His Adequacy hits out over climate change

His Adequacy hits out over climate change

Charlotte Higgins
Monday May 22, 2006
The Guardian

It was a disorienting sight: the man whom many feel should be US president attired in impeccable evening dress, surrounded by Tinseltown's finest and occupying a platform at the Cannes film festival, just like Tom Hanks, Penélope Cruz and Audrey Tatou before him.
In fact Al Gore's demeanour served to demonstrate the intimacy between politics and showbiz, and, if anything, he outdid Hollywood at its own game. Whereas stars such Hanks usually exhibit self-deprecation, Mr Gore opted for the big entrance, sweeping in to applause.


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The conference moderator inquired how Mr Gore should be addressed. "Your Adequacy," replied the former vice-president. Hanks himself could not have delivered the line more smoothly. The new Gore radiates a supple charm that many felt he lacked in the 2000 campaign.
Mr Gore was in Cannes for the European premiere of An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary on the "planetary emergency" of global warming, the issue to which he has devoted himself since his election defeat. The film, directed by Davis Guggenheim, splices material from Mr Gore's own roadshow - an awareness-raising talk - with chat about his family, conversion to the environmental cause, and how the presidency slipped from him.

Responding to speculation that he might run for president again, he replied: "I don't plan to be a candidate again."

He was much less guarded about the US administration's approach to the environment. "The [American] people are way ahead of the politicians on the issue of global warming ... I believe there is a chance that within two years Bush and Cheney will be forced to change position. You can only create your own reality for so long. Mother Nature has joined this debate with a strong voice; Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call."

He said political and climate systems moved at a glacier's pace."Then suddenly [they] move swiftly when a tipping point is crossed. The whole point [of this film] is to try to move the USA and the world past that tipping point, beyond which the political system stops moving in a slow and frustrating way and actually engenders sudden and dramatic change." He added: "We are at the fork in the road. Down one path lies the point of no return, beyond which the environment degrades, threatening human civilisation. In the other direction lies hope ... those politicians left behind will be out of office." The crisis demanded "an ethical solution right now".

He is positive about the solutions. If the US accepts the successor to the Kyoto treaty, if an effort is pursued with China and India on board, if alternative sources of energy are researched - there is, he thinks, still a chance to avert the worst.