Gore stars in movie campaign to protect Earth

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Al Gore brushes aside talk of
another run for the U.S. presidency and wages a new campaign to
protect the Earth that he says must be won.

The former Democratic vice president sounds the alarm as a
citizen activist armed with his old slide show turned into a
Hollywood movie about the threat of global warming.

“We face a planetary emergency,” Gore told Reuters in
advance of next week’s opening in U.S. theaters of his
critically acclaimed documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” It
makes the case for the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
linked to climate change.

At a special showing in Washington on Wednesday night that
drew many members of the U.S. Congress, Gore said, “This should
be a priority of the U.S. House and Senate.”

“It’s a powerful movie,” Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd
of Connecticut said afterward. “If enough people see it, it
could move Congress.”

Having narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to
Republican George W. Bush, Gore faces new speculation because
of the movie, he may make another White House bid.

“I have no plans to run for president again,” Gore said. “I
have found other ways to serve and I’m enjoying them.”

Gore has been hailed as an articulate innovator and mocked
as a boring exaggerator. His movie blends the story of his life
with a downright scary assessment of global warming.

In it, Gore displays pictures, computer simulations and
studies on the greenhouse effect that scientists worldwide
contend is heating up Earth.

‘THIS IS A MORAL ISSUE’

So-called greenhouse gases — notably carbon dioxide from
the burning of fossil fuels — trap heat around Earth like a
blanket, contributing to global warming, scientists say.

While some long-term uncertainties persist, global warming
has been blamed for melting ice caps, rising sea levels,
spreading of disease, more severe hurricanes and, with shifting
weather patterns, increased floods and droughts.

The United States is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon
dioxide, but efforts to get Congress to put mandatory caps on
them have repeatedly failed.

As vice president, Gore helped negotiate the Kyoto treaty
on climate change that he noted 132 advanced nations ratified.
But Bush rejected the pact to reduce emissions after taking
office.

Gore said he’s encouraged, though, by a number of recent
developments, including some of U.S. companies taking steps to
cut emissions and more than 200 U.S. cities backing the Kyoto
treaty and meeting the restrictions.

Still, critics persist.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative
advocacy group that reflects the Bush administration’s
free-market approach, unveiled a TV ad campaign this week that
denounces efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

“It is nothing short of an attempt to suppress energy use,
which in turn would be economically devastating — all to avert
an alleged catastrophe whose scientific basis is dubious,” said
Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the institute.

Gore rejects such talk. He cites a broad consensus in the
scientific community about the existence of global warming, and
the widespread contention that it needs to be curbed within the
next decade before “we pass a point of no return.”

He said he has shown his slide show on global warming more
than a thousand times in the past 30 years. He began showing it
again, more frequently, after the 2000 election.

The movie grew out of one such showing in Los Angeles that
attracted the attention of Hollywood producers.

“They said they could take the message to many more people
in a shorter period of time,” Gore said. “This is a moral
issue.”

Reuters/VNU