{"id":24065,"date":"2014-04-16T14:21:40","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T00:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=24065"},"modified":"2021-11-02T10:27:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:27:48","slug":"al-gore-headlines-major-sustainability-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2014\/04\/16\/al-gore-headlines-major-sustainability-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Gore headlines major sustainability conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xu0sqaYa6SE\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Former Vice President Al Gore brought his message about the dangers of climate change to the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> on the evening of April 15, 2014. He spoke before a crowd of nearly 7,000 people&#8212;more than half of them students&#8212;at <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>&#8217;s Stan Sheriff Center.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If we act together, there is absolutely no question that we will solve this,&rdquo; said Gore. &ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> is very impressively playing an inspiring leadership role.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Gore&#8217;s speech was the capstone event of Ascent, a one day conference on clean energy and a sustainable future hosted by the <a href=\"http:\/\/seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Sea Grant College Program<\/a>, <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa Chancellor <strong>Tom Apple<\/strong> and U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>. His message was crystal clear.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24060\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24060\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Gore-story-260x143.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"143\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-24060\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Gore-story-260x143.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Gore-story.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24060\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>&#8217;s Stan Sheriff Center on April 15, 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Our way of life is at stake,&rdquo; he said raising voice and waving his arms. &ldquo;Our grandchildren are at stake. The future of human civilization is at stake. Somebody says, don&#8217;t tell people about that. I&#8217;m sorry but I cannot but tell people what is at stake. We got to rally on this and we got to understand what&#8217;s at risk.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Those who attended say they were impressed.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It was really exciting to see energy and passion, to support the knowledge and facts that he had to bring to us,&rdquo; said <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> student <strong>Clarice Schafer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It was really interesting to see that we had that sort of connection with getting someone as famous as president, Vice President Al Gore, to come down here and talk about it,&rdquo; said <strong>Levi Viloria<\/strong>, who also attends <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2014\/04\/07\/green-future-conference-at-uh-manoa\/\">Ascent conference<\/a> started in the morning with an opening speech by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer of California at <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s Orvis Auditorium. She was also very passionate as she addressed the audience on climate change.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>VIDEO<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PK_mOljSGh8\">U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer&#8217;s Ascent conference address<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;Clean energy is good for our lungs, energy efficiency is good for our pocket book, both create good paying jobs that can&#8217;t be outsourced,&rdquo; said Boxer. &ldquo;And as we move forward, we will make sure consumers are protected. That is the right thing to do and that is the moral thing to do. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> gets it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Boxer&#8217;s speech was followed by a roundtable discussion with respected community and business leaders from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and the continental United States. The focus was on water and energy sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion continued in the afternoon during breakout sessions at the East-West Center on the M&#257;noa campus with experts from the public and private sectors who are on the front lines of sustainability efforts.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What they bring up is just how difficult decisions are that they have to make on a day-to-day basis dealing with costs when it comes to strategies and the challenges. And then, how do you deal with that in terms with moving forward and making the best decisions,&rdquo; said <strong>Daniele Spirandelli<\/strong>, a <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa <a href=\"http:\/\/www.durp.hawaii.edu\/index.html\">urban and regional planning<\/a> professor.<\/p>\n<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Ascent conference addressed key underlying issues of sustainability and demonstrated the role <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> plays.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This university has been fantastic and hosting this conference is a very big, big move because it captures people&#8217;s interest,&rdquo; said Boxer. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We can attract the quality of people like Senator Boxer and Vice President Gore, who are the major thinkers in these areas, not only in the nation but across the world,&rdquo; said event organizer <strong>Gordon Grau<\/strong>, the director of the <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Sea Grant College Program. &ldquo;So it is very, very important and it shows the importance of the university, not just locally, but nationally and internationally.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>All of the speakers waived their fees, including Gore, who ended the conference by imploring the audience to think about future generations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I want them to look back at us, at our time, and ask, how did you find the moral courage to stand up and do the right thing, and turn the tide?&rdquo; said Gore. &ldquo;And part of the answer is that the state of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> provided leadership and the United States finally listened. Always remember, that the only thing we need is political will and political will is a renewable resource!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer&#8217;s Ascent conference address<\/h2>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_54777\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PK_mOljSGh8?enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer&#039;s addresses University of Hawaii for Ascent conference\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Vice President Al Gore brought his message about the dangers of climate change to the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[670,73,9,438,365],"class_list":["post-24065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-high-performance-mission-driven-system","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-sea-grant","tag-urban-and-regional-planning","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24065"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151110,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24065\/revisions\/151110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}