The President of the US of A at GW! And lunch with Ben, Terri, and Emily.

Emily (Ben & Terri's baby)

Al Gore

That's right.... Al Gore came to speak today for the National Association of Environmental Law Societies annual meeting which was hosted by GW Law this year. I was wonderful to see him in a small auditorium - so small that I was just 5 rows back from him when he was being introduced - because it felt very personal. His talk was interesting, for the most part, with lots of analogies that helped me better conceptualize some arguments of the "global warming is not occurring or is not as bad as it seems" crowd. One such example is: if your baby has a fever and you take it to the doctor and the doctor asks why you didn't bring him in 3 days ago when it started you wouldn't argue it's because it was only a 3 degree fever... then when the crib's on fire you're not going to argue the baby's flame retardant! What I enjoyed most was hearing his stance on the role the US should play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, more importantly, the political and economic hurdles that must be overcome in today's world for the US to become a leader in that realm. It seems most of his optimism rests upon the fact that more people are becoming aware of the issues and involved in making changes. His message today is to go to www.algore.com to see what you can do to help. I haven't done that yet but I figure I'm doing my part by giving him some free coverage here.... (for the probably 2 of you who read this blog)

As luck would have it, my good friends Ben and Terri who were on their way back to Philly from Charleston called as I was leaving the Gore talk and asked if I could meet them for lunch. It was really nice seeing them again and meeting Emily, the latest addition to their family. She's absolutely adorable. I also met Ben's sister and her co-worker who were in town for a conference. While neither of them were nearly as cute as Emily, they were really nice and interesting people.