How Al Gore Got His Groove Back

Before Katrina, before Kyoto, before the Clinton years, Al Gore held the first congressional hearing on atmospheric carbon dioxide as a rookie senator in 1981. This week's issue of New York magazine traces Gore's interest in global warming from his days as a Harvard undergraduate through the development of his speeches on global warming, his 1992 book Earth in the Balance, and finally to the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which opened Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles and opens in select theatres nationwide in June. Al Gore has been traveling the country promoting the film and is said to have shed his stiff persona to reveal a passionate Al Gore that was missing in the 2000 presidential campaign. He even won audiences over this past weekend with an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Is Al Gore merely promoting a film, or does he have greater political ambitions? For climate scientists who have seen their funding slashed under the Bush administration and their efforts to report scientific results on global warming curtailed by administration appointees, one can only hope.

• An Inconvenient Truth Official Website [Climate Crisis]
  
• Trailer: An Inconvenient Truth [Apple]
  
• The Come-Back Kid [New York Magazine]
  
• 'An Inconvenient Truth': Al Gore's Fight Against Global Warming [New York Times]
  
• Saturday Night Live: If Al Gore were President (Video) [Crooks and Liars]