Al Gore: environmental president?
The possible Nobel Laureate needs a second run at the top office.
Feb 12, 2007
Al Gore has come a long way from the election of 2000. He went from being the butt of late-night-sketch-comedy jokes to a worldwide phenomenon. He is responsible for the beginning signs of a paradigm shift that is long overdue. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and no one deserves it more. His environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," (www.climatecrisis.net) came out in May of 2006, but Gore has been giving his lecture about climate change for over twenty years. The oscar-nominated film is shocking, even to those people who know how polluted and sick the planet really is. No one can argue with the photos of Mount Kilimanjaro. Ten years ago, it was a snow-capped mountain. Now, it has a few lumps of snow and looks dead and brown. There is no other cause for the temperature increase. Human beings and our senseless greed and rampant overpopulation are just a speck in the planet's total history, yet we have managed in that time to attempt to destroy it with our Hummers, cigarette butts (the most polluted item on earth) and suburban sprawl.
Gore as president would have the weight of the most powerful nation on earth behind him. If the United States threw everything it had into reducing emissions, cutting down on waste, combatting pollution and finding alternative power sources, we could lead the world by our example.
Gore has said that he doesn't want to run for president. He insists that he can affect more change as a private citizen. He has affected change as a civilian, but the United States government has so many more resources at its disposal than Gore has alone. The world scrutinizes the United States and its actions. It is true that the USA is not the only country that dumps greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. All industrialized nations are responsible. But the leaders of those countries look to the United States to set an example. The current president has done absolutely nothing to benefit the planet. He looks out for his oil interests and not much else. His interests in corporate wealth have not only helped pollute the earth, but have started completely useless wars and killed thousands upon thousands of people.
Gore should run for president because it is the right time. He should take back what was stolen from him. There is an online petition to "draft" him (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algore2008) that has already received over 31,000 signatures. He has opened the eyes of millions of people. How many people alive today can say that they affected a worldwide shift in thinking? The country needs someone with vision and purpose leading it. That person should be Al Gore.
