Career Space E-zine

On June 1, 2006 Al Gore will be giving a special lecture at the University of British Columbia. According to the latest issue of Wired Magazine Al Gore is famous for almost being the “next president” of the US and for being incorrectly quoted for saying that he created the internet. The speech he is giving at UBC is based on his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” which was previewed at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

While there aren’t very many tickets available there is a lottery draw for students, staff and faculty. Of course, I have submitted my name. Hopefully I will have better luck than the Dali Lami/Nelson Mandella lottery.

I mentioned the lecture to a co-worker of mine who related a story to me about a news conference where Al Gore credited himself with the creation of the internet! There was a very interesting discussion regarding this issue on the Wired Magazine website (it is no longer available on the website) by the readers regarding the myth of of Al Gore attributing himself as the inventor of the internet. The comments he made were misinterpreted by Wired Magazine and that his intention was to really refer to the fact that he had introduced legislation that would provide for the funding of the creation of the internet. This goes to show you that you should take news reports with a grain of salt (or perhaps a cow salt lick in this case).

With the recent publication of David Suzuki’s autobiography, and the teaming up of Dr.Suzuki and Leonardo Dicaprio to promote sustainability these issues have come to the forefront of popular culture. It’s not that we haven’t been aware of these environmental issues all along, we’ve just seemed to have the attitude that if we block it out it just might go away or somehow correct itself. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991 we heard many news reports warning us that if the oil wells in Qatar were set on fire it would have dire implications for the quality of our atmosphere and health. The oil wells were indeed set on fire in 1991 and there has been very little reported on the consequences to the environment. Is there something they’re not telling us?

The documentary will be released on May 26, 2006 and a review will be forthcoming.