Former vice-president, Al Gore recently put Obama on blast for not doing enough to prevent global warming in an essay in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
“President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change,” Gore wrote. “After successfully passing his green stimulus package, he did nothing to defend it when Congress decimated its funding. After the house passed cape and trade, he did little to make passage in the Senate a priority.”
Gore went on to say that Obama did live up to his promise of change during his election saying, “Obama’s election was accompanied by intense hope that many things in need of change would change. Some thing have, but other have not. Climate policy, unfortunately, is in the second category.”
But Obama wasn’t the only one who Gore said has not worked towards changing the climate problem. He said the news media is also in the wrong for allowing pop culture stories trump the importance of global warming.
“The referee in this analogy, the news media seems confused about whether he (Obama) is in the news business or the entertainment business. The referee certainly seems distracted by Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, the latest reality show; the list of serial obsessions is too long to enumerate here,” Gore said.
In 2009, Obama delivered a speech at the United Nations on the urgency of dealing with global warming saying, “That so many of us are here today is a recondition that the threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing. Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it-boldly, swiftly, and together we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe,” Obama said according to The Foundry.
Gore finished off his essay saying, “The scientific consensus is far stronger today than at any time in the past. Here is the truth: The Earth is round; Suddam Hussein did not attack us on 9/11; Elvis is dead; Obama was born in the United States; and the climate crisis is real. It is time to act.”
Gore is well-known for his documentary and book of the same name, “An Inconvenient Truth”—which spoke about the dangers of climate change.
This issue of Rolling Stone hits newsstands on June 24.
