JEDDAH, 14 February 2006 — Al Gore, the former US vice president and the current senior adviser to Google, the world’s leading Internet search engine, warned that technological advancement impose serious threats to the global environment. He was speaking at 7th Jeddah Economic Forum on the benefits of Information Technology to human societies.
In the session entitled “The IT Business”, Gore said that saving the global environment has become a “moral concern,” with rapid strides of technology in all corners of the globe. Gore’s call echoed that of 85 prominent evangelical figures who expressed their concern for the global environment. He said these 85 figures were associated with politicians who are known for their minute concern for the environment. They changed their position after they realized the serious threats the global environment is facing.
Gore, who chairs Generation Investment Management, a firm dedicated to long-term investments in equity and environment-friendly projects, justified the “moral concern” position by referring to the teachings of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. “In Islam as in Christianity we have mandates that instruct us human not to abuse the earth. The earth is the lord’s and the fullness thereof,” said Gore illustrating the Christian view on environmental safety.
Gore highlighted three factors that contributed to the global environmental change. The first factor is the high increase in the current level of population growth. He said that human societies quadrupled in number in the last 100 hundred years, and they will continue to grow. Second, is the change in modern societies’ pattern of thinking. Gore explained that modern societies tend to think more about current situations and ignore the future outcome of today’s policies and developments. Third, is the rapid technological advancement that modern societies experienced especially in the field of energy. “Human societies rely heavily on hydro-carbon power and this produce a lot of carbon dioxide that increases the global warming.”
Gore shifted gears from environment and technological advancement to focus on the development of information technology.
He, among those who supported the IT development of the 1990s, was in office during the period when the Internet became a global connector of human societies and a commercially viable tool.
“When I first moved into the White House with President Bill Clinton in 1993, there were only 50 existing websites on the World Wide Web,” said Gore.
Since then, the Internet has developed enormously; however, the Internet development in the US lags behind that of South Korea in terms of capacity of information flow and that of Finland and Sweden in terms of number of users.
The Internet is now a vehicle for global information and the voluminous traffic through this medium could be the highway to exchange knowledge and ideas. This in turn can influence policy, human and governmental, thus bringing humanity closer, said Gore. He also warned of the slip side of IT if it is abused. Back in the sixties, the new medium of television influenced ideas and brought about a change in the American policies. Today, the IT revolution is imposing similar challenges to policymakers.
Internet enhances learning and it is being used as a tool today to educate the masses. “The Internet cerates a dialogue between the sender and the receiver,” said Gore, “and it allows the receiver to assimilate the information based on his level of information processing.”
IT development gives an opportunity for education, but at the same time it is useless without improvement in general education, said Gore. “With high illiteracy levels, Internet users cannot utilize the advantages the Internet provides them,” said Gore. According to Gore, the Middle East region can move forward with IT business by enhancing universal education.
“The improvement in education should not be limited to technical related fields, as it should extends to include other systems of knowledge,” added Gore.
Gore added that easing control over Internet access is vital to spread its benefits to the public and blocking or controlling would limit the knowledge of the population. He mentioned that young Chinese found several ways to escape the state’s control over the Internet.