Al Gore has been a big activist in the crusade to halt global warming. The former vice president, who has been involved in environmentalism since the ‘70s, authored the now famous book “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It” that led to the film “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Now, he has called out President Barack Obama for his lack of efforts towards reducing emissions in a 7,000 word essay released to Rolling Stone. When Obama took office, many hoped that he would focus on the issue with climate change and global warming, which some think is caused by emissions. In the essay, Gore says that while Obama clearly understands what is happening and has not made the major changes many were hoping for.
Obama has supported green technologies and jobs, but Gore says he has failed to make a “bold action” and feels he has only moved the country “forward slightly” as far as environmental issues are concerned. Gore says Obama has done slightly better than former President George W. Bush.
Obama did make an appearance at the UN Climate Control Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) and pledged that America would work to reduce emissions, but now Gore says that effort by Obama was just to cover his administration’s lack of commitment to making any real changes in legislature.
Gore isn’t the only Democrat who thinks he hasn’t done enough. Bruce Babbit, the former interior secretary for President Clinton, gave a speech in June in which he said Obama hasn’t taken up the “mantle of land and water conservation…in a significant way.”
Just last April, at a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama said he was not done when it comes to clean energy. But, with an upcoming election, has he done enough to convince Americans to give him four more years?