Religion: Baptist
Al Gore is a devout Baptist. He attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School in 1971 after his military return from Vietnam. Even though his parents wanted him to go to law school, Gore decided to first attend the religion school to explore “spiritual issues” and to “make sense of the social injustices that seemed to challenge his religious beliefs”, especially since he felt dispirited after his military journey. That was how he grew to be a man of faith. Gore’s firm religious belief has a large influence on his environmental beliefs too. He views the fight against global warming as one of humanity’s great moral movements.
Diet: Vegan
In 2013, Al Gore shared with the public about his decision to switch to a vegan lifestyle. Before he became a vegan, Gore spoke about how factory farming and animal agriculture are causing the environmental destruction. Just by avoiding animal products, our carbon footprints can be reduced to half. The move to veganism certainly gave credit to Gore as he finally walked the talk.
Beliefs: An Optimist on Climate Crisis & Global Warming
Unlike most environmentalists, Gore is optimistic that we can combat the climate crisis with the solutions that we now have. He believes that we are going to win with the growing climate activism movement and sustainability revolution going on. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that climate change is “a global crisis that requires a global response”, which requires international cooperation through climate policies. Gore always ends his speeches on a positive note, that “political will is itself a renewable resource and it’s up to us to renew it and apply it to this global emergency and solve this crisis”.