Former Vice President Al Gore raged against “polluters” during an address at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, demanding that people listen to scientists about climate change.
The COP29 summit, which started Monday, previously featured speakers who proposed taxes on the meat and dairy industry and “climate finance” initiatives for less-developed countries. While addressing the conference, Gore claimed that predictions by climate scientists had been proven to be “dead right.”
“The fact that the scientists who predicted all of this decades ago have been proven dead right should cause the rest of us to pay more attention to what they’re telling us now!” Gore vehemently told the crowd, eliciting cheering and applause from attendees. “Do we listen to the polluters, who don’t want to do anything meaningful that might reduce fossil fuels, or do we listen to the scientists who have been telling us what we need to do?”
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“This was a very extreme drought in China in the middle of this year, and what’s happening in the Amazon, the Rio Solimões, the Rio Negro, it’s the worst drought on record in the Amazon — 90% of the river flow in Colombia is gone, Ecuador’s losing its hydro because of this,” Gore continued. “In Namibia, and also Zimbabwe, they are now killing livestock — killing wild animals in order to help feed hungry people. How long are we going to let this get worse until we decide to take action?! I’m sorry, I press my own buttons these days.”
Gore claimed that during the hour he was speaking, 30 million tons of ice was melting in Greenland, warning that the melting ice could have catastrophic consequences for the oceans.
“That is fresh water coming off Greenland into the North Atlantic, where a key part of the ocean current circulation system is involved. It could be disrupted,” he said. “Some scientists disagree, but more and more, they’re raising the alarm.”
“And if you look at the bottom statement, these peer-reviewed — these scientists say in this peer-reviewed study, ‘We estimate a collapse around mid-century.’ What?! What?!” Gore continued. “Some of the load-bearing elements of our entire Earth ecological system are at risk. And what are we doing? Just talking away, talking away, not making much progress. Again, I’m getting stirred up here so I’ll try to calm down.”
Multiple officials from the Biden administration — which notably backed away from a major emissions initiative at the event — including Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, White House climate advisor John Podesta and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, are attending the event in Azerbaijan. Podesta told attendees at the conference during a Monday speech that despite the election of former President Donald Trump, the United States would still be involved in addressing climate change, Bloomberg reported.
Featured Image Credit: Global X from CDG – SFO
