Gore in fight for truth on global warming

KERRY O'BRIEN: In his powerful documentary - in Australian cinemas this week - which describes global warming as the greatest crisis the world has ever faced, Al Gore introduces himself as the man who used to be the next president. The man who was Bill Clinton's vice-president for eight years is referring to the 2000 presidential election in which George W Bush took the prize, but only after the US Supreme Court ruled 3-2 in his favour. Al Gore may yet run again in 2008 or even the election after that, but he spent much of the past five years on a sophisticated lecture tour around the United States, presenting compelling arguments about what lies ahead on climate change. And Australia is one of his targets. That mission has culminated with the documentary and a book called, An Inconvenient Truth. He's here on a promotional visit, and I spoke with him in Sydney yesterday. KERRY O'BRIEN: Al Gore, given the date, I'd like to reflect, first up, on September 11. Looking beyond the emotional wrench of such a shocking event, the loss of life, the grief of families and friends, what price has America paid for September 11? AL GORE, FORMER US VICE-PRESIDENT: I believe that in the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush did a terrific job in rallying the country initially. I think he was wise to go into Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda gang. But after those decisions, I think what came later has been proven to be a series of mistakes. I think we should have continued to pursue Osama bin Laden, instead of withdrawing troops and diverting them to Iraq. I think the evidence has borne out the warnings of the time that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and, therefore, the decision to focus all the energy and anger - all of it justifiable - on the wrong target - at least wrong insofar as it was believed by some to be connected to 9/11 - that was a mistake. And, I think, from that mistake, other difficulties have flowed. And some of the goodwill that helped America in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was dissipated. KERRY O'BRIEN: Are you one of those who believes that America's involvement in Iraq has actually assisted the recruiting of terrorists? AL GORE: Well, it seems to have. KERRY O'BRIEN: You opposed that war... AL GORE: I did. KERRY O'BRIEN: ..in Iraq. You made a series of speeches about it before President Bush made the decision to go in. But whether you were right to argue that or not it can't be reversed now, so, should America extricate itself reasonably quickly or stay on indefinitely? AL GORE: Well, if that's the choice then we should clearly, in my view, extricate ourselves as quickly as possible, but it's not that simple because even though I felt that it was a serious strategic mistake to go into Iraq - and, incidentally, I supported the first Gulf War - circumstances were entirely different. But even though this one was a mistake, we still - now that we're there - bear the moral responsibility for taking care not to make the situation even worse in the manner of our leaving. Insofar as we do, now, clearly seem to be right in the middle of a civil war it's questionable what good comes from staying, other than to avoid a catastrophic worsening of the potential for all-out civil war by an ill handled withdrawal. But withdraw we must, because it gets worse with each passing day. So taking care to withdraw and doing it while mindful of our obligations there, that's one thing; but getting out of there as quickly as possible, I think, is imperative. KERRY O'BRIEN: September 11 brought you and Bill Clinton together for the first time in a meaningful way since the White House days. Is it true, as I think you have indicated too, that you two were barely speaking by the time you left the White House? There was something of a breach in the relationship? AL GORE: Well, I wouldn't describe it that way, but we had spoken several times prior to the meeting we had after 9/11, which was the first time we were together in person, that's true. KERRY O'BRIEN: And you talked through the night, basically. AL GORE: We did. Yes. We stayed up all night reminiscing and, actually, first of all, of course, focusing on the terrible events of that week. And then the next morning we travelled together to the memorial service and, then, afterwards, we spent the rest of the day together, that next day. So we keep in touch regularly. I just spoke to him a couple of weeks ago on his birthday and I'll be with him in 10 days, I suppose, in New York, we'll be together again. KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, let me just very briefly explore, because I think it's of real interest given the closeness of your relationship and the importance of that relationship in the eight years in the White House, but it seems to be reasonably, commonly understood that there had been a clear cooling in the relationship by the end of the eight years? AL GORE: Well, you know, the election was a time when I was necessarily away from the White House and the same day by day constant communication was interrupted for quite some time when I was on the campaign trail full time. And that changed the pattern somewhat. KERRY O'BRIEN: In the global warming documentary you're here to promote, we hear you tell an audience, "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States." It gets a laugh, but it wasn't that funny, really, was it? In the end? AL GORE: No, I usually follow it up with a deadpan saying, "I don't find that particularly funny." KERRY O'BRIEN: You've used various forms of words to dismiss the idea of running for the democratic nomination in 2008, but what you haven't said unequivocally is, "I'll never run again." That does leave the door slightly open, does it? AL GORE: You can interpret it that way, but it's not my purpose in leaving that small disclaimer to be coy. It's really more a matter of the internal shifting of gears after 30 years in politics. I don't like the grinding of gears and I'm 58 years old, that's the new 57. KERRY O'BRIEN: Certainly young compared to people like Ronald Reagan when he became president? AL GORE: Well, sure, but honestly, I find the political process somewhat toxic, and, after so long in it, I find myself having a little less patience for some of the tomfoolery of it all, but I respect and honour those who are involved in it, and I do think that it may well be the highest and best use of whatever experience and talent I've gained over the years is to try and change the minds of the people. AL GORE (EXCERPT