With a shovel of dirt and a chant of "Go Bears," former vice president Al Gore helped to kick off the construction of the new facility for the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies yesterday.

Gore, who is known for his efforts in bringing global climate change into mainstream focus, told students the solution to the environmental crisis is interconnected with the center's mission to eradicate global poverty.

"We can navigate successfully through these narrows toward a future that is bright and sustainable if we include in this struggle against the climate crisis a struggle against global poverty," he said.

The center, founded more than three years ago by UC Regent Richard C. Blum, brings together faculty and undergraduate students to help alleviate the problems of impoverished nations, such as hunger and unsanitary drinking water.

"We have committed ourselves on the principle of becoming enablers here," Blum said at the event. "So maybe that some way, someday, every person will have the opportunity to grow and to be educated to improve their lives, their families' lives, their communities and our family of nations."

More than 1,500 students have participated in the center's poverty-focused programs, some working in countries to find "sustainable solutions for one of society's most profound problems," said S. Shankar Sastry, the center's faculty director and dean of College of Engineering.

He added that students have helped researchers to establish clean water systems in India and create energy-efficient stoves used in refugee camps in Darfur.

The center, which also includes Berkeley's fastest-growing minor, Global Poverty and Practice, is set to be housed in the Naval Architecture Building. The building will undergo a 16-month, $16-million renovation and the addition of a wing, on which construction will begin later this year.

Gore praised the program and its students for their commitment. He added that rapid population growth, a main cause of climate change, is fueled by poverty and urged students to further commit themselves to find a solution.

"There is a force unleashed in this world when the human heart makes a commitment to goals that are good and true," he said. "By committing yourself to learn about how we can be a part of the solution to global poverty, it will help you unleash that force of commitment that will see us through this moment of perilous transition."

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau awarded Gore the Berkeley Medal for his work.

Carlos De la Cruz, ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President and a global poverty and practice minor, said the campus cultivates the spirit necessary to combat poverty.

"Global poverty (minor) allows you to imagine a world without poverty," he said.

Tags: BLUM CENTER FOR DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, AL GORE