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Photo of Revelle Family and Al Gore

Gore’s Effort to Spread Message of Renowned
Scripps Director Rewarded with Roger Revelle Prize

Ioana Patringenaru | March 9, 2009

Photo of Ellen Revelle and Al Gore (Photo / Victor W. Chen)
Former Vice President Al Gore greeted Ellen Revelle during a reception Friday.

As former Vice President Al Gore walked into Mandeville Recital Hall on the UC San Diego campus Friday, he quickly made his way through the crowd waiting for him to find a white-haired woman, sitting in a wheelchair. The Nobel Laureate then knelt in front of her, perhaps paying his respects more than making conversation.

The woman was Ellen Revelle, the widow of Roger Revelle, Gore’s teacher at Harvard and the man who sparked the former vice president’s life-long interest in fighting global warming. Friday, UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Revelle family recognized Gore’s contributions in bringing environmental and climate change research to a worldwide audience with the first-ever Roger Revelle Prize at Scripps.

Gore had come to UC San Diego to collect the prize—another honor, in addition to the Nobel Peace Prize and Academy Award he received in recent years.  The award ceremony was part of a four-day celebration to mark what would have been Revelle’s 100th birthday.

“Roger Revelle had to overcome great obstacles to found what many believe is the finest university founded in the 20th century,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said at the awards ceremony Friday night where Gore received his prize. “His vision and his passion made this possible.”

The University of California is proud to be associated with Roger Revelle, UC President Mark Yudof said during a packed gala dinner. Gore deserves to be recognized for spreading Revelle’s message, Yudof added. Indeed, much of the research done at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography was critical to understanding the threat posed by climate change, he said.

“Thank you Vice President Gore for helping bring the work of this institution literally into the lives and homes of thousands of Americans,” Yudof said.

Before the award ceremony Friday, during a whirlwind day, Gore met with the Revelle family and spoke to Revelle College students and faculty. He remembered his days at Harvard studying under Revelle with obvious emotion. He also made a passionate call to action, asking his audiences to mobilize to support legislation that would cap carbon emissions, invest in alternative energy sources and craft an agreement on curbing emissions worldwide.

“I accept this award from this great institution and this magnificent family as an honor to the man who taught me to care about this great challenge that has played out as he predicted it would,” Gore said Friday evening.

“And now that we have arrived at the moment when we have to choose, I invoke Roger Revelle’s name in asking all of you to go to work and do what’s necessary to pass the legislation and ratify the treaty and solve global warming.”

A fork in the road

Photo of Al Gore (Photo / Victor W. Chen)
Gore made a passionate plea for the fight against global warming during an award ceremony Friday.

The human species has come to a fork in the road, Gore said. Humankind has built an elaborate civilization, but in doing so, we have compromised our ability to live on Planet Earth. “You multiply 6.74 billion people times technological power undreamed of by Prometheus, and you get a collision between our species and our planet,” the former vice president said.

It is now time to act to prevent a worldwide disaster, he added. During a lecture on campus earlier Friday, Gore was more specific. The U.S. Congress will take up this spring or summer comprehensive legislation to address climate change, he said. It will likely include a proposal to cap and trade carbon emissions; an initiative to build a national electricity superhighway; and new measures to boost conservation. Fighting global warming is not just about switching to more efficient light bulbs, driving hybrid cars and improving insulation in your home, Gore also said.

“We need to change the laws, and we have to have a global treaty that enables us human beings to make a decision for the first time as a species,” he said.

Remembering Revelle

Photo of Al Gore and Revelle Family (Photo / Victor W. Chen)
Gore signed autographs during a reception.

Revelle was one of the first scientists to truly understand the threat posed by climate change and sound the alarm, Gore added. And it was that insight that the former vice president said he took away from studying under Revelle as an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1960s. Hearing Revelle speak and watching him sketch curves on the blackboard representing the rise in population and in carbon emissions, Gore quickly realized that his teacher was no ordinary scientist.

Revelle used his vast knowledge to link population growth, the rise in the use of carbon-based fuels and carbon emissions. He also was one of the first to point out that scientists should be concerned about the amount of CO2 being absorbed by the oceans. Today, we know that dead zones have appeared in the oceans that are completely depleted of oxygen, Gore said.

“I remember that Roger Revelle pointed to the future and said that if this isn’t addressed, it will become an extremely difficult problem,” the former vice president said.

The prize

Gore received the prize from Revelle’s four children, Carolyn Revelle, Anne Revelle Shumway, Mary Ellen Paci and Bill Revelle and from Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Revelle family felt that Gore devoted his life to saving the world by stressing the importance of the fight against global warming, Ellen Revelle said. “It gives us great pleasure to present this prize to Al Gore,” added her daughter Carolyn.

Photo of Al Gore and Tony Haymet (Photo / Victor W. Chen)
Gore received the Roger Revelle Prize at Scripps from the hands of Tony Haymet, director of UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Gore received from Scripps Director Haymet an unusual trophy to go with his Revelle Prize at Scripps: a jar of deep-sea sediments, which Revelle collected during a 1950 expedition. Revelle often used, in jest, some choice, unprintable words to describe the stuff, Haymet said.

“Mud, huh?” Gore asked without missing a beat. “It’s very beautifully presented in this case.”

When the audience’s laughter subsided, he seemed to collect himself. “You could imagine, seriously, how much I treasure this,” he said. He turned to Revelle’s widow. “Ellen, I love you. Everybody here loves you.”

Friday’s invitation-only award ceremony and dinner took place at Scripps’ new Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society, and the Environment, which opened last week. Proceeds from the event will go toward establishing the Roger Revelle Leadership Fund at Scripps to help the institution recruit and retain the most outstanding students, faculty and researchers—an objective that was paramount to Revelle when he was Scripps director.

In late October, the forum will welcome the next recipient of the Revelle Prize at Scripps, Prince Albert of Monaco. In a videotaped message, the prince said the event would celebrate a new partnership between the small principality on the Mediterranean and Scripps. “Keep up the good work,” he said. 

 

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