Gore techs

Former vice president Al Gore spoke to Boston University students Wednesday via what was billed as a live ‘Gorecast,’ encouraging greener habits and environmental change.
Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, addressed college students across the country in a live webcast,’ encouraging youth to vote for the environmental change and to pledge their support for environmental issues. The webcast was broadcast in the George Sherman Union Conference Auditorium to an audience of more than 25.
Gore, speaking from Tennessee, said the problems currently facing the country ‘-‘- from economic issues to the war in Iraq ‘-‘- could be traced back to dependency on oil and gas.
‘All the crises have a common thread ‘-‘- our dependency on carbon-based fuels,’ Gore said. ‘The answer is to switch to renewable, carbon-free energy.’
Gore reiterated the We Can Solve It Campaign’s goal to have 100 percent clean energy in 10 years. The We Campaign is Gore’s campaign for environmental consciousness.

‘It’s not too idealistic,’ he said. ‘John F. Kennedy issued a challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth in 10 years.’
When that goal was accomplished, eight years and two months after Kennedy’s initial pledge, the average age of engineers in NASA’s control room was 26, Gore said.
‘That means when the challenge was issued, the average age of these men and women was 18,’ Gore said, likening those pioneering scientists to the college students he addressed.
‘You can make an amazing difference by getting out and voting.
‘We have everything we need right now to solve this crisis,’ Gore said. ‘The next six days before the election . . . the rest of your lives you will look back on these next six days.’
The viewing was organized by the BU chapter of Power Vote, a national non-partisan organization dedicated to highlighting the importance of environmental issues in the 2008 election
Power Vote campus coordinator Eddie Miller said the webcast was part of a national Power Vote event that took place on more than 100 campuses.
‘We want to get one million people pledged to Power Vote by Nov. 4,’ Miller, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said. ‘Here at BU, we have about 2,300 so far and, nationally, we have around 360,000.’
Miller addressed the audience before the webcast.
‘We’re reaching a tipping point,’ he said. ‘What we’re seeing now is a feedback effect. When things start happening, they start happening faster.”
Tyler Kinser, an Allston resident, said the cause of global warming is caused by the lifestyles people lead today.
‘The root of the problem is the way we live,’ he said. ‘We consume too much. We spend too much on things we don’t really need. The problem is our selfishness.’
Kinser said someone should set an example.
‘If this is something we care about, let’s lead by example,’ he said. ‘Do everything you can, as many things as you can to realize this goal.’