Al Gore's work in climate change advocacy and politics has led him to be recognized as a public intellectual due to his great influence on the broader society. He has shaped legal and political structures with ideas based on humanity's effect on the future of our climate and society. He contends that every person can make changes to their lives to become a part of the global solution to climate change. In other words, Al Gore values citizen responsibility. This is countering the argument that a central “conflict” exists surrounding American intellectualism. More specifically, it exemplifies the myth of an “aristocracy of experts,” which was discussed in Stephen Mack’s, “ The "Decline" of Public Intellectuals?” (Mack, 2016). This myth relies on the assumption that public intellectuals do not share their power with the greater society and only act in a self-serving manner. Al Gore’s assertion that every person can be part of the solution for climate change provides the average person a sense of power that would be incompatible with a society deemed an aristocracy. Public intellectuals like Al Gore can exist without such an elite hierarchical connotation that has been given to these individuals.
In addition, he has a diverse approach to climate change, believing that risks to our planet can be avoided if political leaders adopt the right market-based mechanisms (Nisbet, 2014). For example, electrical vehicles and solar panels will allow for sustainable economic growth to continue while improving the state of our environment.
Albert Arnold Gore Jr., was born on March 31, 1948, in Washington D.C. He was the son of a great democratic congressman and senator of Tennessee. Al Gore attended Harvard University majoring in government. Proving himself as a leader from a young age, he was elected president of the student government (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). After graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. army and served as a military reporter in the Vietnam war from 1969 to 1971. Later, he became a reporter for The Tennessean, a political newspaper in Nashville and went to graduate school for philosophy and law at Vanderbilt, where he learned the vital skills to become the public intellectual that he is today (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).
In 1976, Al Gore won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and was reelected three times until he won a seat in the U.S. the Senate in 1984. In 1988, he attempted to run as president but was unsuccessful. Gore was reelected to the Senate in 1990, and surprisingly he was one of only ten Democratic senators who voted to allow the use of American military force against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The next year, he was chosen by democratic president Bill Clinton to be his vice president. In 1993, Al Gore helped the Clinton administration secure congressional passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, spurring investment and growth by allowing trade between Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. Gore and Clinton were reelected in 1996 for their second term, paving the way for Al Gore in politics.
He then ran for the 2000 presidential election as a democratic candidate against George W. Bush. Al Gore focused his campaign on improving the economy, health care, and education. In addition, he was pro abortion and wanted greater restrictions on guns. However, he did believe in the death penalty which was uncommon for democrats. Al Gore won the popular vote over George W. Bush by more than 500,000 votes but then he sadly lost the electoral college vote by a few (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).
Al Gore’s “anxiety of influence,” pressured him to succeed and influence the public in other ways after losing the presidential election. As Stephen Mack’s, The "Decline" of Public Intellectuals? says, “Giving expression to a certain kind of anxiety of influence has become a clichéd preoccupation of public intellectuals in the last two decades” (Mack, 2016). After Al Gore experienced a sense of failure, he began searching for ways to continue influencing the public. He discovered a newfound dedication to combating climate change and directed his focus on these efforts in fear of losing his status as a public intellectual.
Gore favored strong measures to protect the environment and still does today, like other public intellectuals of his time, including Naomi Klein and Nicholas Stern. In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for his efforts to raise awareness about global warming (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). He devoted much of his time to environmental issues and improving our society even after he lost the election, including writing multiple books and movies.
His first major work on climate change was a book published in 1992 titled Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Here, he drew connections between our outer and inner world while advocating for people to take action to prevent climate change from worsening. In the book, he describes a wide range of policies to deal with the world’s ecological problem and proposes the Global Marshall Plan which includes creating a new global economy where no regions are left behind (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). This plan would force first world countries to implement renewable energy resources and give out money to third world countries in order for them to implement environmentally sustainable technologies as well.
