RE
I'm thinking of moving to Florida where it is cooler in the Summer. Geesh ... this heat wave is incredible!
Greenland will soon be having a land rush..
Ill Drive..
SPIEGEL Interview With Al Gore
"I'm Already Involved in a Campaign"
Former US vice president Al Gore talks about his documentary "An
Inconvenient Truth," his battle against global warming, and rumors of
his return to politics in the 2008 race for the White House.
UIP
Former US vice president Al Gore on global warming: "A lot of
Democrats are resistant to change on this issue."
SPIEGEL: Mr. Gore, what kind of car do you drive?
Gore: About a year ago we bought a hybrid, but I don't drive very
much. We've changed our entire lifestyle. We made the decision to be
carbon-neutral and eliminate any net CO2 contribution to the
environment. Even "An Inconvenient Truth" was produced in part using
carbon-neutral, alternative energies. Paramount also made the
decision to ensure that the tour and the promotional activities would
be done in a carbon-neutral way.
SPIEGEL: But your noble commitment seems to be just a drop in the
bucket. You keep saying yourself that we only have ten years before
climate change starts to destroy humanity.
Gore: Yeah. Well, I think that we're going to solve the crisis. But
it's going to take a lot of changes quickly.
SPIEGEL: You advertise the movie as "by far the most terrifying film
you will ever see." For Europeans the most terrifying aspect is how
little most Americans seem to know about global warming. How do you
explain that?
Gore: The purpose of the movie and the book is to change that. But as
to why that's the case: The oil companies and the coal companies have
too much influence in the US.
SPIEGEL: And the reason for this influence is that the industries are
so closely connected to the US government? Your successor, Vice
President Dick Cheney, was after all CEO of Halliburton, an oil-
services company.
Gore: Yes. Leadership does make a difference in the way people think.
Bush and Cheney have led us in the wrong direction. But it's also
true that a lot of Democrats are resistant to change on this issue. I
think it has to do with our political history and culture, with
our "frontier mentality," which used to mean striking out for new
horizons and now I think plays into our habit of driving great
distances.
SPIEGEL: The whole American lifestyle is "larger than life." Big
cars, McMansions, air conditioners. Does the way of life have to
change?
Gore: When the United States joins either the Kyoto treaty or a
tougher treaty that may take its place, then people in other
countries who now feel good about what they are doing partly because
it's in such contrast to how badly the US is doing will have to think
twice. Everyone will have to check and make sure they're doing
enough. That's the other reason why it's so important for the US to
join the world community -- so the world can get on with making the
next round of big changes.
ABOUT AL GORE
Albert "Al" Arnold Gore, 58, was Vice President of the United States
under Bill Clinton, from 1993 till January 2001. In November 2000 he
ran for president himself - - and lost a close and controversial race
to George W. Bush. Gore went on to found a TV channel; he also works
as a university lecturer and a financial manager. Above all he
campaigns for the environment, and lately he's put his cause on film.
The documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which shows Gore as an
inexhaustible and surprisingly charismatic Cassandra warning about
climate change, has excited American critics as well as filmgoers.
The movie premieres this week at the Munich Film Festival.
SPIEGEL: With all due respect for your optimism, hasn't the Iraq war
been waged to secure adequate oil supplies for the US?
Gore: The system works more like this, if you look at the overall
pattern: The United States borrows money from China to buy oil from
the Persian Gulf and burn it at home -- in ways that destroy the
planet. That is not good. We need to change all those things.
SPIEGEL: Oil and gas are becoming poker chips in a global power game.
Dick Cheney just accused Russia of blackmailing Ukraine with its
state-owned natural gas monopoly, Gazprom.
Gore: He's right about that, but I don't think he really got
concerned until some of the oil companies started losing contracts in
Russia.
SPIEGEL: Is he still acting like the head of an oil-services
corporation?
Gore: Well, I must warn you that I have begun to fear that I'm losing
my objectivity on Bush and Cheney.
SPIEGEL: Would these problems be easier to solve if the man in charge
were an environmentalist?
Gore: Where are you going with this question?
SPIEGEL: You seem to understand: Will you run for the White House in
2008?
Gore: I'm a recovering politician. I have run four national
campaigns. I have been there and done that. I've found other ways to
serve my country and I enjoy them. When I'm giving my slide show, I
see looks of recognition in the audience, and I hear afterwards how
people are changing their lives because of the slide show or the
movie. I'm fulfilled by that. And I also feel good that I think I'm
making progress.
