‘We need to stop using the sky as an open sewer’: Former US Vice-President Al Gore on unprecedented climate danger

Former US Vice-President Al Gore warned in Singapore that the world must stop treating the sky as an open sewer to avoid catastrophic climate change consequences. Gore referenced predictions made 20 years ago in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" that have proven "exactly accurate," including rising temperatures, melting ice, and increasingly erratic weather patterns.

The world currently pumps 175 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere daily, trapping extra heat equivalent to 800,000 atomic bombs exploding every day.

Over the past 11 years, from 2015 to 2025, the global temperature record has been continuously broken, with 2027 expected to surpass that record due to a "super El Nino." Simultaneously, the climate crisis is intensifying the water cycle, resulting in extreme downpours known as "rain bombs" and longer, deeper droughts threatening agriculture. Alarmingly, 80% of the Himalayan ice is projected to disappear by the end of the century if current trends continue.

Greenland is losing about 30 million tonnes of ice every hour, while Antarctica is also contributing to sea-level rise. The combination of rising seas and stronger storm surges poses a threat to low-lying areas, including Singapore. Gore also highlighted the growing danger of extreme heat and humidity, which could render larger parts of the world physiologically uninhabitable.

However, Gore noted that affordable clean-energy technologies, including solar, wind power, batteries, and electric vehicles, are becoming increasingly available. One in every four cars sold globally is now an electric vehicle. Despite this surge in clean energy investments, Gore warned that the transition is still not happening quickly enough, and the world risks crossing dangerous negative tipping points.

He described the challenge as "a race between the accelerating danger and the accelerating availability of the solutions."

Gore dismissed the notion of "climate realism," arguing that the energy transition must not accommodate continued dependence on fossil fuels. He criticized the political power wielded by fossil fuel companies and petrostates, which use immense influence to halt the transition. With the movement to combat climate change likened to moral causes such as the abolition of slavery, Gore stressed that the tide is turning, and if enough people act on the available solutions, the climate crisis can be solved.