Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

4 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | 26 th O ctober 2007 Years from now, the next generation will ask of us one of two questions. As they survey our actions, and our inactions they will either ask: What were you thinking? Why were you deaf, dumb and blind to the consequences of what was being done to the truth, of what was unfolding? Or they will ask a question, that I prefer them to ask and I truly believe they will ask. I want them to look back on 2007, at the beginning of this century, and ask about us: How did they find the moral courage to rise and face the crisis so many said was impossible to solve? How did they find the ability to raise their level of consciousness about the truth that was confronting our world? How did they find the courage to act? We have everything we need now to make certain that that second question is the one that our children ask. And as they attempt to answer it, I want them to say that we realized we had everything we needed, to save the ecological integrity of our planet, with the exception of political will. But then we realized that, in democracies like Spain and the United States and nations throughout this world that are free, political will is a renewable resource. Al Gore — Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 2007 Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on 26/10/2007.