Al Takes the Train

Because I gave Al Gore such a hard time over his electric bill, I thought I would mention this story. Gore is in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Price, and he took public transportation from the airport:

Gore in Norway to get Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway – Former Vice President Al Gore arrived in Oslo on Friday to accept the Nobel Peace Prize he shared for the campaign against global warming, and shunned the traditional airport motorcade in favor of climate-friendly public transport.

Before his arrival with his wife Tipper, Gore informed his hosts that he would not need the traditional motorcade from the airport, preferring to take the high-speed and environmentally friendly airport train and then walking to his downtown Oslo hotel.

“I use public transport when I can. It isn’t always possible,” Gore told The Associated Press while walking up Oslo’s main street to his hotel. He said the train was much faster than a limousine, but that it was also a symbol of efforts to reduce pollution in hopes of slowing climate change.

“It is a gesture. It is also one of the changes we are all going to have to be doing anyway,” Gore said.

I wonder if he flew commercial? Hey, if I hadn’t asked, the first person to comment following the post would have. But it’s good to see that he made the gesture.

Speaking of Gore, what ever happened to this marvelous new invention that was supposed to be unveiled in his presence?

The rich, famous and influential prepare to hear the secret to climate-safe energy

A discovery that could give the world access to vast quantities of energy with minimal damage to the climate will be shown off for the first time at a glittering gathering of the famous, rich and influential next Friday night.

Al Gore is to be the star turn at a dinner where guests have paid at least £1,000 a head, and some will have parted with £50,000 for their share of the Aberdeen Angus steak and pink champagne, under the high ornate ceilings of London’s Royal Courts of Justice. The combined wealth of the diners has been estimated at £100bn. But the most unusual aspect of the evening is not the price of the tickets but the nature of the floor show. In place of professional performers, the guests will be regaled by people who are not always thought of as entertainers, though some think they are all mad. They are inventive British boffins who care about climate change.

They are hoping that the showcase dinner will knock years off the time it can take for industry to see the mass marketing potential of a new discovery. And the one that will be shown to Mr Gore and fellow guests is highly marketable and could revolutionise the market in clean technology, according to the founder of the British Inventors’ Society, Kane Kramer.

Mr Kramer, who was 23 in 1979 when he conceptualised the technology that led to the creation of the first MP3 player, refused to give specific details of the new discovery, or to name the inventor, so as to maintain the element of surprise for Friday. But he indicated that it is a breakthrough in micro-technology, and that British scientists who have tested it are convinced that it will work.

“This is something … that’s the accumulation of almost a decade of work,” he said. “It’s a new science, a Super Material. It would be 80 per cent cheaper than any alternative means of production, and it will contribute in a major way to reducing climate change.

Well, the dinner was last weekend, but I haven’t heard anything else about this “Super Material.” Sounded a bit suspect to me from the start, but I would have thought at least now we would know what the story was.