He’s the leading proponent of the “global warming is a fact and dangerous” movement, how can his opinion not matter? He won the Nobel Peace (not sure if there are some monks in Burma that deserve it more and I'm not sure how global warming relates to peace –but that’s another argument).
It is prudent to finding alternatives to fossil fuels and I can speak with authority here as I am a proud owner of two hybrid vehicles long before Gore decided to speak about this subject and I have invested in solar energy and other so-called “alternative energy”. However, like I said none of that will STOP global warming- if I is occurring, from occurring. We should push alt energy for many reasons –it’s impact on global warming would be so many years (hundreds or even thousands) in the future and so negligible that, though it makes Hollywood feel good, it doesn’t belong in the same conversation.