Al Gore Says Climate Change is Creating a ‘Global Emergency’

Former Vice President Al Gore on Friday made very clear on Friday that he believes the world is experiencing a “global emergency” due to changes in the earth’s climate caused by human beings. His comments were made after  the United Nations’ released a dire new report on climate change.

“We have a global emergency,” Gore said in an interview on PBS NewsHour. “You use a phrase like that and some people immediately say, ‘okay calm down, it can’t be that bad.’ But it it is.”

“What the scientists have warned us in this recent report is that if we do not take action quickly … then consequences down the road would be far, far worse than what we’re experiencing now,” Gore added. “Climate change could become an existential threat to civilization.”

Gore’s comments came after he had studied the findings in the United Nations report. Several days ago the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report which contained many warnings about the globe’s warming climate and the negative effects it will cause.

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The U.N. report stated that climate change would likely cause catastrophic consequences in the coming decades. It said the only way to avoid these consequences is to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030.

Gore has long been a champion of environmental causes. He said the authors of the U.N. report expressed their findings in somewhat extreme language because they are trying to get the attention of lawmakers in the United States and other countries.

But President Trump expressed skepticism about the report’s authors when asked about its findings this week.

“It was given to me and I want to look at who drew it, which group drew it,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “Because I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that aren’t so good.”

Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on climate-related causes. He later harshly criticized Trump for his comments. He said that Trump’s approach to climate change is “literally insane” and that his reaction to the report is an “outlier.”

“It’s making the U.S. coming off like a rogue nation,” Gore said. He then explained it this way:   “The large carbon polluters are Trump’s buddies,” Gore said.

Trump’s administration has been a set-back for the efforts to reduce global warming. He has purposely weakened several policies and programs that were implemented when Barack Obama was president that have been reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Trump also required the United States to withdraw from the Paris Climate accord which had been entered into by 195 countries. That accord was not mandatory or binding but it was voluntarily being followed by all of the countries involved. It has been successful in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The U.N. report once again has called the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming and climate change. So long as our government is being run by people who are puppets of industries that are causing climate change, then we won’t be able to do anything to help the situation. What we need is a change in our government and a change in our national mindset concerning the importance of protecting the environment.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.