Former Vice-President-turned-environmental-crusader Al Gore aroused admiration and ire during an impassioned speech Tuesday night at the Colorado Convention Center.
The man behind the global warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,”sounded a familiar warning of worldwide catastrophe if drastic measures to reverse the effects of pollution aren’t taken to about 1,000 attendees at the Wells Fargo Theatre .
“It reminds me of how it felt to protest Rocky Flats and the military draft at DU 30 years ago,” Kimberly Taylor said of Gore’s call to action. “It’s revitalizing.”
Not everyone showed support for Gore, however.
Animal-activist organization PETA hired a truck to circle the convention center during Gore’s speech that depicted a cartoon, beer-bellied Gore waving a chicken leg.
“Too chicken to go vegetarian?” It read. “Meat is the number one cause of global warming.”
Gore stayed away from speaking about politics for the most part, stopping only to fault today’s politicians for not doing enough to stave off environmental disaster.
Ken Freeman and Gilda Seymoure , of Ocean Springs, Miss. said they found Gore’s implication that the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was due in part to global warming especially eye-opening.
The couple last their house in the storm, they said.
“The funny thing is: people were talking about how severe this problem was 20 years ago,” Seymoure said. “Why are you just getting to it now?”
A number of local environmental groups were at the speech including the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, Legacy Economy and Colorado4Gore.
Staff writer Cassie Hewlings can be reached at 303-954-1638 or at chewlings@denverpost.com.
