Published: March 16, 2015
Former Vice President Al Gore is done with presenting global warming as the ultimate doomsday scenario, instead he’s trying to reinvent himself as a “prophet of possibility,” according to The New York Times.
Gore has made a name for himself sounding the alarm on man-made global warming since the release of his movie “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006. In the film Gore warned that Pacific Islands were drowning from global warming and polar bears were dying as Arctic sea ice melted off.
In 2008, Gore famously predicted the Arctic would be ice-free by 2013 — a prophecy that never came true.
Gore told The New York Times he was done being a prophet of doom, and is instead trying to rebrand himself as someone who is optimistic that investing in green energy can solve global warming. The Times says Gore has become somewhat of an “optimist.”
“Still an object of derision for the political right, Mr. Gore has seen support for his views rising within the business community: Investment in renewable energy sources like wind and solar is skyrocketing as their costs plummet,” the Times reported.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Gore told the Times. “We’re going to win this. The only question is how long it takes.”
And why wouldn’t he be? Al Gore has made millions investing in green energy and technologies over the years. It would be hard to frame green energy as a positive investment when the message is “Invest in this or feel the wrath of global warming.” Thanks to green investing, Gore’s net worth is now $200 million.
Gore recently told an audience at South by Southwest that companies are already eschewing fossil fuels for green energy, but said there needed to be a tax on carbon dioxide emissions to accelerate that trend.
But despite his new “optimistic” outlook, Gore still viciously criticizes those who remain skeptical that human activities are causing the world to dramatically warm.
“We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends,” Gore told the Chicago Tribune. “And in order to do that, we need to put a price on denial in politics.”
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