University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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politics he talked and wrote about environmental issues, e.g. the New York Times
bestseller book Earth in the Balance in 1992 (Gore 1992). After politics Gore
established and chairs Generation Investment Management, which invests in
environmentally friendly initiatives, and founded the Alliance for Climate Protection
to find solutions to the climate crisis, which launched the We Campaign that
advocates strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (Gore 2009).
Gore’s time perspective for his responsible leadership issue, climate change, has been
twofold: he practiced climate change awareness enhancement almost like a hobby
during his political years, but once he committed solely to promoting it, he has been
adamant that climate change is a pressing problem to be solved urgently before it is
too late. This change in urgency is partially due to the increased knowledge about the
issue and partially due to the change in Gore’s own priorities. After the controversial
loss in US presidential elections in 2000, he found a satisfying publicity niche in
becoming the world’s leading climate change spokesman.
It was easy to anticipate achievement in this hot, worldwide issue: success was
practically guaranteed. During his career Gore experimented with the roles of
statesman and climate change spokesman; he became successful in both, but worldfamous
in the latter. He likes to be the leader, not the follower; hence he prefers the
role of Mr. Climate Change to the role of Mr. Vice President, although he has been
good and cooperative in both roles. Like most wealthy Americans, Al Gore has been
having difficulties in trying to match his green self-image to his external image. Gore
has been criticized for having a large energy-consuming house, but he has turned it
as energy-efficient as possible and uses only renewable energy.
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai (1940-) is an environmental political activist who founded the
Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977. The Green Belt Movement engages poor
people all over Africa in planting trees, which prevents erosion, enhances
biodiversity, enables sustainable small-scale farming, gives directly and indirectly
work to local women, and boosts women rights (Green Belt Movement 2009,
Maathai 2003). The movement integrates economic, socio-cultural and ecological
responsibilities in practice. The Green Belt Movement combines genuine sustainable
development with entrepreneurship. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman
and first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
Wangari Maathai’s (2006) autobiography sheds light on the origins of her
responsible leadership. Her parents were farm workers. She excelled at school and
was one of the 300 Kenyan students chosen to study in the USA within an Airlift
Africa programme on a Kennedy scholarship in 1960. She took a B.Sc. in biology
and M.Sc. in biological sciences, and returned to Kenya where she took a Ph.D. in
veterinary anatomy. She became Associate Professor at the University of Nairobi and
joined many associations through which she realized that the root of many problems
in Kenya was environmental degradation. This realization was the start of the Green
Belt Movement, which she launched with the support of the National Council of