By now, everyone's heard the news. Al Gore isn't the guy he was in 2000. He's the New Gore -- relaxed, charming, self-effacing, funny. Really funny. Who'd have thunk it?
I'd heard all about the New Gore, of course. I'd even sampled a little bit of NG at a Current TV event I attended in December. And yet, when I snagged a press pass to see Al and his Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim receive the Sir David Attenborough award for Excellence in Nature Filmmaking at the Santa Barbara Film Festival last week, I truly thought I was going to spend the evening listening to a panel discussion featuring a former-vice-president-slash-prominent-environmentalist.
I had no idea I was there to watch a rock star.
Gone were the red power ties and man-of-the-people khakis. Missing were the scripted-into-nothingness sound bites and awkwardly jocular jokes. In their place, the audience got black cowboy boots, a more-NYC-than-DC ensemble, and an earful of complex thoughts about the Enlightenment, the importance of science-driven policy, and of course, the issue that got him on the stage to begin with, climate change.
"This is the challenge of our time, right here and now," he said. "This is the key that unlocks the future of human civilization."
Standing O to that, NG.
Still, the topic that dominated the night was American democracy, which NG believes may be in mortal danger: "It took our country way too long to reach the gag threshold with the Bush-Cheney administration." The culprits? According to Gore, a society-wide disinterest in knowledge and an addiction to television and half-minute sound bites.
It's easy to see why he's not a big fan of TV's quick-fire approach. Like climate change, the essence of Gore -- even New Gore -- is not translatable under narrow time constraints. Witness the ho-hum reception he received every time he dabbled in 30-second speak on the campaign trail.
What a difference an hour-long panel discussion makes. By the end of the evening, the slow-burning fervor of the crowd had built to a molten crescendo. If last year's Attenborough Award recipient, James Cameron, hadn't stepped up to the mike to dole out a statue, I'm convinced the crowd would have either started hauling out lighters to wave or yelling "amen."
Amazingly enough, Authentic Al -- the erudite, fact-loving guy his political handlers sought to suppress for so many years -- is working for him. As is Aw Shucks Al, whose red-faced smile beamed at the floor when Cameron urged him to run in 2008.
But then, during a thunderous standing ovation, he lifted his hand to his face to look out over the crowd, as if trying to read some internal applause-o-meter. In that moment, I couldn't help but think of something he'd said earlier in the night:
"I'm a recovering politician."
Only time will tell whether he meant recovering like Lindsay Lohan or recovering like a front runner.
Climate talks timeline: From 350 to Kyoto to Copenhagen and beyond
Gore on the Daily Show: extended dance remix
Comments
View as Flat
d41295 Posted 4:07 am
07 Feb 2007
Permalink
GreenEngineer Posted 5:55 am
07 Feb 2007
Interviewer: There's something you did not know? Incredible. Is there a burden to being so smart?
Al Gore: That's the exact converse of, "When did you stop beating your wife?" There's no way to answer a question like that without seeming pompous and conceited. I have a battery-powered hubris alarm on my belt. And it's set on vibrate, and it's going crazy.
I thought he handled that incredibly well.
Permalink
GreenEngineer Posted 5:57 am
07 Feb 2007
Global warming is real, and humans are contributing to it. So says the science, and as near to consensus as a body of scientists ever get about anything. Yolanda's point is that, finally, the green movement may just have a charismatic spokesperson for this very important issue. And from the most unlikely quarter, too...
Permalink
d41295 Posted 6:11 am
07 Feb 2007
You wrote:
> Global warming is real, and humans are
> contributing to it. So says the science....
In fact, we know that a combination of anthropogenic and natural forcings are behind the climate of 1860-2006 (IPCC TAR, Tech Summ WG1), but we have less understanding of their relative split. Do you? Can you tell me what percentage of the last century's global warming is due of man, and what percentage is natural? Please include citations to the science you quote.
Permalink
sunflower Posted 6:15 am
07 Feb 2007
Permalink
d41295 Posted 7:52 am
07 Feb 2007
Permalink
Bart Anderson Posted 10:57 pm
07 Feb 2007
Good on him!
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 1:45 am
08 Feb 2007
And I would be very surprised if he is looking to Lindsay Lohan for pointers on how to proceed.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
Permalink