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et us into these problems, what these problems are, and what we can do to solve them. He is a hero to me because he is one of the only people working hard to fix our environmental problems, no matter what people say about him. He knows that the health of our planet has been overlooked and needs to be a priority today, and he has been working hard to get that message out to the public. “Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.” (nobleprize.org). Al Gore is a contemporary environmental activist. He was born three years after World War 2. He was born into a high-class life, since his dad was a member of the U.S. Congress. He served in the Vietnam War as a journalist. (rense.com). He is now working to spread awareness about our current negative influences on the environment. The public began to become aware of environmental concerns like air, water, and herbicide pollution, diminishing energy resources, and radiation when Al was growing up. (history.sandiego.edu). Albert “Al” Gore Jr. was born on March 31, 1948 in Washington DC. His parents were Pauline LaFon Gore and Albert Gore Sr., who was a U.S. representative from Tennessee at that time. He and his sister, Nancy LaFon Gore, were raised partly on the family farm in Tennessee, and partly in Washington DC. Gore recalls, “Since my childhood summers on our family’s farm on Tennessee, when I first learned from my father about taking care of the land, I have been deeply interested in learning more about threats to the environment.” (Gore, p. 8). He went to St. Albans School, a private school in D.C., from 1956 to 1965. He met Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson, “Tipper”, at his senior prom, and married her five years later. Gore attended Harvard University in 1965. He began to major in English until 1967, when he took a climate science class that had a strong impact on him. “…I studied under a truly remarkable scientist, Professor Roger Revelle, who was the first person to propose measuring CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere.” Gore turned his studies in the direction of environmental concerns, yet when he took a course on politics in 1968, he decided to change his major to government. (nytimes.com). In 1969, he graduated with a degree in government. The same year, Al Gore was drafted into the U.S. military. One year after he married Tipper, he was sent to Vietnam to be a journalist in 1971. He was very against the Vietnam War, but had to go anyways. When he came back, he spent a year at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Tipper later said that it was a time of purification for him. (dir.salon.com). His daughter, Karenna Aitcheson Gore, was born in 1973. Gore worked for “The Tennessean” as a reporter. (cgi.cnn.com). He also studied at Vanderbilt University Law School, until he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, to fill his father’s former seat. Besides the importance he stressed on climate change, Gore promoted the following issues: completely paying off the national debt in 15 years, keep up economic prosperity, fighting terrorism, global growth, gun control, social security, tax cuts for working families and small businesses, and to fund biotechnology. (usgovinfo.about.com; knowthecandidates.org). Gore was in the Congress for a total of 17 years. He served in both the House and the Senate. While he was in the House of Representatives, Gore organized the first congressional hearing on global warming and invited professor Revelle to be a witness. (Gore, p. 40). He was surprised to discover that his congressional colleagues showed so much disinterest in the topic. As a senator, he continued to have difficulty getting the urgent message across. He made several attempts during his terms. (Gore, p. 40). In 1988, Gore had his first presidential run. Unfortunately, Michael Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. In April 1989, young Albert Gore III ran across the street and was hit by a speeding car. He was quickly taken to a hospital and luckily his life was saved. That incident had a major impact on Al Gore’s life. He reset his priorities so that he could focus on what mattered the most to him: his family and the environment. During his son’s recovery, Gore wrote his first book on the environment, “Earth in the Balance”. (Gore, p. 70). His book made the New York Times bestseller list. (hawes.com). On July 10, 1992, Al Gore officially became Bill Clinton’s running mate. Clinton said that he selected Gore because of his experience with foreign policy and the environment, and his commitment to his family. (query.nytimes.com). They won the election, and the Clinton-Gore administration lasted for 8 years. Professor Greenberg from Rutgers University thought that they really improved the U.S. economy. “Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged.” (slate.com). Al Gore ran for president again in 2000. He might have won, but the controversial Florida election count showed that George W. Bush was the victor. The Florida recount was double-checking the count, but it was brought to a halt by a Supreme Court ruling. There were rumors that he might run again in 2004 and 2008, but they were false. (newsweek.com). Al Gore has been an environmental activist for the past couple of years, and still is today. He has given many lectures and presentations worldwide on the facts and ideas presented in his book, “An Inconvenient Truth”. (buffalo.edu). The book won an Academy Award in 2007. Gore is currently working on many environmental projects, most of them focusing on global warming. It is his great involvement in environmental issues that makes him admirable to me. Al Gore is working to make the Earth a better place for all of us. His current projects include The Climate Project, Generation Investment Management, The Alliance for Climate Protection, the “We Can Solve It” organization, and his book and movie, which are both titled “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It”. The Climate Project is a nonprofit organization for whose goal is to raise the awareness of people around the world about global warming. (theclimateproject.org). Volunteers trained by Al Gore present a slide show on climate change to audiences worldwide. The project was initiated in June 2006. In only two years, the presentations have reached a total of two million people. (theclimateproject.org). The presentations continue to be given today. The Generation Investment Management was founded by Al Gore and David Blood. The firm does research on “…global change, including climate change and environmental degradation; macroeconomics, poverty and development; water and natural resource scarcity; pandemics and healthcare; and demographics, migration