Gore's voting message arrives via webcast

Author: Eleanor Horowitz

On Oct. 29, a group of over 50 students gathered to watch Al Gore's live webcast for Power Vote. The Sunday Night Group (SNG) and the College's chapter of Power Vote sponsored the event held in the Orchard in the Hillcrest Environmental Center on Wednesday night while American Flatbread provided two dozen pizzas to keep supporters energized.

Middlebury joins hundreds of other college campuses in supporting Power Vote, a national nonpartisan initiative organized by the Energy Action Coalition. The group aims to promote a green political platform and to hold elected officials accountable for their decisions regarding the climate crisis and clean energy.

Former Vice President Al Gore addressed a live Internet audience about the importance of voting on the basis of a Power Vote agenda and on his Repower America challenge.

Emphasizing the connection between the current climate crisis, energy crisis, economic crisis and national security crisis, Gore said that the answer to all of the crises is to switch to renewable carbon-free energy.

"All of these crises have a common thread running through them," he said. "That common thread is our ridiculous, absurd, dangerous over-dependence on carbon-based fuels."

The half-hour webcast opened with the theme of "We Can Change" and concluded with the same message. Gore compared the clean energy movement to the Civil Rights movement and said that the days before this election will be a time that young activists and voters will look back on for the rest of their lives.

Before the webcast began, organizer Ben Wessell '11 played video clips from 350.org to raise awareness for additional environmental action initiatives, such as urging the President-elect to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland this December.

The GoreCast attracted other "get-out-the-vote" movements on campus. Members of MiddVote and College Democrats attended the event and responded to the webcast.

"He just rallied the base. You need to do what Gore didn't do," wrote Vice President of College Democrats Jeff Garofano '10.5 in an e-mail to SNG members just hours after GoreCast aired.

Garofano urged students to participate in phone banking and a trip to New Hampshire in an effort to rally undecided voters. With less than a week until the election, Garofano's message focuses on getting out the vote, regardless of its focus on energy and climate.

"I would argue that the practical matter of getting [Obama] elected is a more worthwhile use of time than the moral victory of baptizing someone into climate change rationality, given that there are only six days until the election," he wrote. "You need to speak directly to the voting priorities of undecided voters. They think of the economy first, and usually think of climate change near last."

Power Vote consists of a pledge declaring, "I pledge to make clean, just energy a top priority in my vote this election." The Power Vote platform includes a commitment to create more green jobs, invest in a clean energy economy, cut global warming pollution and end dependence on dirty energy. During the GoreCast, organizers passed around a computer and pledge sheets for attendees to join the Power Vote pledge.