FROM 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH'): Is it possible that we should prepare against owner threats besides terrorists? The Arctic is experiencing faster melting. If this were to go, sea level worldwide would go up 20 feet. This is what would happen in Florida. Around Shanghai - home to 40 million people. The area around Calcutta - 60 million. Here's Manhattan, the World Trade Center Memorial would be under water. Think of the impact of a couple of hundred thousand refugees, and then imagine 100 million. KERRY O'BRIEN: You describe global warming as the most dangerous crisis we've ever faced by far. AL GORE: Yeah. KERRY O'BRIEN: That's a big statement - bigger, say, than the threat of nuclear war 30 or 40 years ago? AL GORE: That's the only one that could be deemed comparable but human civilisation could survive, could have survived a nuclear exchange between the superpowers. The consequences would, of course, have been so devastating. But what is unique about the climate crisis is that it could end all human civilisation. It will not - I'm convinced because I'm certain that we will act in time - but if we allow the melting of the polar caps, if we allow the radical reorganisation of the earth's environmental system, then those conditions that were favourable to the emergence of the human species and to the development of the human civilisation could well be lost and people could be driven from the areas that we now populate toward the pole-ward areas, and there are few of them. AL GORE (EXCERPT FROM 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH'): We have the ability to do this. Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that, with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive. We can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands. We just have to have the determination to make them happen. Are we going to be left behind as the rest of the world moves forward? All of these nations have ratified Kyoto. There are only two advanced nations in the world that have not ratified Kyoto, and we are one of them; the other is Australia. KERRY O'BRIEN: Our Prime Minister, John Howard, says that he's accepted that global warming is real and does represent a challenge, but says he's sceptical about a lot of the more gloomy predictions. He wouldn't be alone in that view, would he? AL GORE: He's increasingly alone in that view among people who've really looked at the science. He also said, in that same interview, that he wants to know about the science. Well, that's why I would urge him to see the movie. The scientific community has endorsed the validity of the science in the movie. All of the living climate scientists in my country were asked to comment. Of those who responded to our Associated Press that you know, 100 per cent of them said, "He's got it right, the science is right". So look at the facts. The so-called " gloomy predictions" are predictions of what would happen if we did not act. It's not a question of mood. It's a question of reality. And, you know, there's no longer debate over whether the earth is round or flat, though there are some few people who still think it's flat, we generally ignore that view because the evidence has mounted to the point where we understand that it shouldn't be taken seriously. And that is the case with the consensus view of the National Academy of Sciences in Australia, in the United States and every advanced country, with the international group, an unprecedented body of 2,000 scientists in 100 countries who've worked for 20 years, each year coming with a new version of their consensus. It never changes on the central points that I communicate in this movie and in this book. But look at what's at risk here in Australia. You have an advanced civilisation ingeniously built in the driest inhabited continent on the planet. You have such low water availability on average already. That particular quality is most affected by global warming and, as predicted, you now have growing water shortages in Brisbane, here in Sydney, in Canberra, in the west, in Perth. The water availability is really one of the biggest dangers. You have greater fires, increasing every decade. The Great Barrier Reef is being killed by the warming of the temperatures, also by the acidification of the oceans purely from all the millions of tonnes of CO2 dumped there by all of us worldwide every single day. 70 million tonnes per day. Stronger storms, category 5 cyclones. You had a couple of them this March and April. All of these things are predicted to get worse still until we turn the earth's thermostat down, which means reducing the pollution that's causing it to go up. KERRY O'BRIEN: What do you say to the argument made by some in Australia that, on the one hand, we have a lot to lose economically by trying to move away from coal-based energy, but on the other hand, we could cut our emissions substantially at some pain and still have no impact on the planet's problem because unlike America, our total contribution to global warming is tiny?AL GORE: Well first of all I think that the old argument that you have to choose between the environment and the economy has been discredited over and over again. The polluters always say, "Oh no we can't put our pollution because it will hurt the economy," but, in fact the opposite is usually true. The American automobile companies have made that argument for years and the government policy makers listened to them and kept the standards ridiculously low and now the companies are near bankruptcy because the consumers want to buy the more efficient less polluting cars that are coming from Japan and Asia and from Europe, and so the old phrases, "Be careful what you pray for" should be amended to, "Be careful what you lobby for". The Stone Age did not end because of a shortage of stones and the fossil fuel age will not end because of a shortage of fossil fuels. It will end when we find something better. And we have found something better. And the leading-edge businesses are substituting renewables and conservation and efficiency. They're getting not only less pollution as a result, but more consumers, more jobs, better and cheaper products.KERRY O'BRIEN: Al Gore, thanks very much for talking with us. AL GORE: Thank you, enjoyed it. KERRY O'BRIEN: Incidentally, while some politicians from both sides of politics viewed An Inconvenient Truth last week. Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane was unimpressed by its assertions. He said that Al Gore was just here to sell tickets to a movie. "It's just entertainment," he said.