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Al Gore is our generation's Paul Revere. Riding hard through the country, he
warns us of the impending arrival of climatic disaster. He's proven an
astonishingly effective messenger. An Inconvenient Truth may receive an Oscar
for Best Documentary. Overflow crowds greet his presentations with standing
ovations.
Which, come to think of it, is odd. When has someone ever delivered such an
ominous message to such tumultuous applause? (Aside from those who insist we are
in the end times and the rapture is near.)
In a recent speech to a standing-room-only audience at the New York University
School of Law, Gore declared, "We are moving closer to several 'tipping points'
that could -- within as little as 10 years -- make it impossible for us to avoid
irretrievable damage to the planet's habitability for human civilization." The
audience cheered wildly. Presumably audiences are not cheered by the prospect of
imminent catastrophe. ...