Al Gore calls for civil disobedience

[Michael]

Gore called on the young people in the United States to reject new coal-fired power plants. “It’s time for civil disobedience to stop the construction of new coal plants,” implored the former Vice-President.

Al Gore calls for civil disobedience (http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/24/al-gore-calls-for-civil-disobedience-to-stop-the-construction-of-new-coal-fired-power-plants/)

This is pathetic. I don't disagree with the sentiment here, only the messenger. Al Gore is acting just like the fat guy in a brown sweater who claims he invented the internet.

Did MLK or Ghandi preach civil disobedience from lofty press conferences?

Real leaders just do it and the people will follow. Posers and wannabes call for other people to do the work for them (and then try to take credit for it).

Notwithstanding Gore's pompus invitation for other people to fight his battles for him, does anyone else believe that civil disobeidence is both necessary and productive of environmental goals?

[Michael]

Here are some recovered replies to this thread...

I think it would be less-so than other times throughout history that the technique has been used which is generally, to my knowledge, in support of equal or humane treatment of some subset of the common man. In environmental causes, there is no distinct case of people being the victims of injustice, so it becomes hard to empathize with such a movement.

I like civil disobedience in some circumstances, but I'm not sure that it can be effective for environmental things, at least not in this country.

More on this later, I'm sleepy.

I suppose the poor lad is annoyed that all the attention is going to Obama/McPain on the one hand and the financial crisis on the other.
No one's paying attention to the Lord of the Internet and the Saviour of the Planet !!
So he came up with an idea that sounds intriguing.

But I agree with Donkey : There's no need for civil disobedience here. Merely making choices in one's use of energy would do the job.