An electrified crowd of 3,500 high school students, 2,000 UB students and various other attendees sat in Alumni Arena this past Friday to hear award-winning environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore.
Gore visited UB as part of the annual Distinguished Speaker Series, in conjunction with the university's Greener Shade of Blue campaign. Gore lectured twice at UB, once for high school and university students at noon, and again for an evening crowd open to the general public.
A short film by sophomore media studies major Matthew Jackson began the noon lecture. The film highlighted experiments by UB students geared toward bettering the environment.
UB President John B. Simpson, New York State Lieutenant Governor David Patterson and junior environmental engineering major Kelly Miller spoke before the former vice president.
"I know you are all here because you share my concern and my interest," Simpson said.
Gore jokingly opened by noting that he is "the former next president of the United States." He also discussed the severity of Earth's "climate crisis," noting how the Chinese and Japanese word for crisis is actually made up of back-to-back individual characters meaning danger and opportunity.
"If you walk through the danger, there are lots of opportunities," he said.
The presentation paralleled that of Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," describing the basic science of global warming as the effect of trapping carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere.
Normally, our planet would be, as Gore described it, "the goldilocks planet" - not too hot, not too cold.
"I hope to convince you to become activists. This is your turn. As young people you have an opportunity to be the conscience of our country," Gore said.
Ice melting, ocean temperatures and intense weather as well as stunning images of the beauty of our planet and the already existent disturbing changes it has undergone served as evidence.
"We need to turn the thermostat down. We need to stop this," Gore said, citing numerous locations around the world that would be tragically affected by shifting glacial ice and resultant rising ocean levels.
He pointed out that the entire World Trade Center memorial site will be underwater if the ocean rises a mere 20 feet - which is possible with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica.
Ocean temperatures are also causing visible, widespread effects, he said.
"The chemistry of the ocean is changing. When the ocean gets hotter that makes the storms that come off the water stronger," Gore said.
Displaying photographs of recent hurricanes and tropical storms, Gore noted that both the number of storms and their intensity has grown dramatically and without precedent.
"It seems like he definitely did his research before he came here," said Jason Orrange, freshman chemical engineering major.
According to the scientific predictions Gore presented, Buffalo is due for some of the highest projected precipitation intensity and the highest number of dry days in years to come.
"In Buffalo, you've certainly seen the weird change in the seasons," he said.
Gore continued to stress the importance of activism on levels from the classroom to the nation.
"I hope and believe you will be a part of a mass movement to change the way our country is thinking about this," he said. "This school is one of the great leaders of environmental initiatives."
Gore ended the show in a verbal firestorm of inspiration, citing the achievements of the American people and our need to stop global warming.
"Are we capable, as Americans, of doing things even though they're difficult?" he asked.
Orrange added that getting to hear Gore in person affected him more than just watching him on screen.
"Seeing it in person kind of rallied everything a little bit more," Orrange said. "It was good to see the passion around the arena."
