Al Gore. Do you know or remember
him? In my last post I said I was veering off into the domain of celebrity
environmentalism and penned the post in honor of Angelina Jolie Pitt. In this
post I am continuing with Al Gore. His full name is Albert Arnold Gore Jr.
PERSONAL
PROFILE
Now back to my question in the
foregoing paragraph, asking whether you know or remember Al Gore. Al Gore was
the 45th Vice President of the United States of America from 1993 to
2001. He was President Bill Clinton’s Veep. Al Gore was born on 31st
March, 1948. He was born in Washington D.C. Al Gore is a descendant of Scotch-
Irish immigrants who settled in Virginia and later moved to Tennessee. The
Scotch- Irish were transplanted from Scotland to Ulster, Ireland, and thence USA.
The Scotch Irish immigrants were Protestants, mainly Presbyterians. After President Bill Clinton completed his
tenure as President of the United States of America, the Democrats presented Al
Gore for the presidency of the United States of America, against the
Republican’s nominee George Bush. Al Gore lost narrowly to George Bush (son of
George W. Bush Snr., former President of the United States of America) who
became the next President of the United States of the America after President
Bill Clinton. Before Al Gore became a Vice President of the United States of
America, he served as a congressman from 1977 to 1985, and a senator from 1985
to 1993. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior
advisor to Google. Al Gore was a runner up in Time’s 2007 Person of the Year
Award.
ENVIRONMENTALISM
In 1976 when fresh in congress Al
Gore held the first congressional hearing on climate change and helped organize
hearing on toxic waste and global warming. In 1990 he chaired a conference
intending to create a plan under which industrialized countries could help
developing countries grow economically while preserving the environment- GlobalMarshall Plan. Indeed Al Gore authored a book: “Earth in the Balance: Ecology
and the Human Spirit” in which he brought up the idea of a global Marshall plan
like the Marshall Plan of World War II. Later
in 2003 a group called Global Marshall Plan Initiative was formed. In the late
1990s while still a senator he fought for the passage of the Kyoto Protocol. He
cofounded and chairs a company called Generation Investment Management. It is
an investment company that incorporates into its research sustainability
factors like environmental responsibility- e.g. extracting natural resources
without upsetting an ecosystem. In 2006 Al Gore founded a group called Alliance
for Climate Protection, in July 2011 the group merged with another group, also
founded by Al Gore to form a new group called The Climate Reality Project. Alliance for Climate Protection was
established to inspire civic effort against climate change. Al Gore won the
Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in
2007.
ACTIVITIES:
GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN
- Organizing lectures to raise awareness of environmental matters.
- Through grass root approach environmental issues are disseminated to rally support for solutions.
- Fighting for a fairer world.
- Spreading the idea of environmentally friendly economy.
- Advocating for an all-inclusive global economic development- not developing economies at the fringes.
- Advocating for industrialized countries to transfer clean technologies to the developing countries.
KYOTO PROTOCOL
- Controlling greenhouse gas emissions by humans.
- Set time table for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Stabilization of anthropogenic greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere at a level that should be in harmonious chemistry with the climatic system.
GENERATION INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
- Advocates what it calls Sustainable Capitalism. The background to this ideology is global warming, water shortage, poverty, unfair distribution of wealth, unstable economies etc. that the world finds itself in. The philosophy behind the idea is to bring about a balance in the long term. I dare say a world balance where there is no overutilization or underutilization of resources, nothing wasted.
CLIMATE REALITY PROJECT
- Speed up a global solution to climate issues by making immediate action a pressing need for every level of society.
2007 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARD
- The prize was awarded jointly to Al Gore and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man- made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”
SUMMARY
- Al Gore, a former Vice President of the United States of America is a celebrity environmentalist.
- Through literature and organizations founded or cofounded by him he is spreading environmental issues as a matter of urgency, and sensitizing and harnessing efforts at every level of the society to get the issues solved.
- The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to him jointly, for environmental activism, speak volumes for his efforts in that area.
PARTING SHOT
Al Gore is another celebrity
contributing to global efforts to bring about a clean and balanced natural
environment through spread of awareness, sensitization and consequent attitudinal
change and positive reaction at each and every level of the society.
As an individual, wherever you are,
whatever your stature, you can make a difference. There is a saying which says “Brighten
the corner where you are”. Join Al Gore to get a world that is out of balance
into balance- a clean and balanced natural environment, sustainably.
Reference:
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