We missed you, Mr. Gore, but we did just fine anyway

By Cathleen Farrell *

World renowned scientists, business leaders, politicians and academics gathered at the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium recently to discuss the environment but despite the level of expertise of the group and the topicality of the theme, the biggest news was a non-event: the last minute cancellation of Al Gore, the celebrated lay environmentalist.

The PODER Green Forum was a year in the planning and we had booked the former Vice President as our keynote speaker, to wrap-up the day-long event. However, at almost the 11th hour, Gore let forum organizers know he would not share a stage with President Alvaro Uribe—who was to introduce the former VP—citing allegations made by Uribe’s political opponents that the Colombian president had ties to paramilitary groups.

Despite Gore’s absence, the Green Forum became exactly what it was billed: an unprecedented gathering of Latino and Latin American leaders to discuss ways to achieve sustainable development. Our roster of experts—scientists, oceanographers, policy makers, industry leaders—and dedicated partners, such as the National Geographic Society, Georgetown and Columbia universities, Miami Dade College, Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), participated in presentations and panel discussions on climate change, access to natural resources, the state of our oceans, and energy and power alternatives.

The Natural Resources Defense Council measured emissions so that our event would be “carbon neutral”. NRDC worked diligently with our vendors and suppliers, tracking such sundry details as the type of toilet paper the venue was using to more complex calculations of emissions from flights of forum participants who came from Europe and throughout the Americas. In turn, PODER had agreed to pay a carbon offset fee for the emissions generated by our event. “We’re impressed by PODER’s commitment,” the NRDC’s Adrianna Quintero told me.

Our co-host, Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz— who last year was cited by Vanity Fair as one of our nation’s “green mayors”—led a lively discussion of his peers: Bill White, mayor of Houston; Juan Carlos Navarro, mayor of Panama City; Nancy Sutley, Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles; Jose Fogaca of Porto Alegre, and crowd-pleaser Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba. As mayor of that Brazilian city in the 1990s, Lerner revamped Curitiba’s public transportation, increased green space and parks, and introduced a “trash for cash” recycling program.

Mexico’s Environment Minister, Juan Elvira Quesada and Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos each gave presentations, with the latter speaking on “ecocide”, the damage to the environment perpetrated by outlaw forces, namely the FARC and ELN.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynne Scarlett ably, but controversially, defended the administration’s record on the environment, and oceanographer Sylvia Earle got a standing ovation from the crowd when she made an impassioned plea to clean up our oceans and protect marine life.

Late in the afternoon, President Alvaro Uribe entered the planetarium, led by ex-Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Mayor Diaz. Introduced by Colombian starlet Sofia Vergara – who playfully pecked him on the cheek – Uribe took the stage and spoke, in English, acknowledging the elephant NOT in the room, saying, “ I deplore the cancellation of Al Gore”, and then went on to unveil an ambitious plan to develop alternative energy with crops that might replace coca in many areas of the country.

While the organizers of the PODER Green Forum were disappointed by the no-show, it would be incorrect – and insulting to our speakers and participants – to say that this ruined the event. Ultimately, Gore’s absence only generated news and distracted from what really took place during our Forum.

* The author is editor of the U.S. edition of PODER and is editorial director of the PODER Forum.