It is a widely-shared sentiment amongst us vegans and vegetarians that Al Gore isn't the environmentalist he and the media say he is. It angers us, and with some very good reason, that he has become the icon of the environmental movement. Yes, even I wrote an article exposing Al Gore's inconvenient truth … That he hasn't pointed to one of the environment's biggest enemies – Meatism. As if pseudo-environmentalism isn't bad enough, Al Gore then goes and wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment. It is more salt into the wounds of us truth-seekers. But there is a true silver lining here to which we owe Al Gore a huge debt of gratitude.

My fellow vegans, consider this: The guy who invented asphalt, for example, wasn't scorned because he didn't also develop auto racing. One laid the groundwork (no pun intended) for the other. An oversimplification, perhaps, but the point is much the same.

Clearly, there are a number of near-perfect arguments for why Al Gore should have included Meatism on a short-list of what is destroying the planet. But for one reason or another, intentional or not, he didn't. He isn't perfect. Neither are you (notice I didn't say “we”). But let me also tell you, in no uncertain terms, that he has laid the groundwork for all of us to go the next mile. He has created golden opportunities for those of us concerned about the welfare of the planet and its inhabitants to gain some meaningful ground. The whole country is talking about “going green” and, arguably, much of the credit for this belongs to Al Gore. Now it's up to us to show the masses how to really go green.

Amazingly, Al Gore actually accomplished one of the hardest parts of our task. You see, in sales and marketing (an area in which I am an expert) the greatest challenge is to make people want something. It's easy (and useless) to point to things that we should want, but to make people actually want it … ah, therein lies the most difficult task of all. And Al Gore did precisely that. We truth-seekers have known all along the importance of “going green” and we've gone blue-in-the-face telling people they should go green. But now, thanks to Al Gore, they actually want to go green. The greatest hurdle has been overcome. Let's give people what they want! Let's show them how to really save the planet. (For a short primer on sales and marketing go to my website www.JeffPopick.com and click on “See Jeff In Action.”)

It is awesome that Al Gore won the Peace Prize. We owe him a congrats and thanks. Never before have we vegans had such a tremendous opportunity (or need) to save the world; and we really do owe much of it to Al Gore even though he isn't perfect. But remember, neither are you. Oh, and as for me, I must confess that I used to be conceited. Fortunately, last week I overcame it, and now I'm perfect.