“Will the polar bears still be there when I grow up?” asked 7-year-old Kate to former Vice-President Al Gore and an audience of about 1,000, including 12 DU students, at the Denver convention center last Tuesday night.
Gore’s answer: maybe not.
Gore was in Denver to give his familiar slideshow, the slideshow behind Gore’s 2005 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, and warned of the catastrophic effects of global warming unless we act now.
In a dynamic and passionate speech, Gore stressed the importance and responsibility of the generation coming of age in the workforce to act quickly and to act together.
“In two decades, Kate’s generation will ask one of two questions,” he said. “The first could be, ‘With all of the evidence you had, with all the warnings given to you by scientists, why didn’t you act?'”
The second, he said, could be ‘How did you find the moral courage to act and create phenomenal change?’
If the question is the first, Gore said, then no, there won’t be polar bears around when Kate grows up.
Many of the DU students had previously seen An Inconvenient Truth, but said that to see the dynamic and passionate speaker in person was an experience all to its own.
“When you watch the movie, you’re a bystander. When you’re in a live audience, he is talking to you, [saying] this is what is going to happen,” said freshman Niccole Barnes.
The 12 DU students attended as part of their first-year seminar, Celluloid Government: American Politics through the Eyes of Film, accompanied by political science Professor Seth Masket.
“It’s a bigger problem than we realize, unless we do something now. Seeing Al Gore’s presentation in real life really puts it into perspective. It seems like a real problem,” said freshman and public policy major Chris Fettig.
Gore also answered pre-selected questions from the audience, including. How he would have handled Sept. 11 differently if he had been president?
Gore compared the intelligence that the Bush administration received in the month leading up to September, which he said the White House ignored to grave effect, to the warnings we are now receiving about global warming.
He asked, “Are we going to ignore these warnings, too?”
“I’m sorry if I’m too passionate about this, but I have grandchildren,” said Gore.
However, the students appreciated this passion, a passion uncommon in political speakers, they said.
“He is not a politician talking about this issue. He is a human being,” said freshman Chelsea Hardy.
Fettig agreed. “It’s a moral issue, regardless of political affiliation. We need to figure out that this is a problem and work together.”
