(GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN)
07 accolades spotlight world-altering vision
"It's been an interesting year."
The understatement last week came from a man accused by his raucous critics of everything but understatement.
Al Gore, seated on the side porch of his Nashville home, couldn't be challenged on this one.
This year, the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, focusing on his efforts to educate people about global warming, won an Oscar. His television network, Current TV, picked up an Emmy.
He and an international panel of scientists shared the Nobel Peace Prize for alerting the world to the dangers posed by pollution-driven climate change.
And, one of his daughters got married.
An "interesting" year, for sure, for a man who, now 59, has served as a congressman, U.S. senator and vice president and won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential race — but not the job.
Gore, who has been named 2007 Tennessean of the Year by readers and The Tennessean's editorial board, said he was honored and touched.