Al Gore rhythms out of step with facts of change

Al Gore. Photo / Richard Robinson

Al Gore is a sellout and a hypocrite - my days of trusting him are over.

Al Gore, who was Bill Clinton's Vice President in the 1990s, needed a project to hang his hat on after losing the 2000 presidential election. He chose climate change. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, caused ripples around the world as Al told us convincingly that the world was heating up. It was alarming. It was controversial.

Gore made climate change part of the everyday discussion. That was inevitably going to happen, but Gore's movie and publicity put a spotlight on the debate.

I watched the movie and instantly felt a need to take more care of the planet. Just in my own small ways, I asked myself what I can do at home to make the world greener.

Then came the numerous media reports: Gore owns a private jet, Gore owns a mansion, Gore owns numerous gas-guzzling cars, Gore has four children but lectures the world on over-population (according to Forbes magazine). It appears Gore is also leaving a big carbon footprint on Earth.

But I could turn a blind eye to that - knowing that the greater good is being achieved by his message.

That was until Al Gore sold his failing TV network in the US to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is owned by the Government of Qatar. Qatar's biggest export is oil. After spending the start of this century attacking big oil, Al Gore just took US$500 million from Big Oil.

To me, Gore made his name and money from pushing climate change, but is now loading his pockets from the people he was attacking. In this free world Gore is able to sell to anyone he wants to but, as a public figure, who has spent over a decade labelling oil as evil, I find it appalling he has profited from these same people and has lived a life that was opposite to what he preached.

But we now have a new leader in the climate change debate - one that has far more credibility and a much louder voice. He is the President of the United States of America.

"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said in his inauguration speech. "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms." "The overwhelming judgment of science" ... I'll keep that line in mind now that Gore has soiled his credibility.