Get trained to give Al Gore's presentation

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Al Gore

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Former Vice-President Al Gore presented a PowerPoint version of "An Inconvenient Truth" on Feb. 28 in the University of Miami's Convocation Center.

"Al Gore never gives up," said UM's President Donna Shalala, who served as a director of the department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration. "He's a world-class environmentalist."

Gore walked on stage in front of an audience of nearly 7,000 peopleand began introducing Shalala's family members who were in the audience and the mayor of Miami, Manny Diaz. Then, Gore introduced himself.

"And I am Al Gore," Gore said. "I used to be the next president of the United States." After taking a few, what Gore called "cheapshots," at Washington, he began his hour and a half long presentation.

"This used to be a bi-partisan issue," Gore said referring to the United States and other countries being able to successfully combat the release of CFC's in the air which damage the earth's ozone layer. "I hope [Global Warming] can be a bi-partisan issue."

He also mentioned he believes in both the theory of evolution and creation.

After his presentation Gore mentioned that anyone can sign up to learn to give and train others to give his presentation.

"Everyone can do it just by being here, learning the information and then disseminating it," said William Sawchyn, a junior majoring in History at UM. "That makes you a vessel, an agent of change."

He already signed up in the regional chapter of the organization also named "An Inconvenient Truth." So far, he has presented at the Ponce de Leon Middle School in Coral Gables, Fl.

During the Gore's presentation, four UM students were allowed to ask questions. The first student, a mechanical engineering major, William T. Haig, asked the former veep, "Would you make everyone in this stadium happy by telling us what you are going to do in 2008?"

Gore said, "I'm in a different campaign now, to change minds."

"Because of his wonderful sense of humor and passion for the environment, he impacted the whole stadium," said Susan Guttmann, a nurse administrator at Baptist Hospital. "I felt it. He's charismatic."

Outside the Convocation Center, a group of four climate science majors hesistated to give their opinion because of a statistic shown in Gore's presentation. Gore said zero percent of peer-reviewed science journals print dissenting views on the theory of Global Warming but about 53 percent of popular media does.

"There's inheritantly a difference between the scientific community and the popular media," said Michael Trapp, a marine and atmosphere chemist graduate from UM. "Things move much faster in the scientific community then in the popular community."

(I will update this story with information on where people can sign up to train giving the Gore's presentation.)