In 2006, Al Gore published a documentary entitled An Inconvenient Truth along with its companion book. This became the most well known documentary of the year around the globe and won an Academy Award (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Al Gore’s message in this film was that global warming is our current reality. It is man-made, and its effects will be catastrophic if we do not act now. Al Gore made quite an influential statement publicly after the movie came out, “Inconvenient truths do not go away just because they are not seen. Indeed, when they are not responded to, their significance doesn't diminish; it grows” (Al Gore, 2009). This may be Gore’s most intellectual and rather influential piece.
Gore also published The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, which analyzed the impact of various sociopolitical, technological, and environmental forces on our future. Al Gore discusses environmental degradation as a result of human population growth and increasing resource consumption. He explains that global warming was caused by fossil fuels, topsoil depletion, fishery depletion and the depletion of critical minerals (Lind, 2013). According to the New York Times, “Gore’s warnings about global warming have made him controversial in some circles, but he preempts accusations of overstatement by writing: “In the parable of the boy who cried wolf, warnings of danger that turned out to be false bred complacency to the point where a subsequent warning of a danger that was all too real was ignored.” Although some of what Al Gore debates is controversial, as a public intellectual he asserts that what he is saying is an essential and practical view of the future necessary to avoid danger. Simply saying that his warnings are “overstatements” does not imply that these individuals are anti-intellectuals. Those that actively oppose his views by acting on feelings of mistrust and hostility are merely a subsection of those who disagree with his assertions and may be intellectuals themselves.
In 2017, Al Gore came out with a much wanted sequel of An Inconvenient Truth, titled An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. The film discusses the efforts which have been made thus far to combat climate change as well as Al Gore’s attempts to convince the governmental leaders to invest in renewable energy sources, which began when Al Gore persuaded different leaders to sign the Paris Agreement in 2016. In addition, he attempts to debunk the people who do not agree with him or with solving global warming and climate change in general (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).
Just recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Al Gore posted about climate change and actions we need to take as a society on his website. In one post titled, “Statement from Former Vice President Al Gore on the IPCC Report—Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis,” he wrote, “One of the most important lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that when scientists are warning about a looming threat, we all ought to listen” (Al Gore, 2021). This was specifically regarding the climate crisis we are facing which is worsening everyday because we have not done enough about it. According to the IPCC reports Gore cited, we need to limit temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius and action needs to be taken now. Al Gore writes, “We need concrete plans to phase out fossil fuels in the near term. The science is clear: there is no time left to waste” (Al Gore, 2021). In a subsequent article, Al Gore wrote that he has hope for our planet but we need to “stop using the sky as an open sewer” (Al Gore, 2022). His short posts are being used to advocate for climate change and comment on current social and political issues.
Gore’s greatest intellectual contributions rest in his logical and moral ideas. He has managed to provide a logical basis for climate change and provide feasible solutions to it. Al Gore’s practical defense of the environmental crisis has allowed for a new generation of environmentalists to take root and begin acting on the issue. He does not follow the crowd but rather he attempts to discredit climate myths and better society for everyone. Therefore, citizens of America, democrats and republicans, latch on to his ideas and his great influence has been felt throughout the political sphere.
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. has influenced many and I believe he will continue to do so until the day he dies. As Stephen Mack once wrote, “ If public intellectuals have any role to play in a democracy—and they do—it’s simply to keep the pot boiling. The measure of public intellectual work is not whether the people are listening, but whether they’re hearing things worth talking about” (Mack, 2016). Al Gore maintains this characteristic of a public intellect by discussing core issues our society faces. He continues to “keep the pot boiling”.
Works Cited
“Al Gore.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Al-Gore
Gore, Al. “The Moment of Truth.” Vanity Fair, 16 Apr. 2009, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/05/gore200605#:~:
Lind, Michael. “Democracy, Hacked.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/the-future-six-
Mack, Stephen. “The Decline of Public Intellectuals?” The New Democratic Review: August 2016 Archives, Aug. 2016, http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/the_public_intellectual/index.html
Nisbet, Matthew C. “Disruptive Ideas: Public Intellectuals and Their Arguments for Action on Climate Change.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 25 Sept. 2014, https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.317
www.algore.com, Al Gore. “DSCOVR.” Al Gore, https://www.algore.com/.
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