Carbon Neutral Al Gore

BBC Learning EnglishWeekenderCarbon Neutral Al GoreCallum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender.
　　Al Gore 1 was the vicepresident of the United States under Bill Clinton from 1993to 2001. He very nearly became the President in acontroversial election when despite having fewer votes thevictory was awarded to George Bush.
　　But what is Al Gore doing now? Well the former politicianis in the film business and promoting environmental issuesaround the world. This year he is the star of a new film,'An Inconvenient 2 Truth', a documentary which follows him ona lecture tour discussing the dangers of global warming andclimate change.
　　Speaking to Mark Lawson from the BBC Radio 4's Front Rowprogramme at the Edinburgh International film andtelevision festival, Al Gore explained what he was tryingto achieve. What is his goal?
　　Al GoreI want to move the US and then to the extent that I canplay a role the rest of the world across a tipping pointbeyond which a majority of the politicians in both partiesare genuinely competing to offer meaningful and serioussolutions to the climate crisis and I think we'll know whenwe cross that tipping point.
　　Callum: He wants to move politicians in America andhopefully around the world to make genuine attempts to comeup with answers to the climate crisis. He usesthe expression 'a tipping point'. This is an expressionwhich is increasinglybeing used. It describes a situation where after a certaintime or point the speed of a process increases greatly. The'tipping point' for Al Gore on environmental issues is whenpoliticians begin to take the problem of climate changeseriously and start to offer solutions – then he believesthere will be a fast increase in concern for theenvironment and action to protect it. Listen again.
　　Al GoreI want to move the US and then to the extent that I canplay a role the rest of the world across a tipping pointbeyond which a majority of the politicians in both partiesare genuinely competing to offer meaningful and serioussolutions to the climate crisis and I think we'll know whenwe cross that tipping point.
　　Callum: However, for someone who is so concerned with theenvironment there is a problem. Flying around the world topromote his ideas uses a lot of energy and resources andcauses the pollution he is trying to stop. How does he dealwith this apparent contradiction?
　　Al GoreAs you can imagine I've long since given a lot of thoughtto that and for that reason my family and I decided 3 sometime back to live 'carbon neutral' lives, as they say. AlsoParamount Classics, distributing this movie have made itthe first 'carbon neutral' tour and distributionand the production is 'carbon neutral' and the book is thefirst 'carbon neutral' book, so I do advocate a decision tobecome 'carbon neutral'.
　　Callum: He talks about being carbon neutral. The pollutionthat comes from using traditional fuels and energy iscarbon based. Being carbon neutral means using as muchalternative energy and as many energy saving devices aspossible as well as contributing to projects that help theenvironment.
　　He says that not only does his family live a carbon neutrallife but also the distribution of his film is carbonneutral and that the book of the film is also carbonneutral. He says he advocates a decision to become carbonneutral - he recommends and suggests that people becomecarbon neutral.
　　Listen again.
　　Al GoreAs you can imagine I've long since given a lot of thoughtto that and for that reason my family and I decided sometime back to live 'carbon neutral' lives, as they say. AlsoParamount Classics, distributing this movie have made itthe first 'carbon neutral' tour and distributionand the production is 'carbon neutral' and the book is thefirst 'carbon neutral' book, so I do advocate a decision tobecome 'carbon neutral'.
　　Callum: That was carbon neutral Al Gore and that's all fromthis edition of Weekender.