| Albert Gore, Jr., is currently the Vice President of the United States as well as an avid environmentalist. He has served both as a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator, and he has authored a major book about environmental balance. Gore was born in Washington, D.C. in 1948. His father was a Democratic U.S. congressman and later a senator from
Tennessee. Gore attended St. Alban's Episcopal School for Boys and then Harvard College, where he majored in government. Though he personally opposed the United States' military involvement, Gore then served in the Vietnam War. He was given the job of U.S. Army reporter, and he continued to work in journalism after completing his service.In 1974, Gore entered Vanderbilt University in Tennessee to study law, but he
was soon lured away by the option of running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected four consecutive times; in 1984, he was elected to U.S. Senate. While serving in both Congress and the Senate, Gore worked to support environmental causes by drafting numerous pieces of environmental legislation. In Congress, he focused on the relationship between the environment and health. He was also one of only two Senators to participate in the 1992 United
Nations Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This was the largest environmental conference ever held. During this period, Gore also wrote a book, Earth in the Balance, which was published in 1992 during his Vice-Presidential Campaign and became quite well known. In this work, Gore examines how industrial development harms the environment, and he supports the use of government policies and
regulations to provide incentives for individuals and corporations to use environmentally sound techniques. Gore states that these steps -- carried, through the United Nations, to an international level -- could serve to successfully balance human needs with environmental protection and restoration. Gore believes that such measures should be combined with positive attitudes towards the environment as a whole and acceptance by
individuals of responsibility for actions to restore the earth's balance. At the individual level, Gore actually defines environmental protection to mean living and acting responsibly and in awareness of the natural and social environment. In 1992, when Bill Clinton was searching for a Vice-Presidential running mate, Gore's environmental concerns made him the ideal choice. Throughout President Clinton's two terms in office, Gore has been instrumental in shaping
the administration's environmental agenda. Gore's speeches |
