‘Gore is the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.’

FORMER United States Vice-President Al Gore is here in Manila, and was the keynote speaker at a conference on ‘The Leader as Environmental Steward–Face the Inconvenient Truth.’ Hosted by SM Prime Holdings, the event was held yesterday afternoon at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia Complex.

A standing-room audience heard his award-winning, updated version of the multimedia speech ‘An Inconvenient Truth (focus on Asia)’ where he confronted environmental issues in the world today and their impact on our civilization.

Leaders from the academe, business, diplomatic, government and non-government sectors were well represented. An auditorium-full of guests came to hear the most authoritative lecturer on the threat of climate change and solutions to global warming as it concerns our region.

Al Gore’s issues were in the 2006 documentary film about his campaign to educate citizens on global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times. The film was a critical and box-office success, winning two Oscars, for Best Documentary Feature and for Best Original Song. The film also earned $49 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States and considered one of the top documentary films of all time.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. The former vice president used the attention to warn that global warming is ‘the greatest challenge we’ve ever faced…. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity…. It is now abundantly clear that we have at our fingertips all the tools we need to solve the climate crisis. The only missing ingredient is collective will.’ The Nobel citation: ‘[Al Gore] is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.’

Gore has just published ‘Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,’ his latest book which gathers in one place all of the most effective available measures that will help solve the climate crisis. Gore has a BA from Harvard, served in Vietnam, then into journalism before becoming a US congressman, senator, then Vice President under Pres. Clinton.

Inviting Al Gore to the Philippines is in line with SM Prime Holdings’ environmental platform of SM Supermalls. They have the dedication to balance business opportunity with green responsibility which underscores SM’s commitment to be at the forefront of the best practice and advocacy of environmental protection in the country.

‘We have always been committed to environmental preservation. Beyond our many environmental programs, we feel that we can further spread the advocacy by having more people learn about this global problem and how it impacts each and everyone of us…. This is why we are bringing in the world’s most influential authority on climate change. We want the urgency of his message to be heard by Filipino leaders, as well as by Filipinos in general.’–SM Prime Holdings President Hans Sy said in a statement.

Since 1992, SM Prime Holdings and SM Supermalls have embarked on numerous programs to manage consumption of power and energy, water and solid materials in all its malls–which now number 37 malls nationwide. Two years ago, SM consolidated these activities under the SM Cares program, along with its other corporate social responsibility efforts in the areas of children, women, providing breastfeeding stations, overseas Filipino workers and persons with disabilities.