Earth to Al Gore

Al Gore is in Chicago today meeting with President-elect Obama to talk about “energy, climate change, and job creation.” This has raised speculation that Obama plans to appoint him as a special “climate czar.”

However, it’s far more likely that Obama is just consulting with Gore on his upcoming choice for secretary of energy. Gore’s staffers have made it clear that he has no intention of joining the administration:

“Vice President Gore feels now that his calling really is to educate Americans about the climate crisis,” Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said Tuesday morning.

“He served for 30 years in electoral politics in the House, Senate and as vice president and surely understands the great importance of serving in those types of roles and in public service, but just feels now that his calling is in educating the public and in the roles that he’s serving now at the Alliance for Climate Protection.”

I find this disappointing. It was one thing for Gore to take up the role of climate change evangelist when he had just lost an election and frankly didn’t have much else to do. His message resonated more than anyone could have anticipated and he picked up a Nobel Peace Prize, on Oscar, and made himself a very wealthy man along the way.

But now, Gore finally has a president who’s largely sympathetic to his message and it’s hard to believe that he really has more of an impact as a spokesman than he would with a role in government. Folksy commercials about wind farmers stickin’ it to “the boys in Tehran” aren’t going to cut carbon emissions. But a serious cap-and-trade system possibly could. Getting such a system in place is going to take someone with some serious political chops, for instance, a guy with over 15 years of experience in congress and eight in the White House.

Al Gore’s been a great international spokesman. But the climate crisis doesn’t need its own Bono, it needs a serious and capable political leader. It’s time for the Gore-acle to get his hands dirty again.