Video: Activists Protest Gore’s Honorary Degree

Former Vice President Al Gore received an honorary degree from the University of Tennessee during the College of Arts and Sciences graduation ceremony Friday morning.

Gore told students in a 20-minute speech that addressing climate change is the "biggest item of unfinished business" on the American agenda.

Members of the Knoxville Tea Party, Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow and even an Irish film director and journalist planned to protest the event.

Slightly more than a dozen protesters gathered outside the ceremony Friday morning, a smaller crowd than rallied on Thursday night.

"We'll be handing out fake diplomas and mock graduation programs to people in attendance that shows facts about what Al Gore promotes, said Evan Flores with Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow.

The three groups feel Gore's work in climate change is inaccurate.

"Global warming is a fraud. He knows it's a fraud," Knoxville Tea Party member Antonio Hinton said.

"I think it's odd that the University of Tennessee is giving a degree to someone who produced a documentary that the British High Court says has nine significant errors," film director Phelim McAleer added.

The dean of UT's College of Arts and Sciences said Gore definitely qualifies as an accomplished Tennessean.

"Mr. Gore is a native son, a senator, a vice president and a nobel laureate," said Dr. Bruce Bursten with the College of Arts and Sciences.

Bursten also believes Gore sparked a national and international discussion about the world's climate. Read more...