Speak Out: Sloppy liberalism and inconvenient truths
Jordan Barnes, The Peak
After seeing Al Gore speak at UBC today I was a mixed bag of emotions. He was a calibre of presenter I've never seen in my life. With rumours that Gore may make another shot at the presidency, headlines have started to appear calling him the next Nixon (re: the 1960 election). Despite his image of being kind of dry and boring, Gore was a cut above anything we have in Canadian politics. He never once missed a beat and seemed to have an answer to everything. It truly was amazing to watch so polished a man. But this was hardly the end of the story.
The arguments Gore puts forward about global warming are basically irrefutable. There is no doubt that climate change is occurring and when placed in the context of CO2 emissions and an overwhelming scientific consensus there is little doubt that it isn't anthropogenic. A lot of us knew that already but what was interesting was that a man who should have been president of the United States seems to take this so seriously. The world has almost given up on the executive branch of the US government. Ignorance is the new cool and it's even spreading to Canada much to the dismay of the world’s populace (think Kyoto and Afghanistan). To witness this paragon of hope in a barren political environment was very encouraging. Gore has apparently been an advocate of climate change awareness since the 1980's. In fact, he appears to have been an entire environmental movement all unto himself. Of course, appearances can be deceiving.
It's important to remember that Al Gore was part of an administration that committed all kinds of very serious crimes: the bombing in Sudan, massive Turkish arm sales, the war in Kosovo, and then lesser crimes like welfare reform which increased American homelessness. Maybe he's turned a leaf? He was introduced by Martha Piper, the president of UBC, as being a pioneer in executive environmentalism while also applauding his role in Kosovo and welfare reform. She then quoted Thomas Friedman several times in her appeal for sustainable living, which went unnoticed by most of those in attendance. For those of you who don't know, Friedman is a “neo-liberal” columnist for the New York Times. He's known for being an outspoken propagandist for “sustainable” initiatives like the Iraq war and trickle down economics, which should have raised some alarm bells about the intellectual culture of the speakers. It was all too easy to become one of the several thousand in attendance who were dazzled enough by Gore's charms and apparent environmental commitment to believe that the past can be forgotten.
My brief encounter with Gore left me even more uncertain about the man. After shaking his hand, and without really thinking about it, I said "congratulations". It seemed to make sense given that the night had gone off without a hitch. He looked at me with some of the deadest eyes I've seen in a while. He said nothing. Maybe he thinks I was being facetious I thought. "On the good speech" I said, kind of nervously. Carefully, he responded with "Thanks". He read my shirt: "la hoya de coca no es cocaina". He read a friends shirt: "KGB - Still Watching You?". "Nice shirt" he said to my friend. Maybe he was tired, but it just seemed like he didn’t really give a shit.
Bush has been such an unmitigated disaster that Gore is going to be seen as the messiah returned to lead us to the Promised Land. But is this a realistic hope? Gore’s voting record shows unwavering support for big business interests regardless of the environment and is in opposition to many issues considered important to progressives. His opposition to the Iraq war is alleged to have been entirely a political matter based on which side would give him more speaking time. But the most important facts about Gore relate to an environmental record that shows he is as susceptible to corporate lobbying as any other politician. His connections to Occidental Petroleum opened up vast tracts of public lands to the egregious polluter, in fact, the biggest privatisation of public lands in US history. Apparently, on the same day of the sale of Elk Hills, Gore gave one of the same speeches on climate change that I heard tonight.
So what should we think? Well as I said before, Gore gives us a ray of hope that should not be discounted. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is sure to be amazing and not to be missed. What I am encouraging you to do is remain conscious of the fact that Al Gore is far from a dream come true. He might be better than Bush — ok, a lot better than Bush — but if we want genuine change to happen, we can't continue to be sloppy liberals. The fate of the planet may depend on it.