How Al Gore Used the Environmental Movement to Reincarnate Himself
By Hope Ditto, Political Philosophy Senior Staff Writer
Seven years ago, Al Gore was a popularly elected president without a country. Six years ago, he was an unemployed politician with a beard and a beer belly. Last year, he became a man on a mission. The purpose of his offensive: to save the environment, and by association, the world as we know it.
People claim that Al Gore has exaggerated many outstanding accomplishments over the course of his political career. He has been tagged the inventor of the Internet, the basis of Love Story, and the rightful 43rd President of the United States to name a few. Al Gore may or may not be those things, but there is one thing he is undeniably. No, not the father of the Green Movement or Captain Planet but actually he deserves a moniker more commonly attributed to Bill Clinton: the prodigious comeback kid. Despite political setback after setback, campaign loss after loss, Gore never lost sight of true purpose of politics, to improve the situation in which we live. Though Al Gore always seems to bounce back from his losses, he has never really channeled them into something, not until recently.
Al Gore: Innate Political Avenger
Granted, Al Gore has always been an advocate for social change; he was quite literally born into the role. With a father who served in both the House and the Senate, Gore grew up on the foreground of political revolution in the 1960s. Perhaps this is why he felt for so long that only a politician could make the kind of drastic change he yearned to enact. Gore split his childhood between Tennessee and DC, then moved to Boston to attend Harvard University. Feeling a sort of civic duty toward the country with respect to the situation in Vietnam, Gore enlisted as a military journalist. Following his discharge, he enrolled in divinity school at Vanderbilt University. Though he finished his education and subsequent year of required service, he decided that his future should lie in the secular realm. Eventually he took a position as a reporter at The Tennessean. While he had always enjoyed journalism, it did not fulfill him. Gore said that while he loved being able to expose wrongdoings, he detested not having the power to fix them.
Perhaps it was divine intervention that his local congressman decided to retire at this point when Gore felt a career change was in order, or perhaps it was merely a coincidence. Either way, Gore saw it as an avenue to right the wrongs he saw before his inquisitive eyes. Gore won the seat, and went on to serve three additional terms in the House before securing a Senate seat in 1984.
From the start of his political career, Gore made climate change and the environment his primary agenda. In fact, it was Gore that held the first congressional hearings on the seriousness of climate change in the 1970s, and began his crusade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions shortly thereafter. In the 1980s, he held several congressional hearings on toxic waste and global warming. The issue of climate change was first on his agenda when he launched his presidential campaign in 1988.
Gore’s campaign was short-lived, due in part to a poor showing, but also to family tragedy. His son was nearly killed in a car crash in April of that year, and his resulting recovery process was lengthy. Though Gore was consumed in aiding his son, it was during this time that he began writing his first book, Earth in the Balance. The book, which outlines the world’s ecological predicament and describes the international policies necessary to rectify the situation, became a New York Times bestseller. It also was adapted into much of the narrative of “ An Inconvenient Truth” .
From this point, most people are familiar with Al Gore’s resume. After a second unsuccessful primary campaign, Bill Clinton chose Gore to be his running mate in 1992. Gore became the 45th Vice President that following January. Al Gore capitalized on his position as vice president in order to further his reform efforts. He launched the GLOBE program, an environmental awareness program for schools, and he advocated for the ratification of the Kyoto Treaty. At the end of Clinton’s two terms, it seemed logical that Gore would try for the presidency yet again. And it is almost painful how close he came to succeeding this time around. Yet, knowing now the positive change Gore was able to enact, it is questionable whether he was not better off losing the election after all.
Al Gore: An Inconvenient Loss
Granted, Gore was rather downtrodden the first year after his loss. He disappeared from public light for a time, and when he did reemerge, he had let himself go a bit. It seemed that the comeback kid had finally lost the will to bounce back from defeat. But doubt in Gore was misplaced; evidently he had a much greater future in store than anyone could have predicted.
Perhaps Al Gore realized the intelligence level of the average American after his presidential loss to George W. Bush, or perhaps he simply realized the average laziness level. Either way, his decision to make his second book, An Inconvenient Truth, into a major motion picture will forever be considered a milestone in the Green Movement. Touching the masses that Gore’s writing never could, his direct plea to realize the dire state of affairs effectively inspired a serious lifestyle change both in the US, and around the world.
Since “ An Inconvenient Truth” premiered, the movie has grossed more than 49 million dollars worldwide, making it third-highest-grossing documentary of all time. The documentary has not only made the population more environmentally aware, but it has sparked an interest and passion in the Green Movement unlike anything the world has ever seen. Forget Rachel Carson or John Muir, Al Gore has become the face of the push for environmental change. His subsequent ventures, like the global Live Earth Concert on July 7th and the publication of his third book An Assault on Reason, have proven that Gore is on an upswing in his career. The only question that remains: whether Gore will throw his hat into the ring for the circus of a 2008 Democratic primary we see shaping up.
Gore had always been of the mindset that the only way to create change was to hold a political office. He discovered last year that he could make a much greater impact by simply reaching out to the people. Somehow, the people that he could not make cast a ballot in his favor were paying $10 to hear him lament the grave condition of the environment. More than that, they were really listening to him, though he no longer had any power to make them, and they were following his lead. Gore has realized that he does not need to be a Congressman or President to make a difference; he just needs to appeal directly to the people.
What’s in Store for Al Gore?
Al Gore may not have invented the Internet, he may not have received 270 electoral votes, and he may not have been the inspiration for Love Story (though that one is the most debatable). But one thing no one can deny, Al Gore is an Academy Award winner. No matter all of these discrepancies sprinkled throughout Gore’s public life, no one can deny the movement he has created in the past year. As much as the Green Movement has done for Al Gore as a politician, he has in turn done just as much for the environment. Maybe Al Gore will run for president, or maybe he will not. It does not seem to matter much anymore, considering the power he has as an ordinary citizen.