Al Gore Warns on Latests Climate Trends

7/31/2019 Al Gore Warns on Latests Climate Trends

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Last year I showed these two slides so that demonstrate that the arctic ice cap,which for most of the last three million years has been the size of the lower 48

states, has shrunk by 40 percent. But this understates the seriousness of this

particular problem because it doesn't show the thickness of the ice. The arctic ice

cap is, in a sense, the beating heart of the global climate system. It expands in

winter and contracts in summer. The next slide I show you will be a rapid

fast-forward of what's happened over the last 25 years. The permanent ice is

marked in red. As you see, it expands to the dark blue -- that's the annual ice in

winter, and it contracts in summer. The so-called permanent ice, five years old or

older, you can see is almost like blood, spilling out of the body here. In 25 years

it's gone from this, to this.

This is a problem because the warming heats up the frozen ground around the

Arctic Ocean, where there is a massive amount of frozen carbon which, when it

thaws, is turned into methane by microbes. Compared to the total amount of global

warming pollution in the atmosphere, that amount could double if we cross this

tipping point. Already in some shallow lakes in Alaska, methane is actively bubbling

up out of the water. Professor Katey Walter from the University of Alaska went out

with another team to another shallow lake last winter. Video: Whoa! (Laughter) Al

Gore: She's okay. The question is whether we will be.

And one reason is, this enormous heat sink heats up Greenland from the north.

This is an annual melting river. But the volumes are much larger than ever. This is

the Kangerlussuaq River in southwest Greenland. If you want to know how sea

level rises from land-base ice melting this is where it reaches the sea. These

flows are increasing very rapidly. At the other end of the planet, Antarctica the

largest mass of ice on the planet. Last month scientists reported the entire

continent is now in negative ice balance. And west Antarctica cropped up on top

some under-sea islands, is particularly rapid in its melting. That's equal to 20 feetof sea level, as is Greenland.

In the Himalayas, the third largest mass of ice: at the top you see new lakes,

which a few years ago were glaciers. 40 percent of all the people in the world get

half of their drinking water from that melting flow. In the Andes, this glacier is the

source of drinking water for this city. The flows have increased. But when they go

away, so does much of the drinking water. In California there has been a 40

percent decline in the Sierra snowpack. This is hitting the reservoirs. And the

predictions, as you've read, are serious.


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This drying around the world has lead to a dramatic increase in fires. And the

disasters around the world have been increasing at an absolutely extraordinary and

unprecedented rate. Four times as many in the last 30 years as in the previous 75.

This is a completely unsustainable pattern. If you look at in the context of history

you can see what this is doing.

In the last five years we've added 70 million tons of CO2 every 24 hours -- 25

million tons every day to the oceans. Look carefully at the area of the eastern

Pacific, from the Americas, extending westward, and on either side of the Indian

subcontinent, where there is a radical depletion of oxygen in the oceans. The

biggest single cause of global warming, along with deforestation, which is 20

percent of it, is the burning of fossil fuels. Oil is a problem, and coal is the mostserious problem. The United States is one of the two largest emitters, along with

China. And the proposal has been to build a lot more coal plants.

But we're beginning to see a sea change. Here are the ones that have been

cancelled in the last few years with some green alternatives proposed. (Applause)

However there is a political battle in our country. And the coal industries and the

oil industries spent a quarter of a billion dollars in the last calendar year promoting

clean coal, which is an oxymoron. That image reminded me of something.

(Laughter) Around Christmas, in my home in Tennessee, a billion gallons of coal

sludge was spilled. You probably saw it on the news. This, all over the country, is

the second largest waste stream in America. This happened around Christmas. One

of the coal industry's ads around Christmas was this one.

Video: Frosty the coal man is a jolly, happy soul. He's abundant here in

America, and he helps our economy grow. Frosty the coal man is getting cleaner

everyday. He's affordable and adorable, and workers keep their pay.

Al Gore: This is the source of much of the coal in West Virginia. The largest

mountaintop miner is the head of Massey Coal.

Video: Don Blankenship: Let me be clear about it. Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Harry

Reid, they don't know what they're talking about.

Al Gore: So the Alliance for Climate Protection has launched two campaigns. This

is one of them, part of one of them.

Video: Actor: At COALergy we view climate change as a very serious threat to

our business. That's why we've made it our primary goal to spend a large sum of


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money on an advertising effort to help bring out and complicate the truth about

coal. The fact is, coal isn't dirty. We think it's clean -- smells good, too. So don't

worry about climate change. Leave that up to us. (Laughter)

Video: Actor: Clean coal -- you've heard a lot about it. So let's take a tour of

this state-of-the-art clean coal facility. Amazing! The machinery is kind of loud.

But that's the sound of clean coal technology. And while burning coal is one of the

leading causes of global warming, the remarkable clean coal technology you see

here changes everything. Take a good long look: this is today's clean coal

technology.

Al Gore: Finally, the positive alternative meshes with our economic challenge and

our national security challenge.

Video: Narrator: America is in crisis -- the economy, national security, the

climate crisis. The thread that links them all: our addiction to carbon based fuels,

like dirty coal and foreign oil. But now there is a bold new solution to get us out

of this mess. Repower America with 100 percent clean electricity within 10 years.

A plan to put America back to work, make us more secure, and help stop global

warming. Finally, a solution that's big enough to solve our problems. Repower

America. Find out more.

Al Gore: This is the last one.

Video: Narrator: It's about repowering America. One of the fastest ways to cut

our dependence on old dirty fuels that are killing our planet. Man: Future's over

here. Wind, sun, a new energy grid. Man #2: New investments to create

high-paying jobs. Narrator: Repower America. It's time to get real.

Al Gore: There is an old African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly,

go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We need to go far, quickly. Thank

you very much. (Applause)

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Al Gore Warns on Latests Climate Trends