Post by bot on Apr 13, 2004 23:13:40 GMT -5
Al Gore urges Yale students to take action on environment
---------------------------------------------------------
>From Newsday
(link:http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--gore-yale0413apr13,0,1837489.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire)
By DIANE SCARPONI
Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Former Vice President Al Gore, backed by photos of
melting ice caps and dry seas, urged Yale students Tuesday to become
activists for the environment.
"The only way it's going to change is if you decide you want it to
change," Gore told a crowd of 1,000 at Yale's Battell Chapel.
Gore said it is easy for people to become complacent because changes in
the environment happen slowly. He also said the earth is so big that it is
easy to think humans cannot harm it.
But in a 45-minute presentation, Gore showed that temperatures, polar ice
cap melting and pollution have increased rapidly over a short period of
time. At the same time, the human population has exploded around the
globe, increasing pressures on natural resources.
Already, severe heat waves, droughts and floods are more common. At some
point, he said, the trend could be impossible to reverse.
"This is a crisis that has an unusual sense of urgency attached to it, and
we should see it as an emergency," Gore said.
Gore urged people to use renewable energy resources, such as solar and
wind power, instead of burning oil and gasoline. He supported some
students' efforts to get Yale to buy power from such sources.
Also, Gore urged students to learn all they could about environmental
issues so they could be better advocates for what they believe in.
While he said he did not appear at Yale to give a partisan speech, Gore
criticized Republican decisions on the environment, including proposed
changes to current clean air and water rules.
He said Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee,
was an important ally of his on environmental issues in the Senate.
"He has really been a standout where environmental protection is
concerned," Gore said.
Gore, a former senator from Tennessee, has been popular at Yale, both as
Bill Clinton's vice president and as the 2000 Democratic presidential
nominee. He won by a landslide in the New Haven voting ward that includes
much of the campus.
He spoke Tuesday at the invitation of students from the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies who are participating in a course this
year about the environment and politics.
---------------------------------------------------------
>From Newsday
(link:http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--gore-yale0413apr13,0,1837489.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire)
By DIANE SCARPONI
Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Former Vice President Al Gore, backed by photos of
melting ice caps and dry seas, urged Yale students Tuesday to become
activists for the environment.
"The only way it's going to change is if you decide you want it to
change," Gore told a crowd of 1,000 at Yale's Battell Chapel.
Gore said it is easy for people to become complacent because changes in
the environment happen slowly. He also said the earth is so big that it is
easy to think humans cannot harm it.
But in a 45-minute presentation, Gore showed that temperatures, polar ice
cap melting and pollution have increased rapidly over a short period of
time. At the same time, the human population has exploded around the
globe, increasing pressures on natural resources.
Already, severe heat waves, droughts and floods are more common. At some
point, he said, the trend could be impossible to reverse.
"This is a crisis that has an unusual sense of urgency attached to it, and
we should see it as an emergency," Gore said.
Gore urged people to use renewable energy resources, such as solar and
wind power, instead of burning oil and gasoline. He supported some
students' efforts to get Yale to buy power from such sources.
Also, Gore urged students to learn all they could about environmental
issues so they could be better advocates for what they believe in.
While he said he did not appear at Yale to give a partisan speech, Gore
criticized Republican decisions on the environment, including proposed
changes to current clean air and water rules.
He said Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee,
was an important ally of his on environmental issues in the Senate.
"He has really been a standout where environmental protection is
concerned," Gore said.
Gore, a former senator from Tennessee, has been popular at Yale, both as
Bill Clinton's vice president and as the 2000 Democratic presidential
nominee. He won by a landslide in the New Haven voting ward that includes
much of the campus.
He spoke Tuesday at the invitation of students from the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies who are participating in a course this
year about the environment and politics.