SPIEGEL: Where do you see this progress?
Gore: I think the change is now underway. Eighty-five conservative
evangelical ministers, long supportive of President Bush, just
announced their opposition to his policies on the climate crisis and
called on their congregations to solve the crisis. Quite a few big
business leaders that have been supportive of Bush, including the CEO
of General Electric, have now broken with Bush over this issue. Two
hundred and thirty cities, many of them with Republican mayors, have
independently ratified the Kyoto treaty. Grassroots organizations in
every state are collecting signatures and organizing. All these
things together make me believe that the message is having an impact.
And there's now another voice in the debate: Mother Nature has spoken.
SPIEGEL: You mean natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
Gore: That was a wake-up call for millions of Americans.
SPIEGEL: Should you have done more about climate change when you were
in the White House?
Gore: Well, I enjoyed being in the Clinton-Gore Administration. I'm
proud of the work we did. I helped to get the breakthrough at Kyoto
and I worked very hard to make changes in US environmental policy.
But it wasn't my administration. I shared in it. And I learned in
that process that the most urgent need in the US is to change the
minds of the American people. Because the politicians, no matter who
they are, no matter if they're environmentalists or not, will be able
to do more or less depending upon how the people feel about the
crisis.
SPIEGEL: Do you want to transform this from a political issue to a
moral one?
Gore: Yes, yes. The civil rights movement in the US began to make
progress when it was redefined as a moral issue. And the climate
crisis should be seen as a moral issue and an ethical responsibility
rather than a poltical issue because the survival of human
civilization is at risk. We only have one planet, we have a common
future, and it's not Republican or Democratic or conservative or
liberal.
SPIEGEL: Some Republicans would call you a tree-hugger who's out of
touch with the problems of middle-class Americans.
Gore: First of all, it's a myth to say as they sometimes do that you
have to choose between the environment and the economy. There are
billions of dollars being made by companies introducing solutions to
this crisis. The old patterns aren't that enjoyable anyway: sitting
in traffic jams, breathing smog. I would like to have light rail
systems and comfortable mass transit. We can improve the quality of
life, create more jobs and raise incomes as we clean up the
environment. Look at the automobile industry: The Republicans and
others have argued that we in the US should have the worst standards
for fuel efficiency in the world in order to help General Motors and
Ford. What's happening to GM and Ford?
SPIEGEL: They're losing market share.
Gore: Yes. And companies that are doing well are companies like
Toyota. Every Prius (hybrid car) they're doing has a long waiting
list.
SPIEGEL: Some big polluters have started to change. You mentioned GE,
and Exxon Mobile has started pushing environmental themes in its ads.
Gore: Exxon Mobile is pretending to say something positive about the
environment. They call it "green-washing." They are the worst of the
opponents when it comes to trying to solve this crisis. They spend
millions of dollars a year to spread false information about global
warming. It's shocking, really. It's what the tobacco companies did
to deceive people about the science connecting smoking with lung
disease. It's the same thing. They should be ashamed of themselves.
SPIEGEL: Who will lead the Democrats in 2008, if you're not
available? Hillary Clinton?
Gore: I don't know. It's too early to tell.
SPIEGEL: Vanity Fair called "An Inconvenient Truth" "maybe the most
important film of the year," and put you on the cover of their "Green
Issue" ...
Gore: ... along with Julia Roberts and George Clooney.
SPIEGEL: And The New Yorker called you "Mr. Ozone," like a superhero.
The Economist believes you're a viable rival to Hillary Clinton.
Don't you feel at least a little bit flattered that everybody
considers you a candidate for 2008?
Gore: Sure. I'm only human. But I'm also old enough now and have been
through enough in politics not to take that very seriously. I'm
already involved in a campaign, but it's not a campaign for a
candidacy, it's a campaign for a cause. And the cause is to change
the minds of people all over the world, especially in the US, about
why we have to solve the climate crisis. If we don't do that, the
rest of it doesn't matter at all. It won't matter how you are
rebembered in the history books if there are no history books. And no
one to read them! (laughs)
SPIEGEL: When did you discover your black sense of humor? After the
2000 election?
Gore: They say a lot of comedy is born of pain. My sense of humor
always benefits from low expectations.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Gore, thank you very much for this interview.
Interview was conducted by Andreas Borcholte and Martin Wolf
service.spiegel.de
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