Durham, N.C. — Former Vice President Al Gore shared his thoughts on environmental issues Thursday night during the 2010 spring Duke Environment and Society Lecture.

The 1,200 seats at the auditorium quickly filled, but the speech was also shown on closed-circuit television to those in overflow seating.

Solar, wind and geothermal energy are the answers to fixing the climate crisis, Gore said.

Gore shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of environmental causes. “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary on Gore’s environmental campaign, won two Academy Awards in 2007.

Some agreed with Gore's message that global warming will drastically change life on Earth.

"There are signs pointing to that, that we only have a finite amount of time to continue on the direction we are going," graduate student Harry Jones said.

Others were not supportive of Gore's message. A handful of protesters gathered nearby the auditorium.

"You are giving Al Gore a venue to promote his film and his notoriety without any chance of debate," said David Degerolamo, of the group NCFreedom.

Protesters said the data Gore uses to make his points have been disproven. They also argued that proposed fixes for global warming would be costly.

"I despise what Al Gore is doing. He is enriching himself at the expense of poor people," said Hans Mentha, with NCFreedom.

Members of the media were allowed to record video and audio of only the first five minutes of Gore's talk at the Page Auditorium on Duke University's West Campus. Photography was also limited.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said Tuesday the restrictions are standard for his talks, but she wouldn't say why they were in place.