and urbanization.” (generationim.com). The Alliance for Climate Protection’s objective is to educate people about the importance of finding and using solutions to global warming. They try to reach all different people worldwide without discrimination. The “We Can Solve It” organization is an online program whose goal is to increase the awareness of global warming. It airs television commercials, and encourages the government to do more to help the environment, and the press to give more attention to the climate change. (wecansolveit.org). It is an international movement, but it is mainly focused in the United States. (wecansolveit.org). Al Gore faced struggles when trying to get his fellow congressmen to realize the importance of global warming. In his book, “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore says that he thought that Professor Revelle could get the message across to them when he invited him to speak at the first congressional hearing on global warming. “I really believed that my congressional colleagues on the committee would experience the same epiphany I had when they heard this great scientist’s clear analysis. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The urgency simply didn’t come across. This surprised and disappointed me. I’d seriously underestimated the resistance—and disinterest—this alarming prognosis of global warming would meet. It wasn’t the last time I would have this experience. I encountered a similar difficulty when I became a senator and chaired numerous hearings and science roundtables. I ran into it again when some of my colleagues and I failed to pass legislation to cap carbon dioxide emissions. I encountered it in 1987 and 1988 when I first ran for president—in part to gain more attention for this issue—and had great difficulty making it a central focus in the American political dialogue. I experienced it again as vice president when I tried to persuade Congress to pass bold measures to solve the climate crisis, and when I tried to convince the U.S. Senate to ratify the Kyoto Treaty that I helped to write. And I still run into it today.” (Gore, p.40-41). He has been criticized for the massive amount of energy his home consumes. What they don’t say is that all of the electricity in his home comes from green power. (mediamatters.org). He chooses to pay a lot extra to lessen carbon pollution. The Associated Press reported that Gore “has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly.” (findtarget.com). Al Gore’s contributions have earned him many awards. He won most of them in 2007. These include the Nobel Peace Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award, an Academy Award for “An Inconvenient Truth”, the Gothenburg Prize for Sustainable Development, and the Sir David Attenborough Award for Excellence in Nature Filmmaking. (thelocal.se). Character traits of his that I would like to emulate are mainly his concern, and willingness to act upon the environmental problems. I want to have a positive effect on the environment. Another thing that I like about him is that when he talks about environmental problems, he also talks about solutions. He doesn’t just complain and say that “we’re doomed” like some other do. He presents what the problems are, what caused them, and what—not only big companies, but also every individual—can do to help. Some articles about global warming can leave the reader feeling hopeless and fearful, because they only list the problems and how bad they are. Yet it seems to me that the most effective way to present a problem and provoke a positive change is to also suggest possible solutions. In his book, “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore gives numerous suggestions of every-day things we can do to help solve the climate crisis. There are 16 pages at the end of his book with many suggestions. (Gore p. 305-321). One thing that disappoints me about Al Gore is that he does consume a lot of energy with his big house and private jet. I personally would walk my talk and be as environmentally friendly as possible. I have read that he uses 100% renewable energy for his house and boat, and he says that he uses renewable energy credits to counterbalance the pollution given off by his jet. (mediamatters.org, usatoday.com). Some people don’t think that the latter is correct. (usatoday.com). Hopefully it is really true. I have wanted to help clean up the environment sine I was very young. Whenever I heard that there was an oil spill, plastic was killing aquatic animals, forests were being demolished, or that a dam was killing fish, I felt like it was obvious that someone should do something about it. I decided at a very young age that I wanted to help somehow. Now that I am older, my hypothesis that no one was paying enough attention to the environmental damage seems to be correct. I was really happy when I found out that Al Gore has been doing what I have been wanting many people to do: raise awareness about the harm we’ve been afflicting on the environment, and to propose solutions. He is my hero because he is doing what I wanted to do. I am planning on studying environmental engineering in college. I want to improve existing environmentally friendly devices, like windmills, and/or invent new ways to harness renewable energy. Hopefully I can have an effective impact on people and the environment like Al Gore has. Bibliography 1. Gore, Albert. An Inconvenient Truth. New York, NY: Rodale, 2006. 2. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/press.html 3. http://www.al-gore-2004.org/gorebiography/albio.htm 4. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DB133DF933A25754C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print 5. http://www.theclimateproject.org/aboutus.php 6. http://www.algore.com/ 7. http://liveearth.org/ 8. http://www.generationim.com/ 9. http://www.rense.com/general4/vietgore.htm 10. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/nature/environ5.html 11. http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062100wh-gore.html 12. http://dir.salon.com/story/politics/feature/2000/07/07/born_again/print.html 13. www.hawes.com/1992/1992-11-29.pdf 14. http://www.slate.com/id/2183941/pagenum/all/#page_start 15. http://www.newsweek.com/id/77828 16. http://www.buffalo.edu/greener_ub/gore.html 17. http://www.wecansolveit.org/ 18. http://www.thelocal.se/9742/20080123/ 19. http://mediamatters.org/items/200806190012?f=h_latest 20. http://findtarget.com/CNN.php?/2007/POLITICS/12/13/gore.home.ap/index.html 21. www-cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/candidates/democrat/gore/ 22. http://usgovinfo.about.com/blgore2.htm 23. http://www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/gore.htm 24. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm less