Gore Says to Abandon Science Fiction -- the Earth Has a Fever!

Yesterday, on the 21^st of March, 2007, former Vice President Al Gore attempted to refocus the attention of the United States Congress. His topic of interest was, of course, global warming. He spoke with a joint session of two House of Representatives committees on energy and environmental issues at 9:30 AM and then with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at 2:30 PM.

Hollywood is in.

Less than a month ago, the big wigs in Hollywood and the entertainment industry made a clear statement as to where they stand on the issue of global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore's featured documentary on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, was not only nominated for an Oscar, but it won the Oscar.

To add to this triumph, Melissa Etheridge's song "I Need to Wake Up", featured in the credits of the documentary, added another Oscar win.

Of the film's success and his role within, Vice President Gore stated, "Rin-Tin-Tin was a movie star, I just have a slideshow."

The public is in.

An Inconvenient Truth brought in a total of $367,311 in the United States alone during its opening weekend. The altogether gross for the US is $23,808,111, as of the 29^th of October 2006. This figures doubles when worldwide success is calculated: the documentary sees an all-inclusive gross earning of $46,243,403.

Gore also penned a companion book to the film, which flew to the number one position of the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list less than a month into its publishing. The book version of An Inconvenient Truth continues to reside on this list.

In anticipation of this congressional meeting, included on his official website, www.algore.com, a form letter with space for individual additions was available for any and all to contribute and tell Congress we want action to be taken on this issue now. On the 16^th of March, an astounding 294,374 messages had already been sent. Three days later, on the 19^th of March, this number had risen to 405,758, with a goal of 500,000 to be reached in just 48 hours. When Vice President Gore arrived on Capitol Hill, accompanying him were 519,414 signatures of concerned citizens.

What will the government do?

The Kyoto Protocol, a treaty designed to enforce the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions is currently upheld over 160 countries. The United States, while we have signed, have not yet ratified this agreement. Yet, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) offers an array of deductions and incentives for such things as the purchase of a hybrid vehicle. We will soon discover whether or not the government "is in."

Vice President Gore likened global warming to a fever, comparing the treatment of fevers on babies to this fever on our planet, saying, "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.'"

The warnings increase. Even though all nine global warming bills recently introduced into Congress have not passed, the former Vice President plugs on. He asks Congress to freeze carbon emissions and offers a closing plea, "I promise you a day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back. And they'll ask ... 'What in God's name were they doing?'"

Information for this article received via webcast of event and email updates from www.algore.com.