Former Vice President and current global personality Al Gore headlined the Society of Environmental Journalists conference last Friday at the Concourse Hotel in Madison. Utilizing his monotonous verbal skills and mundane demeanor, Gore offered words regarding the supreme issue of climate change. As usual, the main piece of evidence Gore used was his own opinion.

Gore used his presence and speech in an attempt to reassure the audience that sooner or later significant progress would be made in addressing the climate issue. “I believe that we are very close to that political tipping point,” Gore said.

This has surely eased the public outcry and angst with regards to the inadequate response by world leaders. Gore’s utterance of a few tedious words should be all any rational person needs to soothe the qualms of environmental catastrophe.

Gore went on to state that “One way or another, the reductions in emissions are about to accelerate.” This comment relates to the current governmental cap-and-trade regulation that sets limits on emissions by allowing companies to emit only up to a certain amount. This complex control mechanism may be more about money than harmony since countries with low emissions can sell their ‘carbon credits’ to more industrial ones.

What Gore didn’t mention in his talk was he stands to make millions — if not billions — of dollars through his investment in a software company that creates carbon-level monitoring for the cap-and-trade regulation. This company, Hara Software, could capitalize on the cap-and-trade stealth tax that would multiply its market value 10 times over.

Gore justifies his actions by stating all of the profits he garners will go to the nonprofit organization Alliance for Climate Protection. He left out the fact he is the founder and chairman of this nonprofit group.

All the talk about reduction of energy and resource usage by Gore might lead one to question why the former vice president’s Nashville mansion consumes significantly more energy than the average American household. While Gore advocates conserving energy by minimizing household consumption, the fact he is leaving a giant carbon footprint of his own cannot be ignored.

Regarding the possibility of the world doing something to stop climate change, Gore also stated, “I choose to be very optimistic about the prospects.” This blunt declaration may energize his fanatic followers, but perhaps more concrete evidence should be used especially if Gore is attempting to gain more widespread support.

One method of motivation that might convince skeptics would be to provide research and evidence from highly qualified non-industry, non-governmental, non-lobby-group climate scientists. But by listening to experts who actually use experiential data to understand what nature is actually telling us about climate change, we would realize that there is not a consensus as Gore has suggested.

To his credit, Gore has done a lot to call attention to the scientific warnings of the potential repercussions of the supposed climate change. But merely restating the same types of claims over and over again with more emphasis on theory than empirical data might not bode well for his ideas.

After speaking for almost an hour about the general world issue of climate change, Gore mentioned a noteworthy former University of Wisconsin-Madison professor. This was part of Gore’s attempt to make the event more relative and appealing given the location of the conference. Henry Hart, a longtime political science professor and law school friend of Gore’s mother, was cited as an inspiration to Gore.

This reference to a local figure as an important influence in his storied career was a very nice gesture by Gore. It would have been even nicer if he had stated Mr. Hart’s age correctly. Perhaps Gore should have checked the facts.

Aaron Linskens ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and English.