PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Warnings about global warming arrived in Oregon with Al Gore on Tuesday, as the former vice president sounded what has become a familiar alarm about rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers and dwindling wildlife habitat.

Gore, drawing a near-capacity crowd to the 5,000-seat Theater of the Clouds at the Rose Garden, got a standing ovation.

He opened his remarks with humor, calling himself a “recovering politician.” He praised Portland as an environmentally conscious city that could be a leader in the battle against global climate change caused partly by carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.

Slightly more than a year ago, Gore had arrived in Portland to promote his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” attracting overflow crowds to the Oregon Convention Center. He drew an unexpected throng of thousands who were denied entrance and who pounded on the doors and chanted until Gore agreed to a second show.

In his documentary film and a book by the same title, Gore uses photos, charts and graphs to illustrate complex scientific data showing dramatic increases in Earth’s level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Kalee Kreider, a Gore spokeswoman, said the former vice president “has been giving this slide show for years,” visiting hundreds of cities. As scientific understanding of global warming advances, Gore updates the presentation weekly, she said.

Before Gore’s appearance, April Wiza, 26, of Portland and her friends handed out literature promoting the vegan lifestyle. “If you eat lower on the food chain, you use less fossil fuels,” she said. “I just wish that eating vegetarian was on his (Gore’s) agenda.”

Tadd Gestrin, 41, principal of East Gresham Grade School, said he has followed Gore since 1992 and has read all his books. Gestrin said what concerns him most is the “potential for sudden shifts in the climate and the possibility of famine.”

Shiloh Sundstrom, 25, a student in the Oregon State University master’s program in forestry, said he wants to know “what kind of actions I can take and what we can do as a society.”

He wore a bright orange T-shirt proclaiming: “We care about Mother Earth.” Sundstrom is also interested in the role of forests in sequestering carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

Gore was scheduled to attend a fundraiser Wednesday for Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com