If Gore Were Arrested is the title of an article at The Nation online. According to this report Al Gore has been invited to participate in civil disobedience with the Rainforest Action Network and he is considering it!
The article finishes its headline sentence this way:
If Gore did end up getting arrested during a protest against a coal-fired power plant, it would make front-page news throughout the world and put a spotlight on what some climate scientists and activists consider the single most important priority in the fight against climate change: halting the use of coal as the world's top source of electricity production.
Yes it would make headlines, but it seems to me it also runs the risk of sidelining Gore in an issue in which he is arguably the most significant US figure. He could instantly plummet from Nobel laureate to dirty hippie. I don't know what I would do in his situation. Al Gore has said 'Why [aren't there] rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them constructing new coal-fired power plants?' Maybe this is just for young people howling from outside establishment walls and not for suit-wearing, middle aged insiders wispering in the ears of the powers that be.
What do AFTIC's readers think? Would this be PR gold, or the kiss of media death?
Politics
Environment
Comments
I vote for "kiss of death", for the same reasons you speculate.
Posted by: Ambitwistor | October 29, 2007 1:30 PM
Ditto. Kiss of death.
Posted by: Mike the Mad Biologist | October 29, 2007 2:32 PM
Kiss of death - Gore's "attraction", such as it is, to Joe and Jill Average out there is due to his aura of normalcy. Once he stands on the front lines with all the "hippies" , "Earth Firsters" etc he will throw that cachet away forever and be marked as an eco terrorist.
Posted by: Dou | October 29, 2007 2:50 PM
I think hew could revive his name were he arrested for civil disobedience. It would certainly draw attention to an important issue.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had eight years of Gore rather than Bush?
Posted by: The Ethical Atheist | October 29, 2007 3:07 PM
I think hew could revive his name
Yeah, cuz no one remembers who Al Gore is.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had eight years of Gore rather than Bush?
You think getting arrested for civil disobedience is the path to the White House?
Posted by: truth machine | October 30, 2007 4:58 PM
I don't think that Al Gore is looking for a path to the White House. I think he has found a higher calling. If he chooses to place himself in a situation that puts him in contravention of the law, that's his business. I don't think the the cause will be affected in the long run, because there is too much momentum and scientific backup.
Posted by: F Mackenzie | October 30, 2007 5:16 PM
Go for it Mr. President,I mean Al.
Posted by: mrpirate | October 30, 2007 7:56 PM
I don't think that Al Gore is looking for a path to the White House.
Neither do I, but if he were, getting arrested for civil disobedience wouldn't be advisable.
Posted by: truth machine | October 30, 2007 7:59 PM
Truth Machine...
... two words: Nelson Mandela.
Posted by: Troff | October 30, 2007 11:01 PM
Mandela had to wait a hell of a long time, and to engineer a massive constitutional and cultural change before he got to be president. And he was helped by a worldwide embargo. If Gore is willing to wait that long, and change the US that much, then sure.
Posted by: Dagonz | October 31, 2007 1:04 AM
how lame is this? al gore is a hoax, if he gets arrested its guaranteed a trick to fool people into thinking that global warming is man made, and that somebody actually is arresting him for saying it.
that would be nonsense.
why are all the other planets heating by exactly as much as the earth? mars, jupiter etc
why does the UN say that asphalt is the biggest contributor to global warming?
how come plant in greenhouses thrive, and under the exact same "greenhouse effect" the world get destroyed? do you see how retarded the claim is?
why didnt the world end of global cooling, so heavily professed in the 70's?
why are all the major media outlets reporting on this, and not, lets say the buddhists? or the rain forest?
why arent they talking about the rainforest?
since when did the major media players start to worry about the eco system?
would more plancton help the eco system? because plants need the co2 to create more o2, they love the increase of co2, but there are real concerns
Posted by: this is ridicolous | October 31, 2007 4:38 AM
I'm all for this. Civil disobedience works best when it isn't confined to groups that are easily dismissed as being on the fringe, and all the science and all of the drumming up of social conscience on the issue isn't working as effectively as it needs to.
Al Gore shouldn't just protest, he should go all Sangamon Taylor on that plant.
Posted by: Dustin | October 31, 2007 8:45 AM
It'd probably boost his credentials as a climate-change guru, but he'd never hold a serious political office again. It depends on where he wants to go...
Posted by: Graeme | October 31, 2007 1:18 PM
'how come plant in greenhouses thrive, and under the exact same "greenhouse effect" the world get destroyed? do you see how retarded the claim is?'
You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding. Or retarded. "Kidding" or "retarded". Please. If you say one of those, I can sleep tonight.
Posted by: Dustin | October 31, 2007 3:27 PM
Those aren't mutually exclusive states, Dustin.
Posted by: Caledonian | October 31, 2007 5:19 PM
Would set him apart from the other spineless Democrats.
Posted by: degustibus | November 1, 2007 6:53 AM
Civil disobedience works best when it isn't confined to groups that are easily dismissed as being on the fringe, and all the science and all of the drumming up of social conscience on the issue isn't working as effectively as it needs to.
Posted by: kozmetik | December 23, 2007 1:47 PM
Neither do I, but if he were, getting arrested for civil disobedience wouldn't be advisable.
Posted by: Site Ekle | January 5, 2008 2:51 PM
he'd never hold a serious political office again. It depends on where he wants to go...
Posted by: kanser | March 30, 2008 6:33 AM