Millennials should be Al Gore’s greatest cheerleaders. Millennials believe climate change is happening, and - if you saw their turnout for candidate Obama - you know they can impact political outcomes.
Millennials should be Gore’s army.
But they’re not.
Al Gore can’t get past first gear with the next generation of environmental stewards because he’s too angry.
He’s angry in his books. He’s angry on TV. And he’s angry when he’s appearing with Bono at the Davos World Economic Forum.
That’s no way to fire-up the “Sunshine Generation.” (That’s what Canada calls their Millennials.)
If you want to build a Millennial tribe in your movement, you have to project a positive, hopeful image of what the future - their future - will look like. Negativity doesn’t attract the next gen’s passions.
You see this in companies, and in cities. You can’t light a fire under your next generation by always being against something, and never being for anything. You can’t bring out people’s best, unless you appeal to the best within them.
Al Gore has done a great job being the green spokesman on many levels: he’s laid out the facts; he’s got one hell of a slide deck; and he’s got powerful partners in Hollywood, Washington and Silicon Valley.
All he’s missing is a sense of true optimism, a positive vision of what the future can be. If he could turn that frown upside down, he’d be able to unleash a Millennial movement.
