Al Gore's Address (January 19, 2009)

The basic gist of Al Gore's address was about the importance of taking care of our environment and global warming prevention. He explained that the 3 most important crises in the US right now are the Iraq war, economic recession and global warming. He tied all of these threads to the global need and greed for oil. He claimed that if we were able to use renewable energy sources rather than coal and fuel than all three of these issues would be eliminated. The R&D for renewable energy sources would create jobs, stimulate the economy, bring soldiers back from war and help the environment.

Al Gore explained the magnitude of global warming and how it was affecting our daily lives. He claimed that this was an "inconvenient truth" and that it was up to us as the youth of the future to take this knowledge into our own hands and use it.

He explained that knowledge quickly get outdated and that what we know as youth and the current generation our parents and grandparents never knew and will never know. He encouraged us to use this knew knowledge and what we know about the world we are growing up in to instigate change and help the planet.

Al Gore stated his firm belief that if we were to help the planet we would be able to help ourselves and many of these other man-made crises would disappear.

Lastly, Al Gore explained that for the first time this is a global crises that doesn't just affect one country or continent or hemisphere but it affects the whole world. For the first time in history, all 6 billion people on the planet - the human species - is affected by the same issue. In order to solve this crises he explained that for the first time in history, the human species will have to unite and make joint global decisions such that we can save our planet and move forward in our lives.

Overall, Al Gore's talk was interesting and environmentally motivating. However, it was slightly too predictable and many of us expected that he would talk about more than just the environment. Nonetheless, he was a captivating speaker and it was an honour to hear him speak. He had a lot of insightful points and delivered them in a strong and assertive way.


Well this marks the end of Day 3, Monday January 19,2009. Tomorrow is INAUGURATION DAY, the day we have all been waiting for and the reason why 2 million people flocked to Washington D.C. The next post is going to be a great one, so get excited!