough winter weather. And to the naysayers and deniers still out there, let me add: a little snow in Washington does nothing to diminish the reality of this crisis.” Proving that he and Gore have more in common than being presidential nominees who lost to Bush (“Al and I have a certain political experience in common,” he said) Kerry made his own environmental suggestions, specifically to reevaluate the Kyoto Protocol in the immediate future.
And yes, just like in his Academy Award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore have his presentation in the form of a slide show, complete with flashy animation and graphics. One poignant video showed a researcher in Antarctica light an exposed pocket of methane, an effect of negative carbon emissions. The pocket let out a stream of fire and erupted uncontrollably next to the researcher’s face. “She’s okay” Gore said calmly, “but the question is, ‘Are we?’”
Gore was unanimously well-received by the bi-partisan committee, and not only for a persuasive and educational presentation. As the discussion came to a close, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told him, “I enjoyed your sense of humor.”
Gore replied, “I benefit from low expectations.”
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