Articulate, funny, and compelling!
Al Gore was a great opening keynote at SLA this year. Having worked closely with SLA CEO Janice LaChance, Al was quite aware of the role of information and information professionals and played to the audience with his support of their activities. He talked about the information gathering skills learned as an investigative reporter and how ‘information’ helped him as a member of Congress. He talked passionately about sharing information on the climate crisis through his book, film, and slides shows. He has trained more than 1300 people to give his slide show in the US, Australia, England and other countries. This project is very exciting.
And he talked about information and information flows through our world and ecosystem in the context of his new book, Assault on Reason. Here’s an interesting review of the book.
Some interesting quotes:
“I’d love to be President, but this [the climate crisis] is burning in me.”
“The rule of reason is enlightenment. Knowledge is a source of influence and power. We need a free information strategy …. and to apply the rule of reason to political will — it is a renewable resource.”