A meeting with Al Gore

The former vice president of the USA is the guest speaker for Fabrica as part of the exhibition "Les yeux ouverts". 14 June 2007, 5:30 PM

Treviso, 13 June 2007. The changing planet, the warming climate, the mistakes of humanity, and possible ways of responding to this global crisis: these are the issues to be addressed by Al Gore, former vice president of the United States, who will be talking with an audience of young people, researchers, and business leaders at the Milan Triennale on 14 June, as guest speaker for Fabrica, the communications research center of the Benetton Group. Gore's talk will take place within the framework of the exhibition Fabrica: les yeux ouverts, in conjunction with the publication of Colors Vörland, an issue entirely dedicated to the environment. The public can follow the presentation live on a wide screen in the Triennale gardens, at 5:30 pm.

Having served as the vice president of the United States for eight years under Bill Clinton, Al Gore, after being defeated by George W. Bush in the hotly contested presidential elections of 2000, has primarily devoted himself to spreading awareness about the alarming consequences of the greenhouse effect, partly as a reaction to the basic lack of interest shown by the media and other institutions. His work - specifically, a lecture tour throughout America - led to An Inconvenient Truth, an absorbing film full of scientific information, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2007. Gore's commitment to environmental causes actually dates back much further: already in 1992 he had written a book (Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit) that illustrated the problematic state of the planet and possible measures to be taken.

The exhibit Fabrica: Les yeux ouverts, running at the Triennale until 15 July, will present a series of projects - some previously exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in October 2006 - that take a special look at the environment and our changing planet, through videos, documentaries, interactive installations, and interviews with scientists and futurologists.

Colors Vörland, the new issue of the quarterly magazine published by Fabrica, is set in 2057: it tries to image life in the future on an island off the coast of Scandinavia that becomes a concrete symbol of environmental change. For centuries little more than an icy, inhospitable speck of earth, Vörland has been turned by global warming into an international tourist destination with a mild climate, lush vegetation, and broad, sandy beaches. Its inhabitants, worthy heirs of the Vikings, have been quick to heed the alarms sounded by scientists about climate change, working to turn the island into a green oasis that puts its resources to good use without any waste.

In the second part of the magazine, the Green Pages present an unusual encyclopedia of sustainable development: the very best in green initiatives currently underway around the world. This overview was prepared with the assistance of the Department of Chemical and Biosystem Sciences and Technologies of the University of Siena.

www.fabrica.it/triennale

www.benetton.com/colorspress71

 

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