Gore (Green is the New Black)

Not since former President Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize have I been so interested in the esteemed award's recipient, but when word started to come out last week that former Vice President Al Gore was a front runner, a smile ran to my face. Then today it was announced that Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were the winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Al Gore's recent work on the unique and gathering threat of a worldwide climate crisis and what we, as humans, can do to slow or maybe reverse it's current trajectory reinforces what I firmly believe. Al Gore is more focused, and powerful, outside of elected office than in it. Gore has been a passionate environmentalist longer than he has been in the national spotlight. His book "Earth in Balance" (1992) remains one of my favorite environmental texts. It's right up there with "The Lorax". Though they did manage to defend the air we breath, the water we drink, and the land on which we live from industrial and downright Anti-environmental attacks, the Clinton Administration didn't do much on the Offense when it came to environmental or energy policy. I don't blame Al Gore completely for this, but it was very disappointing at the time. Now that his attention is focused back on his passion and not in all the directions the Number 2 man in the free world is pulled, he is much more effective.

That being said, with few detractors, Al Gore has been and remains on the forefront of environmental science and more specifically global warming, or as he likes to call it "the coming climate crisis". The Academy Award winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" (see link to the left) chronicles a touring slide show on the subject that Gore had presented for years before movie cameras showed up. He co-founded Generation Investment Management which invests in sustainability research and sustainable development, proving that environmental policy does not have to be at odds with economic policy. His success has been instrumental in what looks to be somewhat of a ground swell of a new "green" movement. His Live Earth concert was an important part of a recent greening of big ticket concerts. Simple ideas like volunteers manning the "compost, recyclable, and landfill" cans and compostable beer cups made from corn or sugar cane make the foot print of festival concerts that much smaller. His carbon calculator calculates how big your carbon foot print is and gives you options on how you can offset it. With the change of a light bulb or having one vegan day a week he and his instruct us how little changes made by many can make a difference.

Why so many don't want to make simple changes that would reduce our dependency on foreign oil, reduce the pollution we breathe, reduce the cost of their electric bill and the cost they pay at the pump is beyond me. I guess changing or even questioning the current environmental or energy policy is anti-american left wing nutty liberal craziness, even if it does sound a lot like common sense. It is good to see more and more talking and acting "green". Maybe it really is the new black.

Heckuva job Al! Keep doing what you're doing. And don't run for president.