Gore concerns about global warming

The world has the technology to reverse the trends of global warming, but using it remains the greatest challenge, former Vice President Al Gore told an audience at Vanderbilt University. "What's missing is political will, but political will is a renewable source," he said Wednesday night. "We have to work together. Believe me, it is up to you, all of us, but I address you personally, to respond."

During his political career and unsuccessful bid for president in 2000, Gore pushed for stricter environmental policies for both the United States and foreign countries and has since taken his global climate change lecture across the U.S. With slide presentations, humor and personal anecdotes, Gore tried to drive home the urgency of global warming.

He showed a video clip from the "Futurama" TV show titled "None Like It Hot" parodying a 1950s-era educational film. Gore's daughter Kristin was a writer on the Fox Network cartoon and Gore once made a guest voice appearance. Side-by-side photographs showed glaciers around the world at various times in history with one photo showing an expansive glacier, the next showing smaller or no remaining glaciers.

Rising carbon dioxide levels, increasing temperatures, the melting of the Earth's ice caps and more intense storms are all direct results of global warming and will lead to massive flooding and destruction in some areas of the world, Gore said. One example, he said, is the higher frequency, intensity and destruction of hurricanes in the past two years.

"If we allow this to happen, it is deeply immoral and unethical," he said. "This is not a political issue. It's a moral issue, an ethical issue and a spiritual issue." Nashville resident Steve Johnson said global warning isn't being talked about enough among Americans. "We have the resources to fix it," Johnson, 54, said. "(Gore) made that very clear, global warming is completely accepted by the scientific community. It's not a theory, it's a fact", reports the AP. N.U.