Monday, February 11, 2013, 7:00 pm: Al Gore with Madeleine Brand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Saban Theater. 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. $25, Ticket only or $42, Ticket with 1st edition pre-signed copy of Al Gore’s The Future. All tickets include a required historical preservation fee.

No one opened our eyes, ears, hearts and minds to climate change and its perils more effectively than Al Gore. He made it his mission as Vice President, for two terms. Thanks to him, the words “climate change” really became part of our daily vocabulary. He didn’t invent the term, he just made sure that we know what it means, and that we understand its powers. We are proud to present Al Gore for a rare public appearance in Los Angeles, and his only one here for the publication of his new book, The Future. Mr. Gore gives us much more to think about besides climate change– from cybersecurity to digitally connected cows.

In the years since Al Gore left public office, he has made a movie, won a Nobel Prize, and won an Academy Award. He has traipsed all over the globe talking about the changes we must make in order to maintain civilization– not just from an environmental standpoint, but from economic, medical, strategic, military, and humanistic perspectives as well.  Mr. Gore is an indefatigable intellectual, a real visionary about global power, about the human component of economic shifts, and how they impact the balance of power in developing countries and dominant nations. He is a visionary about technology, and its implications for medicine, for agriculture and life sciences.

In his new book, The Future,  Gore identifies his six drivers of global change—including: globalization — relationship between labor, consumer markets, and outsourcing; the digital revolution; military/political/economic power shifts; consumption increase/resource decrease; biotechnology, genomic, life science, medical developments; and radical ecosystem disruption. Sounds complex, and it is. But don’t despair, we’re not dead yet, and Gore makes it clear that we’ve got some time and great tools to transform our consciousness – and our decline— to maintain civilization. While Al Gore talks cold hard truth, he presents us with provocative and facts, including:

  • Federal officials believe cybersecurity to be more important to national security than terrorism;
  • More than 5 of the 7 billion people on earth now have access to mobile phones
  • Digitally connected cows in Switzerland now alert their owners via text when ready to breed
  • By 2016, Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer of Apple devices will replace 1 million workers with robots
  • China is on the verge of running labs in which newborn physical traits can be chosen
  • In 2012, the Japanese bought more adult diapers than baby diapers
  • U.S. drone pilots, despite being thousands of miles away from their targets, experience PTSD at the same rates as fighter pilots

In conversation with Madeleine Brand. Madeleine is the co-host of KCET’s SoCal Connected and was host of The Madeleine Brand Show on KPCC. 

At the Saban Theater. 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. $25, Ticket only or $42, Ticket with 1st edition pre-signed copy of Al Gore’s The Future. All tickets include a required historical preservation fee.