Former US Vice-President, Al Gore, was interviewed this evening by one of the few people in Australia who actually know the art of engaging someone in conversation, Andrew Denton. At the end of the interview Mr. Gore made an interesting observation that if nations would stop or at least significantly reduce their dependence on petroleum, it would have a drastic effect on the Middle Eastern economy and deplete funding for terrorists. At the same time those nations would be averting future environmental catastrophes by lowering global carbon dioxide levels.

Another observation of Mr. Gore was the need for individuals and communities to reclaim the medium of television from multinational corporations. For example, Mr. Gore himself has established a television station in which a third of the programs are produced by individuals and communities using their own video cameras and editing equipment. They are submitted to the station and the viewers themselves vote on what programs they would like broadcast. Thus viewers are given the opportunity to express their own ideas and interests without having to endure those of a handful of people seated in a boardroom, who are in the pockets of yet more people in boardrooms. Mr. Gore also noted how the internet has not lived up to its promise of being a medium for change and exchange.