14 DAY TRIAL // The US president-elect, Barack Obama, his vice-president, Joe Biden, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore met on Tuesday at Obama's presidential transition office in Chicago and discussed the matters related to climate change and global warming for the better part of two hours. At the end of the session, the president said that all three were in agreement and that the issue of protecting the environment had become a matter of national security, which the US had to treat with the utmost seriousness.
"We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, in all 50 states, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we're saving the planet," Obama said, putting an end to a lack of attitude that characterized the White House throughout George Bush's term.
The former administration undoubtedly left the most devastating track on the environment, especially through its latest decisions, which seem bent on doing as much damage as possible to the ecosystem, while pleasing fossil fuel industry representatives. "This is a matter of urgency and of national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That's what I intend my administration to do," Obama emphasized.
Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection began lobbying President Obama just as soon as he won the election, rolling out a massive ad campaign, aimed at drawing attention to the fact that the US needs increased investments in energy efficiency and renewable power, to make it competitive on the international level. Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, for his year-long effort to make people aware of the dangers of global warming.
Neither Obama nor Gore said anything about the former vice-president occupying an official post in the future White House administration, but Gore made it clear on several occasions that he would not accept any such position in any administration that could make him susceptible to influences other than his own.