As former vice president, a Nobel-winning environmental activist and an Apple board member, Al Gore spoke to Silicon Valley business leaders Saturday not only about global warming but also about income inequality.
"The 400 wealthiest people in the US have a larger combined net worth than 50 percent of the country," he said.
Gore was the opening keynote speaker of Saturday's Silicon Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (SVIEF), an annual conference organized by 99 People Inc. since 2011 to foster innovation and promote business partnerships between the U.S. and China.
This year's SVIEF took place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, where thousands of audience members gave Gore a rapturous standing ovation when he first appeared on stage.
In his speech, Gore said, "We don't have an illusion of equality. A little inequality is what drives a capitalist society, but we cannot allow a continuing rise of inequality."
When addressing the issue of income inequality, Gore brought up the prospect of robosourcing, the replacement of labor by robots, as the next threat to the American job market after years of outsourcing.
About the rapid advancement of technology, Gore also gave an extreme example of spider goats --- genetically modified goats that can produce milk containing spider silk protein, which can be collected for multiple uses in manufacturing.
Gore cautioned against the single-minded pursuit of technological advancement. He said, "The excitement of technology cannot blind us from human values."
He told business leaders in the audience, "Always remember what's at stake."
Later, during his post-speech Q & A session with Andrew Chiu, CEO of Verliant, Gore named carbon as a major problem that puts the future of the earth at stake. He used the 62-million-dollar cost of Hurricane Sandy as an example.
"We must stop subsidizing carbon," he said.
According to Gore, Germany now gets 61 percent of its energy from renewable resources. He urged the US and China to catch up after pointing out China as the number-one contributor to air pollution in the world and the US as the number two.
Gore said he noticed more and more environmental awareness in China, including the increasing popularity of Tesla over there, during his at-least-twice-a-year visits. He added that he plans to go to China even more often.
Besides Gore, speakers at Saturday's SVIEF included Congresswomen Judy Chu and Jackie Speier, Chinese deputy consul general Gang Bi, director of California governor's office Kish Rajan, Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
