Former Vice President Al Gore remains mum on meeting with Donald Trump but remains optimistic

PARK CITY, Utah — Former Vice President Al Gore said that while he wouldn’t divulge specifics about his December conversation with Donald Trump, it wasn’t “the last conversation.”

Speaking to a packed auditorium in Park City following the premiere of the climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” which kicked off the 33rd Sundance Film Festival Thursday, Gore said that he’s seen a lot of people who started out as climate deniers change over time.

“Whether he will or not remains to be seen,” Gore said of Trump, whose inauguration as president was Friday. Trump has decried climate change as a hoax. Gore also noted that “two days after that meeting he appointed someone to the EPA who I don’t think should be heading the EPA.”

“But this story has many chapters to unfold here,” Gore said

“An Inconvenient Sequel,” which comes 10 years after “An Inconvenient Truth,” follows Gore through a year in his life as he tries to effect change through education — whether it’s private individuals or world leaders. Gore travels from the changing Jakobshavn Glacier to the flooded streets of Miami to connect the dots of how global warming is impacting the world in real ways.

At one point, Gore even says that every night on the evening news is like “walking through the Book of Revelations.”

And yet Gore remains hopeful. The film, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, makes sure to intersperse dire power point slides illustrating how the world is getting hotter with ones showing the progress in solar energy use. He also shows the solidly republican town of Georgetown, Texas which has made enormous strides in embracing renewable energy because of its cost efficiency.

Gore, on stage, said that he had just flown in from Davos, Switzerland, where he saw business leaders and heads of state at the World Economic Forum treating climate change as their top priority as well.

Sundance founder Robert Redford introduced the film at the start, noting that Gore has been a very good friend for “many years.”

“A few years ago, there was a moment when politics and the Supreme Court was not very kind to Al,” Redford said. “I think what they did drove him away from politics, but it drove him toward film and I think that’s to our benefit … he could work both sides of the street, so to speak, and he has and he’s done it beautifully.”

Paramount Pictures has already acquired “An Inconvenient Sequel” for a July 28 release.

“We want this movie to recruit others,” Gore said. “Every single one of us, we have to do more.”

The Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan. 29.