Al Gore wins Oscar but does not announce presidential bid
Al Gore wins Oscar but does not announce presidential bid
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
February 25, 2007
Al Gore won an Oscar for his global warming documentary but did not announce a bid for the 2008 presidential election. Speculation had been rife that he might use the Academy Awards platform — with more than one billion people said to be watching — to launch his candidacy for president.
Accepting the Oscar, for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Gore said, “My fellow Americans, people all over the world — we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue. It’s a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it.”
Earlier in the evening Al Gore took to the stage with Leonardo DiCaprio to announce that the Oscars had gone green this year by offsetting carbon emissions generated by the awards show. On stage DiCaprio said that Gore had “some kind of major announcement tonight” to which Gore responded “With a billion people watching, it’s as good a time as any.” He then pulled out a speech and started to “to formally announce” before the orchestra cut him off.
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Gore has been a champion of the environment since his first took office some three decades ago.
An Inconvenient Truth also won another Oscar. Melissa Etheridge was awarded the Oscar for the Best Song for “I Need to Wake Up” from the documentary.
An Inconvenient Truth was directed David Guggenheim and funded by Jeff Skoll, former President of eBay of current founder of the Soll Foundation. Skoll has also backed Fast Food Nation, Syriana, American Gun, North Country, and Good Night, and Good Luck.
