New York November 2, 2007. Now Ban Ki Moon can count upon former Vice President, Al Gore, as United Nations' most invaluable asset in its war on global warming. Not because, Gore has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize, jointly with the UN's Science body, IPCC but because, he has made his views public on this global organization, of which Ban Ki Moon is the Secretary General.
It is now Al Gore's unflinching faith that the United Nations is the only appropriate forum to address the crisis that our planet is faced with and this assures the victory of the global war on global warming. In his speech in the 24th September Climate Summit held at the UN headquarters in New York, Al Gore told the gathering of 80 heads of state and government that it was now the time for action. "I would like to propose that the heads of the state around the world call an emergency session of this gathering in the beginning of next year to review the results of the Bali Summit," insisted Al Gore.
Al Gore deeply feels that mankind is faced with a planetary emergency, which requires very urgent attention. He, therefore, suggests that the discussions, deliberations and decisions shall be carried on at the Summit levels, rather than at the ministerial or bureaucratic level. He reiterated this stand in his Berlin Speech on October 23, 2007 when he unambiguously endorsed UN supremacy as the organizer of a concerted battle. "World leaders should meet in January under the auspicious of UN to act on the results of the Bali Talks," he said.
These are the indications that Al Gore has taken upon himself a new role of motivating and galvanizing the world leaders to combat global warming in a concerted manner and that, too, under the leadership of the United Nations. It is, therefore, imperative that the world body facilitates this move by Al Gore.
And this role much bigger than the role; he has already played as a motivator, which won him many accolades, par excellence, including the 2007 Nobel Prize. Whether in politics, in power or out of power, Al Gore has always been a climate activist. Media has rightly called him a climate warrior. Additionally, he is a great motivator. He is preparing humanity to fight the global warming. Al Gore was the first American Politician in Congress who organized the Congressional hearing in 1980 on the subject.
He gathered scientists and put them in touch with the politicians to let the scientific truth become a part of political decision-making. As the Vice President in the Clinton Administration, he worked on the implementation of the Carbon Tax. This tax was meant to give incentives to the industry to cut down the use of fossil fuels to lessen the emission of greenhouse gases. He also facilitated the funding of a satellite named Triana, launched to study the atmosphere. But his real opportunity came in 1997.
The second report by IPCC had been released in 1995. The urgency to deal with climate change crisis was being felt. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had called its annual Conference of the Parties number three (CoP3) to be held at Kyoto, Japan in December 1997. It was here that Al Gore played the role of a broker, bringing the parties together and convincing them to agree on cuts in emissions. This international climate treaty, which bound 36 developed nations to cut the emission of greenhouse gases and bring it to the level of 5% below the 1990 level, came to be known as the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol enters into compliance stage in 2008, to be completed by 2012. The success and failure of this treaty will determine the fate of our planet.
And perhaps, this is Al Gore's destiny. He helped broker the Kyoto Protocol and, now, he needs to work for its success also. Al Gore has already given a call to reach the targets by 2010, instead of by 2012. Al Gore's obsession with climate change issue is that of a missionary. It is not motivated by a politician's unending desire for global visibility or to enhance the prospects of elect ability. It dates back to his student days, much before he chose his career. At Harvard University, his professor, Roger Reveille, sowed in him the seeds of an interest to learn the role of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. This interest has been growing since then. Al Gore went deep and deep into the topic, presented slide shows and delivered lectures on the topic.
Al Gore says that he presented about 1000 slide shows before he was given the offer to transform his collections into a documentary movie. Two producers, Laurie David and Lawrence Bender, saw one of his slide shows in 2004 in New York and were so impressed and inspired that they, with the help of Director Davis Guggenheim used the material to make the movie that was named, An Inconvenient Truth. The movie weaves very skillfully Al Gore's motivational skills and his insight into the causes and effects of global warming, along with the human costs, including 100 million people feared to be rendered homeless in lsland states and coastal areas because of rising sea levels.
Consequently, An Inconvenient Truth distributed by Paramount Classics, became a big box office hit, grossing over $ 49 billion worldwide. It, also, won inspirational comments by the film reviewers. Robert Elbert, a film critic wrote these lines. "In 39 years, I have never written these words in movie review, but here, they are. You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not and you have grandchildren, you should explain them why you decided not to." To further spread the knowledge, Al Gore founded an NGO, The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan initiative. His zeal and sincerity to the cause is evident from the fact that he and his wife, Tipper, gave away all the proceeds from the movie and its companion book to this organization.
