Al Gore backs 'non-violent lawbreaking'

Former Vice-president Al Gore publicly supported what he called "non-violent lawbreaking" in a recent interview concerning his new book and the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen. Gore said that civil unrest against fossil-fuel polluters is a legitimate and important method to promote drastic action against global warming. In addition, Gore states that he believes that it is crucial for President Obama to attend the 10-day Copenhagen summit, where countries traditionally send cabinet members or special climate negotiators. Gore himself represented the Clinton administration during the Kyoto summit of 1997.

While publicizing his new book, Our Choice, Gore remains optimistic that the United States will pass cap and trade in the Senate prior to the Copenhagen summit and that world leaders will achieve a legally binding agreement, despite the drastically lowered expectations for both pieces of legislation. Recent reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will ask the EPA to perform more research on Cap and Trade before presenting it to the Senate virtually assures that it will not be passed prior to Copenhagen.

In order to rile the world into action, Gore predicts and endorses a rise in demonstrations and activist involvement. "Civil disobedience has an honorable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play," he says. "And I expect that it will increase, no question about it."

Alongside the battle for climate change legislation, Gore has been battling with climate skeptics that seek to portray him as the face of climate change in order to delegitimize the message of all those climate-concerned. A recent full-length documentary Not Evil, Just Wrong and politically charged challenges for Al Gore to "lead by example" and cut his own carbon footprint are two examples of what Gore calls the climate skeptic's "last stand."