The assembled employees did high-energy renditions of the Wal-Mart cheer, complete with fist-raising, grunting, and even a group wiggle. “Gimme a W! Gimme an A! Gimme an L! … Whose Wal-Mart is it? Who’s No. 1?” CEO H. Lee Scott pumped his team up further by calling Wal-Mart’s newfound environmental focus a “higher purpose.” There was also a rare appearance from company chair Rob Walton Jr. – son of Wal-Mart’s legendary founder and, as it happens, a member of Conservation International’s board – who beamed, “I love, love hearing the progress that is being made.”
Mid-afternoon brought a screening of An Inconvenient Truth; more than a few audience members could be seen dabbing teary eyes as the documentary drew to a close. Then the entire crowd erupted into a standing ovation when the lights came back on and Gore trotted up to the stage, Tipper in tow.
“That’s a larger round of applause than we gave for Wayne Newton!” joked Scott while introducing Gore, who, in turn, showered the audience with reciprocal cheer: “Doesn’t it feel good to have this kind of [environmental] commitment? Don’t you feel proud?”
An interview with accidental movie star Al Gore
Sporting a curiously thick Southern drawl, Gore heaped praise on Wal-Mart's green goal-setting. His Allies analogy was particularly striking: "Look at what [the Allies] did with their victory. They found after winning that they had gained the moral authority and vision to lift up from their knees our defeated adversaries ... And by taking this climate crisis on frontally and making this commitment, you will gain the moral authority and vision as an organization to take on many great challenges."
“That’s a larger round of applause than we gave for Wayne Newton!” joked Scott while introducing Gore, who, in turn, showered the audience with reciprocal cheer: “Doesn’t it feel good to have this kind of [environmental] commitment? Don’t you feel proud?”
That line sounds like it came right out of the South Park episode “Smug Alert”.
Sigh That’s exactly what I don’t like about Al Gore, cozying up to the sort nasty big business that notoriously abuses it’s employees, and ruins local economies. Walmart is one of the worst, and greening up it’s image a bit doesn’t even start to make it better.
It does sort of imply that he’s planning to run for election though, as why else would he need to ingratiate himself to Walmart?
Or… it could be that he wants to use them as much as they want to use him. Which is more likely.
Walmart wants to improve their bruised corporate image and so they’re tryiing to do some good.
Gore wants to draw attention to the environment and global warming and what companies and individuals can do to about each and so he sees this as an opportunity to do just that.
I really don’t think this has anything to do with 08. The man has been crystal clear that he’s not going to run.
I do not think that will happen. I think gore has become disenchanted with the political process. Did you see his movie? He became a congressman so he could let congress know what was going on with the environment.
He did, and they didn’t care. I do not think he even thinks being president would actually change much with respect to being able to get anything but token environmental reforms.