[Dean's World] Aziz P: Al Gore warms up?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
Al Gore warms up?
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1147640969.shtml


   This is an excellent article in the LA Times about [1]Al Gore's movie
   on global warming. But apart from the fascinating backstory about how
   the project got started, there's some rather poignant reminiscing on
   Gore's political fortunes:

     Throughout the movie, Gore's fall from politics is abundantly
     clear: Looking somewhat chunky and weary, he pulls his own bags
     through airport terminals, and takes off his shoes and empties his
     pockets at security checkpoints.

     Two months into the project, Guggenheim decided it was time to
     address the election.

     They were in a hotel room in Los Angeles, no camera, just recording
     sound. "There was this long, long pause. And then he says, 'Well
     that was a hard blow ... But what do you do? You make the best of
     it,' " Guggenheim recalled. "For a guy who is incredibly articulate
     and will find the nuance in everything, it was hard to find the
     words. You could feel how painful it was for him to remember that
     time. It was devastating."

   Meanwhile, a more speculative piece at WSJ.com argues that Gore in
   2008 [2]is a distinct possibility:

     On stage and in the film, a deadpan Mr. Gore opens, to laughs and
     applause: "I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the
     United States of America."

     Mr. Gore, who turns 60 in 2008, could remain noncommittal and enter
     the presidential fray late, given his fame and fund-raising
     potential -- unlike lesser-known Democrats already stumping in the
     early-nominating states to be the Clinton alternative, such as
     former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, former Virginia Gov.
     Mark Warner, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. If
     Mr. Gore ran -- or were drafted, as Ms. David suggests -- the
     longtime Washingtonian would run as an outsider, Democrats expect,
     helped along by his relationship with Internet-savvy MoveOn.org
     activists.

     There would be no small irony in Mr. Gore re-emerging with a
     crusade against global warming. In 2000, he played down the issue
     he had so long been identified with in Congress, on his
     consultants' advice. They feared the younger Bush, like his father,
     would use the issue to reinforce an image of Mr. Gore as a
     bloodless wonk, and make it a jobs question for voters in swing
     industrial and coal-mining states. "The campaign took this issue
     off the table and robbed him of seeming 'big' and visionary," says
     former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. "I think he
     regrets that."

   My take on this is that the former article pretty much negates the
   latter. The point here is that Gore is doing something outside the
   traditional political realm - the Big Idea ideal for which the
   political system - as he has found - is utterly inadequate to really
   process. Gore seeks to engage the national debate; he ironically can't
   do that from the political pulpit, only the technology and cultural
   one. Not to say he shouldn't - only to say that Gore has found
   something to give his life real purpose, and walking away from that
   only to be sent through the attack wringer all over again is a hard
   sell.

   The RealClimate folks have also [3]weighed in on Gore's new film.
   While they do praise the scientific foundation overall, they do
   fact-check Gore on a few key points. They conclude,

     For the most part, I think Gore gets the science right, just as he
     did in Earth in the Balance. The small errors don't detract from
     Gore's main point, which is that we in the United States have the
     technological and institutional ability to have a significant
     impact on the future trajectory of climate change. This is not
     entirely a scientific issue -- indeed, Gore repeatedly makes the
     point that it is a moral issue -- but Gore draws heavily on Pacala
     and Socolow's recent work to show that the technology is there (see
     Science 305, p. 968 Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate
     Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies).

   Don't miss the discussion that follows in the comment section - as
   always it's a healthy debate. Given their claim that Gore is rumoured
   to be a fan of their site, I wonder if Al will leave a comment on the
   thread? :)

References

   1. http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-gore14may14,0,172184.story?coll=cl-movies-top-right
   2. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114704312621046146-8mcD8Ht0JfmaLbrI3JIqX1VyGyg_20060514.html?mod=blogs
   3. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/05/al-gores-movie/