In late May, Al Gore collected $1 million for winning a Dan David Foundation award for his environmental work. In his acceptance speech, Gore repeated his long-familiar sentiment, "We do face a planetary emergency." The prize is just the latest honor for Gore, who in 2007 won an Oscar, Emmy, and Nobel Peace Prize (which he shared with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Gore's share of the Nobel Prize was $750,000. Gore said his prize money-the Nobel purse and 90% of the $1 million-would not go into his bank account. Instead, it would support his nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection. The alliance also received Gore's proceeds from An Inconvenient Truth, his Oscar-winning film about global wanning. Gore's gestures are presented as acts of generosity, but one wonders how much he stands to profit from his non-profit activities. The alliance plans to spend $300 million over three years on its "We Can Solve It" ad campaign. All that tax-exempt tax-deductible money is aimed at raising public awareness of global warming so that Americans will demand lawmakers take action. Visit the "We Can Solve It" website [www.wecansolveit.org] and you can watch a video comparing your commitment to solving the climate crisis to the World War II Normandy landings, the civil rights movement, and putting a man on the moon. The "We" campaign also features magazine photo layouts and videos of some strange bedfellows. One features a chummy twosome, clergymen Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton, who rib each other about their political differences but agree that we all need to "get involved" to solve the climate crisis. In another. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich offer up a similar message. The feel-good campaign seems to solicit everyone's participation, but the star of the show is Gore, who has managed to transform himself from Bill Clinton's pompous second banana into a heroic crusader, a reallife Captain Planet. After winning the trifecta of an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel Peace Prize, the once uptight Gore has become a rock star, above the political fray. Why risk that by running for office? One-Man Conglomerate Since leaving public office, Gore has become a one-man conglomerate: He writes books, stars in a movie, commands massive speaking fees, and sits on corporate boards. Gore had under $2 million when he left the vice presidency in 2001 but today his fortune exceeds $100 million and his climate crusade will likely make him even richer. Gore has cast his net in green technology. He is a partner in venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which this year formed two funds that will invest $ 1.2 billion in environmentally friendly companies. Gore is also co-founder and chairman of Londonbased Generation Investment Management (GIM), which collaborates with Kleiner Perkins to find investments in "sustainability." He's also invested $35 million in a hedge rund, Capricorn Investment Group. Founded by former eBay president Jeff Skoll, Capricorn invests its clients' funds in makers of eco-friendly products. Gore has been very open in admitting that he will profit from the success of Kleiner Perkins investments. In March, weeks before announcing the Alliance for Climate Protection's extravagant ad campaign, Gore was in Monterey, Calif., where he hosted yet another of his now-familiar slide-show presentations about global warming. It was for the computer industry elite who attended the annual TED-Technology, Entertainment, Design-conference. TED is a project of the Sapling Foundation (assets $43 million), founded in 19%. Its president is former computer magazine publisher Christopher Anderson and its advisory board includes Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Gore told his audience where to put their money. Where should you invest once government starts regulating the economy and telling companies how much greenhouse gas they will be permitted to emit? "There are a lot of great investments you can make," Gore told 1,000 investor/philanthropists. But he warned, "If you are investing in tar sands, or shale oil, then you have a portfolio that is crammed with sub-prime carbon assets. And it is based on an old model. Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and their legs collapse. Developing tar sands and coal shale is the equivalent." Gore then offered his alternative, recommending little-known companies such as the bio-fuel and fuel cell firms Amyris, Altra, Bloom Energy, and Mascoma. There were the solar cell firms Miasole and Ausra as well as Smart, which makes electric cars, and the geothermal power company Alta Rock Energy. Gore disclosed his personal financial stake in these companies. Untested high-tech startups require large-scale capital investment, which is why Gore's involvement in the Menlo Park, Calif., firm Kleiner Perkins is significant. Such venture capita] firms make money by investing in fledgling companies with growth potential. In exchange for funds, the venture capital firm gets a say in the governance of the budding company. The seed money lets companies grow to the point where they can be publicly traded or sold to a larger firm, at which point the venture capital firm hopes to reap a big return on its investment.Al Gore's Carbon Empire: Cashing in on Climate Change
Human Events, Aug 18, 2008 by Lucas, Fred
Monday, 13 July 2009
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