Al Gore

Clinton and Gore, fox and hedgehog

Bill Clinton gave the keynote address at the conference. That means I got to see Gore and Clinton within a few hours of one another, and wow, what an interesting contrast. Isaiah Berlin famously divided thinkers into two categories, hedgehogs and foxes. The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows a lot about one thing. […]

Gore: What we can learn from the ozone hole

Kelly Fergusson, mayor of Menlo Park, Calif. ("investment capital of the world!"), asks: we’ve overcome huge environmental challenges like DDT and the ozone hole before. What can we learn from those successes? First, Gore causes me to do a double take by saying that his mother used to read to he and his sister from […]

Gore: Population one of the causes of climate change, but not one of the policy solutions

Sue Greenwald, mayor of Davis, Calif., asked a question that becomes inevitable when more than one environmentalist is in the room: does "population control" have any role in the climate movement? People laughed nervously. Gore immediately said, courteously but firmly, that if you go to developing countries using the term "population control," they’re going to […]

Gore: no more coal plants without sequestration

Mayor Mark Stodola of Little Rock, Ark., asked Gore squarely about coal. He said that his city’s electrical rates had been rising, but that a new coal plant opening soon was going to lower the bills. Naturally, my ears perked up. Gore said coal is where "the rubber meets the road." We have enough coal […]

Gore: It’s not Kyoto but its successor that needs political support

Tallahassee Mayor John Marks stood to introduce himself and Gore said dryly, "I spent a lot of time there." Marks: "I wasn’t mayor then!" He asked Gore how to influence Congress to adopt Kyoto. Gore’s answer was, I think, fairly savvy. In essence, he said that the Kyoto "brand" is tarnished, probably beyond rehabilitation, and […]

Gore: carbon credits and offsets a good thing if used responsibly

Joy Miller of Hallandale Beach asked Gore about carbon credits and offsets — "buying our way out of the problem." You won’t be surprised to hear that Gore’s answer was wonky and careful and came in parts. He said credits are a “good thing” if the standards and information are in place to validate their […]

Gore addresses mayors via satellite

Sorry I wasn’t able to do my signature live-blogging today — there was no wi-fi at the Edgewater, or rather, they had wi-fi you had to pay for, and I’m cheap. Plus we left mid-day to go see Clinton’s address, and there wasn’t wi-fi at Benaroya Hall either. When oh when will Seattle get municipal […]

Should Gore get arrested protesting coal?

It’s a little sketchily sourced, but according to Mark Hertsgaard Al Gore is “considering” joining the Rainforest Action Network in some direct action protest against coal plants — which could well result in his arrest. Hertsgaard thinks it would be a good thing: If Gore did end up getting arrested during a protest against a […]

Gore, partisanship, and climate change

A Gore conservatives could love? Photo: Eric Neitzel/WireImage. One of the stranger things I sometimes read about Al Gore is that because he is so partisan, because he turns off a certain bloc of the U.S. public, he is flawed as a leader on climate change. Surely the issue deserves a prophet that’s not so […]