Al Gore presents ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ for UM’s Lecture Series
By Charity Vergara
The program reads “An Evening with the Honorable Al Gore” and I immediately shove it in my purse. As a second-generation Cuban, I’m liberated enough to attend such an event, but not progressed enough to appreciate it-- and thus came the ignorant comment, “Ha! The honorable Al Gore!” Suddenly, I felt heat-vision rays burning my back as I turned around to face a stadium full of supporters flaring their nostrils at me and I realized, “…I should probably let go of my preconceptions and pay attention here.”
Let me tell you, paying attention to Al Gore really pays off. He’s on the board of directors for Macintosh computers, he recently won the Oscar® for ‘Best Documentary’, his daughter works for Matt Groening, he ran for president and almost won, he was Bill Clinton’s Vice- President for two terms, he’s genuinely religious (and open-minded! What a conundrum!), as well as a man on a mission. I can now admit that Al Gore definitely deserves his program’s title.
And the man can speak! Gore knows how to gently deliver doomsday-type messages with class and humor. He can knock down Bush’s entire regime within two words and move on so quickly that once the audience delivers its delayed applause it’s so loud he has to stop and chuckle to himself. I used to get the impression that Gore was a ‘Sore Loserman’ (Bush campaign ’04) when he continuously demanded “a recount!” But now I see that his wanting the presidency was not a selfish, single-minded desire. I now get the impression that Gore is a man moved by divine inspiration. I am moved by Gore’s purpose and I wish he would run for president in ’08 although he clearly stated he wouldn’t because he’s “dedicating [his] time to something different.”
A quick rundown of his lecture: the world is heating up due to a monoxide called CO2 being trapped in the atmosphere. CO2 is what cars exhale, the hot air that is basically digested oxygen. The sun sends rays everyday, a third of which the earth does not absorb. In past times that radiation would disperse through the atmosphere and into outer-space. However, due to the CO2 (a.k.a. “big bad greenhouse gases” as in the Groening-produced mini-cartoon) the remaining heat becomes trapped in the atmosphere causing the build up and thus creating global warming (this is the ‘The Greenhouse Effect’ explained).
Of all the 928 scientific articles on Global Warming ever published, none have disagreed with this. Thus, Gore wants Americans to know that there is no controversy about global warming. It is, indeed, a fact. Another interesting fact is: of the 652 or so news articles on this ever published, 53% have disagreed that global warming is a fact. Gore says ‘we need to get some better reporters out there’ and again he had to stop and chuckle to the roaring applause.
Already the Chad lake in Africa (the 6th largest lake in the world) has dried up, adding to the desperation in Darfur, Sudan, and Niger sending its refugees to search for fresh water and causing many to die (besides the existing genocide in these areas). Plus, the penguins and the Polar bears will all be ten thousand leagues under the sea once the ice bergs melt away (which has already started). Not to mention there won’t be any of the fish we eat today by 2050 if we continue fishing at the rate we do now. And by 2050 Miami will be under water if Greenland’s ice sheets melt.
The United States is the world leader for the production of CO2 gases and to top that off we’re also one of the only countries to not sign the Kyoto treaty for the prevention of global warming and the salvaging of natural resources. But we Miamians can all feel proud because as an independent city we have signed the Kyoto treaty! But why hasn’t the US signed? Hurricane Katrina was caused by warmer waters in the Atlantic than ever before and we even had hurricanes in the Greek alphabet up to Zeta because of the warmer climate. These hurricanes caused so much heartache and disaster to our country. There is no moral or logical reason for our country to remain ignorant about this issue. When George Bush sr. was president, Gore persuaded him to have a global warming discussion in the White House. On the program was an image of an old-time balance beam where a few gold bars weighed as much as the entire planet. The image represented the economy’s importance in comparison to the earth. Funny we’d place gold bars on the same level as the whole planet because, “if the whole planet ceased existence where would we put our gold?” Gore stated. “When we could make more gold by saving the earth!”
The main argument against global warming is that it runs in cycles (as if the earth simply inhales and exhales), the difference this time is that we’re already past the point where we should be returning to cold weather again. Since the 1400s we’ve been continuously rising in CO2 levels. In fact, Gore presented so much support for his thesis that it’s nearly impossible to recap it all. Thus I’ll close with this:
The closest English translation to Gandhi’s favorite phrase is “truth force”. This came up during the short Q&A that followed Gore’s lecture. A UM student asked, “What should today’s youth do to help?” and Gore answered, “become your own ‘truth force’,” research and develop a passion for [your cause] and once you’re knowledgeable enough to discuss it wisely, you will be more than equipped to help. And imagine, if we do this for more than just global warming, for such things as peace policies and economic prosperity, we can be the greatest generation to ever exist. As Churchill said, “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.” It’s our time to act. Become your own ‘truth force’ now! Please visit www.AlGore.com.