In Europe this week, Al Gore is getting attention for his work abroad and even in some (previously) unlikely places.
But first was his stop in London where the question was posed for his response on Geldof's recent attack for his Live Earth Concerts.
Mr. Gore's strong response also displayed the stateman he is. Once again stating the facts, but graciously acknowledging others, including his attacker's, previous efforts.
Yet despite his good intentions, the 59-year-old has come under fire from the likes of The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Live Aid hero Sir Bob Geldof.
Both claimed the Live Earth gigs can do little to change the world. Geldof also accused Mr Gore of hosting "an enormous pop concert" with no clear political goals. When I asked Mr Gore about the criticisms, he gave a robust response.
He said: "We will have specific goals that will be very significant and hard-hitting.
"We will announce those before the concert then emphasise them heavily during the concert.
"What Bob Geldof did with Live Aid and Live 8 was fantastic and he has followed up very diligently, as many of the others involved with Live Aid and Live 8 have. I’ve nothing but good things to say about them.
"These concerts would not be possible in any way without the pioneering and creativity of Geldof and those who helped him.
"But he has said in the aftermath of those efforts how important it is to have specific goals and a continuing follow-on effort and we have designed the Live Earth concerts in just that way.
"This one day, 24 hours long, will not only be a wake-up call for the world but the beginning of a multi-year campaign to organise an effective response to the climate crisis." Mr Gore has been incredibly impressed with the British response to the climate crisis and singled out Tony Blair for special praise.
Even other reporters are being drawn in by Mr. Gore's message and stature. Mr. Preston writes for the Guardian of why it is Al Gore that must be the next President of the United States.
How long have we got to take decisive action? Ten years at most, say the direst American voices (like Jim Hansen, Nasa's top man on climate change). And where does the heart of that action necessarily lie? In Washington DC, because that's where any fight against global pollution necessarily begins. Other politicians and nations can pressure and preach - but top-down decision-making starts in the Oval Office.
Is that possible when climate change is just one "normal" issue among many, to be ceremonially weighed against US jobs or gas prices or Chinese imports? It's not. But that, with inevitable shades of emphasis, is where every extant presidential candidate stands. Too timid, too slow. Global warming is an utterly abnormal issue that needs a leader all of its own. Gore has fashioned himself as that leader. He can't just sit there and pontificate. He has to run. And, when he does, the rest of us have to put inconvenient illusions aside and listen.
And then Mr. Gore is off to France towards the end of the week and this trip he has to put on yet another hat, attending what previously may have not have been expected, but is being treated as a Rock Star, combining his Global Warming awareness together with his business intellect as he attends the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
As the New York Times reports:
The brightest lights in the advertising business are gathering in Cannes, France,this week for an annual celebration of the art of persuading consumers to part with their money. In the industry’s biggest international get-together, awards will be given for the best ads for products like cars, clothing, food and air travel.
And then, on Friday, Al Gore will come to town.
Mr. Gore is scheduled to address the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival as part of the windup leading to the Live Earth concerts on July 7, which are intended to raise awareness of the issue of climate change.
You might think that Mr. Gore and his campaign against global warming would find few friends in Cannes. The production, transport, sale and consumption of goods and services add a few sizes to anyone’s carbon footprint.
Yet Mr. Gore is being accorded rock star status at the festival, an event that in the past has been headlined by industry insiders. The embrace of Mr. Gore shows how "green" advertising has galvanized the marketing community.
With all this positive news coming out with the people around the world and here at home recognizing the problem, realizing changes that need to be made, is it possible we are reaching that mass movement across the planet Mr. Gore talks of in this weeks Rolling Stone interview?
RS:But let's be real about the political obstacles. Public awareness and a growing desire for change are important, but against that you have the oil and coal and automobile industries - entrenched interests that have been able to stave off any sort of meaningful action on global warming for years, including the eight years when you were vice president. Is it realistic to expect that Washington will ever enact the kind of wholesale changes needed to address this crisis?
AG:I concluded a long time ago that the only pathway is through a mass political movement that engenders a sea change in public opinion across the planet. Special interests have way too much power to block progressive change. But their power, as impressive as it is, is still no match for a genuine mass movement. Reason, logic, knowledge, evidence - these all may play a diminished role in our conversation of democracy today. But when enough people lock into the same narrative and connect the same dots and feel the danger facing their children, then these objections will be set aside. They will be. And we're close. We're not there yet. But we're close.
But, by all means, don't stop there. The interview with Rolling Stone is fantastic and I recommend you read the entire thing.
You will find very thoughtful discussion like this:
RS:You have compared the mobilization that would be required to deal with global warming to the way America came together to win the Second World War. But that effort required great personal sacrifice on the part of the American people. People did without. They melted their scrap metal, they planted victory gardens. Yet very few politicians are talking about the kinds of sacrifice that will be required to deal with climate change. What will Americans have to give up to stop global warming?
AG:There's a philosophical question embedded in what you're asking: Is this important enough for us to make sacrifices? The answer is yes, of course - we're talking about the survival of human civilization. But in answering that way, I don't want to convey the faulty impression that most of what needs to be done involves hair-shirt economics or going back to some miserable standard of living. That's simply not true. Most of the changes we need to make don't involve sacrifice in the way you are using the word - instead, they require us to overcome inertia and eliminate absurdly wasteful practices.
Amory Lovins, the brilliant and respected physicist, was addressing this question in a conversation with me recently. He said, "When it comes to making sacrifices, they've got the sign wrong." I'm thinking, "This guy's so smart, he must be talking about trigonometry - sines, cosines." Turns out he was talking about a plus sign and a minus sign. His point was that most of the important changes that have to be made to sharply reduce CO2 actually have a plus sign instead of a minus sign - they represent improvements to our quality of life. Changing the pattern that causes people to sit in traffic jams for an hour and a half every day is not a sacrifice, it's an enhancement. Changing the assumption that it's perfectly natural to take 4,000 pounds of metal with us everywhere we go doesn't have to be a sacrifice. Whether it's ultralight, ultrasafe vehicles or plug-in hybrid technology or some better alternative that is still on the drawing boards, let's have at it. Will there come a time when harder choices or more difficult and painful choices have to be made? Probably. But the sacrifices associated with not doing it completely overwhelm whatever difficulty might eventually be involved in making this transformation.