A longtime environmentalist, Gore's subsequent embrace of a Paul Revere-like role in warning the planet about the oncoming effects of global warming represents so much more than just his personal search for a politically-meaningful role after his 2000 election loss. In many ways, Gore's message promises an entire generation of Americans unhappy with Bush's "global war" that a suitably transcendent grand strategy is there for the taking. Rather than dealing with our failures in places like Baghdad and New Orleans (or worse, our non-responses in places like Darfur), and refashioning our national security establishment to manage such inevitable future challenges, Gore's message promises more familiar dynamics: a planet-threatening foe against which the proper response consists more of an internal decades-long rebalancing than an immediate external exposure to danger. Rather than facing up to the unsavory challenges of shrinking the Gap, global warming allows us to justify pulling back from a chaotic world and addressing its "ultimate" challenge through new technology (always an American favorite) and do-it-yourself sacrifice on an individual level. In short, if American "empire" gets you down, why not don your global warming "hair shirt" and display your asceticism as a counter-narrative personal statement?