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So why am I usually disappointed when I hear him speak? I think it's because, even now, he's always on message. He lectures. It's getting to the point where I can finish his sentences. Maybe I'm going to too many conferences.
At the Wall Street Journal's eco:nomics conference, Gore said:
"We as a civilization have been slow to recognize the enormity of the climate crisis. It is a genuine planetary emergency."
"This roller coaster is going to crash, and we are in the front car."
"We are getting closer and closer to some trip wires that could set off processes that are irretrievable."
"The Arctic is heating up more rapidly than any other part of the world."
"We have enough solar energy hitting the surface of the earth in 45 minutes equal to the entire energy consumption, for a year, of the world."
All true. All things we've heard from him before. Gore's a really smart guy. Surely he's learning all the time. You'd never know that to hear him talk.
About the only spontaneous moment during Gore's appearance came when he was confronted by climate skeptic Bjorn Lomborg.
"Would you be willing to have a debate with me? " Lomborg asked?
Gore's face seemed to redden a bit.
"I want to be polite with you," he said. Then he got back on message, saying we should be long past the time when we are debating the reality of climate change, or the need to respond to it.
"This process has already started," he said. "The Maldives had a new line item in their budget this year. It was: Fund to buy a new country."
Global Cooling
Unfortunately for Al Gore there is steadily growing body of evidence that proves CO2 has had a minute effect on global warming - and now we are entering a 30-40 year period of cooling.
If this growing body of evidence turns out to be true, Al Gore will have more opportunity to go red in the face.
Either Al Gore is the messiah of modern science as it relates to global warming, or he's a charlatan and point-man for what might turn out to be a modern hoax.
Everyone likes to believe that the climate would not change unless altered by human experience. The fact of the matter is the climate has altered due to natural conditions much greater and much more rapidly than this century.
This does not discount the affect of mankind on climate, but to put it in perspective, a volcano or a minor asteroid hit on the earth's surface will have far more impact than man's CO2 emissions.
Ocean currents change over time, the earth's poles change, the number of sunspots change (ever heard of the Maunder Minimum?).
So we're all hoping for the climate to stay the same, but history shows this isn't the case - with or without man's influence.