"Tipper and I are donating 100% of the profits from the book and movie to a new bipartisan educational campaign to further spread the message about global warming." And he knows no stopping. On July 7, 2007, he joined Kevin wall of "Save Our Selves" and organized star-studded "Live Earth Concerts" to "promote environmentalism worldwide." His global mission is advancing and the world is recognizing his contributions that he has made through his speeches, slide shows, books, columns and movie,.
He has taken the issue out of political arena into the humanitarian field. During his brief speech during the Oscar Award given to the Director of An Inconvenient Truth, Davis Guggenheim, he told the celebrity-audience: "My fellow Americans and people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It is not a political issue; it is a moral issue. We have everything; we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act.
That is a renewable resource. Let us renew it." His fellow Americans and the people all over the world, not only feel pleasure in listening to his message, they, also, get elevated when the world rewards him with accolades in return for his services to mankind. His slide shows have got standing ovations; he is one of the most respected international speakers; he is the winner of Academy Award, and also of Emmy. And now, he is honored with the world's most prestigious award, the Nobel Peace Prize, 2007, which he shares with the UN's Science Panel, IPCC, headed by Rajendra K.Pachauri.
The Nobel Prize Committee acknowledges Al Gore's contributions in its citation. "Al Gore is probably the single individual who has done most to create worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." But Al Gore does not ignore the services that the IPCC is doing in strengthening the knowledge and ideological base of the climate warriors, including his. He praised the IPCC as "the world's pre-eminent body devoted to improving the understanding of the climate crisis.
" This year's Nobel Prize clearly shows Al Gore and UN marching in the same direction, trying to reach the same goal. The only requirement for victory is change in attitude, whereby Al Gore becomes the Climate Warrior of the United Nations and Ban Ki Moon's dream comes true. These are Ban's words on the Nobel Prize award to him, in partnership with IPCC.
"Largely thanks to the IPCC's lucid and well-documented findings, it is now established that climate change is happening and that much of it is caused by human activity. As a result, there is now unprecedented momentum for action on climate change around the world and recognition of the UN as the forum/" "Recognition of the UN as forum" is coming up as the main battle cry. Ban has been working on it since he took office and Al Gore has endorsed it. Oslo, the Headquarter of the Nobel Prize Committee, has become the WATERLOO of the skeptics of science of global warming. The only hurdle will be President Bush's approach towards the combat strategy and Al Gore is the only high profile, internationally recognized pro-earth politician who can rally the world politicians under the flag of UN.
Al Gore is a great motivator. One has to listen to the opening monologue in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth", where he shows the beauty of nature vanishing if no action were taken to prevent. "You look at the river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs in the distance. You hear the cow. The mud gives a little bit on the riverbank. It is quiet; it is peaceful. And all of a sudden, there is a gearshift inside you. And it is like taking a deep breath and going. "Oh yeah, I forgot about this.""
And once again, on October 23, in Berlin, he motivated the world for an action to save the planet and that too, urgently and immediately. He posed two questions. What is going to be one of the two probable questions that the next generations will ask when they look back at the year 2007.
"I believe our children and grand children will look towards the year 2007 and ask one of the two questions. They will ask about us-what were they doing? What were they thinking about and how could they let that catastrophe happen? Didn't they listen to the scientists? Didn't they see the glaciers and polar caps melting? Didn't they see that fire? Or, will they ask another question. I want them to ask this question. How did they find the moral courage to rise up and solve the problem everyone said was impossible to solve?"
By showing preference for the second question, he wants us to gird up the loins for an action, a real action. But to get that done, Al Gore will have to add a bigger role to his existing role of awareness creator, even at the cost of lessening his work as a motivator. I propose that Al Gore now begins motivating the world leaders to join the mainstream battle under the aegis of the United Nations.
He has the leverage for it. He can easily break the American resistance. He can demand the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in exchange for his endorsement to any one of the Presidential candidates in race for 2008 elections.
Al Gore and Ban Ki Moon shall shake hands, in the interest of humanity, to form a global coalition of the politicians, activists, organizations and governments to combat global warming and save the "Planet in Peril." There are very many pro-earth leaders on this earth, who would be more than happy to join this coalition. I sincerely believe that one such leader of repute is German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. (Stay tuned to know about the German Chancellor's role in the battle on global warming) (NOTE: This is chapter 9 of 10 of the 1st episode of 5-episode documentary by the Better India: Global Warming and United Nations. For other chapters; write to www.betterindiausa.com. Give reference: Global warming)
About the Author
Free lance journalist; takes up social justice issues
