For example, Gore continues to claim that standard economic textbooks do not mention the third-party effects of environmental pollution. In reality, standard college-level textbooks have dealt substantially with this issue for at least the last two decades. Gore is letting his genuine interest in a variety of topics overwhelm his better judgment. He has the hubris of the half-informed. Perhaps what is more illuminating is the pedestrian character of Gore's dreams.
Great men have great and expansive aspirations.
Thomas Jefferson pursued the Louisiana Purchase to fulfill his dream of a nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Theodore Roosevelt saw the strategic value of a shortcut from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans and championed the Panama Canal. Gore could have proposed we travel to Mars or return to the Moon. Gore could have insisted upon a massive increase in the constellation of satellites devoted to making precise and continuous measurements of the environment, a hedge against global climate change. Gore could have embarked on an extensive expansion of efforts at planetary exploration.