By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
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I talked briefly to Vice President Al Gore off mic, before his speech and look forward to interviewing him for Fresh Dialogues in the future. These audio and video links feature highlights from his rousing speech.
Here’s the VIDEO
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Former Vice President, Al Gore showed his passion in front of a rapturous Silicon Valley crowd at the 2009 Tech Awards on November 19th. He described a “day of reckoning” and suggested future generations may look back one day and ask,
“What were you thinking? Were you watching Dancing with the Stars? Did you care?”
Dancing? A little dig here to Silicon Valley luminary and co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, who took part in the dance contest last Fall (you really ain’t seen nothing yet…)
Gore then echoed the hope in his new book “Our Choice” – that this generation that will develop a sense of shared purpose, and do what needs to be done to combat climate change. Gore described his deep belief that future generations will instead ask,
“How did you find the moral courage to shake off the lethargy… seize the responsibility and act in time to solve the crisis?”
Gore’s speech emphasized the connection between generations, rich communities and vulnerable ones; while a montage of spectacular landscape photos from Frans Lanting et al played on the screen behind him. Gore urged the crowd to take action.
“It’s time to get political about this,” Gore said. “Are we capable of recognizing, absorbing the responsibility that is on our shoulders? This is the moment…we have to awaken…make a conscious choice to solve this problem.”
Before he left the stage, he announced this apt rallying cry, “Remember, political will is a renewable resource!” And the crowd of over 1400 Silicon Valley ‘royalty’ rose to its feet to applaud and cheer. Though some attendees weren’t so enthusiastic.
Check back soon for video highlights and interviews with Tech Award winners, Cows for Kilowatts founder Dr. Joseph Adelagan and Rolf Papsdorf of South Africa’s Alternative Energy Development Corp.
Listen to Fresh Dialogues interviews with
Tom Friedman on the need to act on climate change
Vinod Khosla on his motivations for finding clean energy solutions
And Martin Sheen on why we must care about future generations
