The "master himself," former Vice President Al Gore, came to Gammage Auditorium Monday to present his global warming slideshow "An Inconvenient Truth."
ASU President Michael Crow dubbed Gore "master" for his efforts in raising global warming awareness, thanks in large part to the Academy Award-winning documentary based on the slideshow.
The slideshow involves Gore discussing data regarding global climate change, along with the economic and political causes. It also presents what Gore believes will be the end result of not acting upon the issue.
Gore presented the slideshow to a capacity crowd of about 3,000, utilizing humor and shocking imagery.
"I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next President of the United States," Gore said, generating laughter from the crowd. "I don't think that's funny."
Gore, who was paid $100,000 to speak by Undergraduate Student Government and various donors, took numerous shots at the current U.S. administration for their lack of action on global warming.
Even after a blunder with the projector in which every slide was displayed the wrong way, Gore poked fun at current Vice President Dick Cheney.
"This is actually the Cheney slideshow," he said.
But for the most part, Gore's presentation was less politically focused.
"This is not a political issue," he said of global warming. "It's a moral issue.
"And it's kind of hard to talk about this as a political issue when there is so much to say about Anna Nicole Smith."
With several examples of temperature increases, glacial melting, increasing storms and future predictions of disaster, Gore made an impact on Joel Dauten, a film and media production junior.
"It was phenomenal," Dauten said. "The evidence is overwhelming."
Federal and state politicians came out to see the presentation. Actor Martin Sheen even showed up.
"We are intelligent enough to know if it keeps going this way, we're all in for a very, very serious time," Sheen said. "We have lost our rights to be stewards of the earth."
In the presentation, Gore pointed out three primary causes for the worsening climate conditions: the population explosion, scientific and technological revolution and society's way of thinking.
But Gore emphasized that despite the harm done, all isn't lost.
"We can do this," he said, "if we set our minds to it."
Accounting sophomore Serena Yu said Gore's presenting at ASU makes a statement about his opinion on students.
"He recognizes how important college students are with the fight against global warming," she said.
Before he exited, Gore told a story about how he once didn't notice his son's hand slip from his - resulting in his son being hit by a vehicle.
Gore related the story to the current conditions of the Earth and that its hand is beginning to slip out of society's.
"I hope you will make a decision to be a solution to this crisis," Gore said.