He weighs two tons, is six feet tall and spews smoke from his mouth. No, not former vice president and Nobel Laureate Al Gore but rather a huge likeness of him carved out of ice. The infamous ‘Frozen Gore’ ice sculpture has returned to Fairbanks, Alaska and it is better than ever.
Last year, local businessmen Craig Compeau and Rudy Gavora received national media attention for the ice sculpture of the former vice president they had commissioned. The frozen likeness was created to draw attention to what Compeau called Gore’s hypocrisy in the debate about manmade climate change. Thousands of people went to see the sculpture and the website www.frozengore.com recorded more than 1.7 million visitors.
This week Compeau and Gavora unveiled a new Frozen Gore statue that is bigger and has a feature that allows it to belch smoke from its mouth (see video below). At the unveiling visitors laughed as the smoke emanated from the sculpture all while a soundtrack of Al Gore’s speeches played in the background.
Sculpted by Steve Dean, the sculpture is intended to draw attention to the men’s belief that other factors drive the climate besides man. Compeau told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, “We do want to invite debate. We don’t agree with his theories — we’re suspicious of the financial motivation behind them.”
The pair did invite Al Gore to come view the statue and have a debate last year. Gore declined citing a ‘scheduling conflict’ although according to Compeau no date had even been suggested.
