Do you think Gore kept out of the race so he could say this if needed?

[rosesaylavee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HeTA1S7TXM

I don't have the transcript but listen to how he started. My thought after watching this a few times is that perhaps not running has been as great a hardship for him as we perceive it to be for the country.

I know.... I'm still trying to make sense of it all.

[KewlKat]

1. In the beginning he says he's not bound

That says it all. If he were a candidate, we know every word would be politicized! Even tho he's not runningin, they are still trying to politicize it. As a non-candidate, he can speak the truth, try to put pressure on the US to get involved in a way that will matter, etc. I think he will use the next 4 years to push GW to the max. Let's hope he doesn't fail as some studies say now we have 5 to 7 years left before we can't turn things around. Of course Al needs all of us to help, and that we must do and do it quickly.

[rosesaylavee]

4. I would hope he only has 1 more year to push

this admin towards making the right decision regarding the climate crisis. The next president will hopefully be a democrat and not completely clueless about the imminent danger we are in.

Welcome to DU and welcome to the Gore forum! :hi:

[Pastiche423]

2. I couldn't find a transcription either

so I transcribed it myself. (My very rusty at transcribing self.)

Al Gore in Bali

I am not an official of the United States and I am not bound by the diplomatic niceties. So, I am going to speak an inconvenient truth.

My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for the obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that. we all know that. But my country is not the only one that can take steps to ensure we move forward from Bali with progress and with hope.

Those of you that applauded when I spoke openly about the diplomatic truth here, have a choice. You can do one of two things here. You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the United States of America.

Or, you can make a second choice.You can decide to move forward and do all of the difficult work that needs to be done and save a large blank space in your document and put a footnote by it. And when you look at the footnote, write the description of the footnote.

This document is incomplete. But we are going to move forward anyway on the hope (and I'm going to describe for you why I think you can also have the realistic expectation that that blank will be filled in. This is the beginning of a process designed to cumulate in Copenhagen two years from now.

Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that. Targets must be a part of the treaty that is adopted in Copenhagen. And the treaty, by the way, should not only be adopted in 2009. I urge you in this mandate to move the target of full implantation of this treaty to two years sooner than presently contemplated. Let's have it take effect fully in 2010, not 2012.

We can't afford to wait another five years in order to replace the provision of the Kyoto Protocol. So we must leave here with a string mandate.

This is not the time for business as usual. Somehow we must summon and each of you must summon a sense of urgency here in Bali. These are not political problems, they are moral imperatives. But our capacity to strip away the disguise and see them for what they really are. And then find the basis to work together and successfully address them. It is what is missing.

The greatest opportunity inherent in this climate crisis, is not only to quickly deploy the new technologies that will facilitate sustainable development to create new jobs and to lift standards of living.

The greatest opportunity is that in rising to meet the climate crisis, we in our generation will find the moral authority and capacity for long term vision to get our act together in this world and take on these other crisis-es, not political problems and solve them. We are one people on one planet. We have one future. We have one destiny. We must pursue it together. And we can.

The great Spanish poet, Antonio Machado from Soria, wrote, "Path walker there is no path. You must make the path as you walk. There is no path from Bali to Copenhagen unless you make it. It's impossible, given the positions of the powerful countries, including my own, and the instructions they are not going to depart.

But you can make a new path that goes AROUND that blank spot. And you can go forward. There are two paths you can choose. They lead to two different futures. Not too long from now, when our children assess what you did here in Bali, what we in our generation did in this world, as they look backward at 2007. they will ask one of two questions. I don't know which one they'll ask. But trust me, they will ask one of these two questions.

They will look back and either they will ask, "What were you thanking? Didn't you hear the IPCC four times unanimously warning the world to act? Didn't you see the glaciers melting? Didn't you see the North Pole's ice caps disappearing? Didn't you see the deserts growing and the droughts deepening and the crops drying up? Didn't you see the sea level rising? Didn't you see the floods? Didn't you pay attention to what was going on? Didn't you care? What were you thinking?"

Or will they ask a second question? One I much prefer them to ask. I want them to look back on this time and ask, "How did you find the moral courage to successfully address the crisis that someone said was impossible. How were you able to start the process that unleashed the moral imagination of humankind to see ourselves as a single global civilization?" And when they ask that question, I want you to tell them, that you saw it as a a privilege to be alive at a moment when a relatively small group of people could control the destiny of all generations to come.

Instead of shaking our heads at the difficulty of this task and saying woe is us. This is impossible. How can we do this? we're so mad at the ones that are making it harder. We ought to feel a sense of joy that we have work that is worth doing, that is so important to the future of all humankind. We ought to feel a sense of exhilaration that we are the people alive in a moment in history when we can make all of the difference.

That is who we are. You have everything you need. We have everything we need, save perhaps, political will. But political will is a renewable source.

Thank you very much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 1st sentence is scary, if it means he believes he can only help w/the CC if he is not bound by diplomatic niceties, such as being the president.

But then, the last sentence states that political will is renewable. Will he be our renewable political will?

I am today, offically admitting that I am obsessed w/Al Gore being our president.

[rosesaylavee]

3. Oh thank you for transcribing that!

I am not so sure I am obsessed as personally being without a clue as to how in hell any one of the existing candidates could do what needs to be done. He is the only one that has all the key skills and experience to address the climate crisis, our constitutional crisis, the war in Iraq, Peak Oil, and all the other crises we are facing as a nation and the world.

Political will is a renewable resource. Wish he was on the list of choices for renewing.

[Pastiche423]

6. You are most welcome

My obsession is for exactly the same reasons you wrote. I've listened to all of the candidates, even the ones I loathe. Not one of them do I have trust in to do what needs to be done in our country and for our planet.

[rodbailey]

5. Thanks for the transcription

and the obsession. I especially noted in his comments the phrase toward the end when he ways "you saw it as a privilege to be alive at a moment when a relatively small group of people could control the destiny of all generations to come." In some way, I see us as that small group that's trying to control the destiny of the US, and the global climate issue, by making sure Al Gore is our next president. And, believe me, we seem to be a small, but dedicated band as the first primaries and caucuses draw near. None of the TV talking heads will give any notice to Gore as they handicap the "horserace" they create among the top 2 or 3 in each party. That's why it is more critical than ever that we do whatever we can to make this NH write-in campaign successful. Gore seemed to suggest in his comments that by 2009 he knew the US would be on a new path. Was that a hidden message? Certainly if Huckelberry gets in the WH I can't see much effort toward global climate change happening. The man doesn't even believe in evolution, so how much will he trust any science? Scary!

[Pastiche423]

7. The new path by 2009

hit me as well. I asked myself if it meant that he had spoken w/the other candidates and has felt that at least one of them would do what it takes. If so, how could he know which one will win?

But then, myself asks back, who could that be? I haven't heard any of the candidates stress the urgency that is needed.

He says, trust me. He knows how politics works. He knows how the goveernment works. What does he know that we don't?

Ai yi yi yi!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. I have almost decided that without a doubt, that I am writing his

name in for my primary. My primary is SOo0o0o late that it is only a gesture of defiance on my part. Unless.....