| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
30 May 2006 10:45:03 AM |
| Object: |
Gore in Hay climate change plea |
Gore in Hay climate change plea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/5028470.stm
Gore said it was not too late to stop the catastrophe
Former US vice-president Al Gore owned up to failing to get his
climate change message across as a politician when he appeared at the
Hay Festival.
In his first UK speech on the subject, Mr Gore promised to devote
himself to the task of warning people about the impending "planetary
emergency".
He appealed to the audience to act to halt the growing crisis.
"I will own up to shortcomings in my ability to communicate," said Mr
Gore, who ran against President Bush in 2000.
"But I'm not through with this yet and I am devoting myself to it".
Mr Gore was the key note speaker of the 19th Hay Festival on the
mid-Wales border.
There are more than enough people here to really change the world.
Al Gore speaking at Hay
Five years ago Bill Clinton spoke at Hay on his many roles in conflict
resolution.
But Mr Gore, fresh from an appearance at the Cannes film festival,
delivered a starker message that the world was now facing a "danger
which could bring the end of civilisation."
A documentary which premiered at Cannes, An Inconvenient Truth, is
based on lectures Mr Gore has been delivering about environmental
crisis for many years.
He was asked by a member of the Hay Festival audience to run for
president again.
But Mr Gore replied: "I honestly believe that the role I can most
usefully play is to try to change the minds of the American
people...about what this crisis is about."
He said addressing the issues around climate control were "on the
agenda in 2000 but was never seen and heard as an issue worthy of the
top rank of consideration".
Mr Gore said global warming was seen as an "arcane" issue with more
than half the US media denying there was any problem and his opponent
"pledged to regulate CO2 - a pledge not broken until after the
inauguration".
Gore said he used to be "the next president of the US"
In a passionate speech, Mr Gore said: "We face a challenge in the
conversation of democracy that we must be up to in order to save the
climate balance on which our civilisation depends."
He said he believed scientists who said that there may be 10 years
remaining to avoid "crossing the point of no return".
"Then does that change you? It should, it's happening on our watch,"
said the former vice-president.
He said he was "carbon neutral" himself and he tried to offset any
plane flight or car journey by "purchasing verifiable reductions in
CO2 elsewhere".
He said the only way to bring about the change was "a sea change in
the public's understanding and opinion".
"The only way that political leaders of all parties will find the
courage for the bold actions that are needed."
Mr Gore was given a standing ovation by the audience whom he begged
"to make the changes in your own life to make your part of the
solution (to the problem)".
He said: "There are more than enough people here to really change the
world.
"I hope that many of you will accept and act on that - so much is at
stake."
--
"Science is the record of dead religions." -- Oscar Wilde
"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to
whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is
impossible." -- Jack Vance
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
