Al Gore on the Global Climate Crisis: “We’re Going to Win This”

Two decades after releasing his groundbreaking documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," former U.S. Vice President Al Gore expressed surprise at the fierce opposition from the fossil fuel industry and its political allies. However, Gore remains optimistic about humanity's ability to tackle the climate crisis. At a New York event marking the 20th anniversary of the film and his continued climate advocacy work, Gore, now 78, joked about the progress made in recent years, stating, "I always say if it hadn’t been for me, we might have a big problem right now."

"The scientists unfortunately have been proven to be absolutely correct," Gore said, acknowledging that in some important ways, the scientists may have underestimated the damage climate change was causing. He expressed concern over the resistance being more durable and sustained than he had anticipated, citing recent reporting by the Guardian that indicated the fossil fuel industry had gained control over many governments and even the UN's top climate science apparatus.

Gore highlighted the rapid global heating and its increasingly frequent adverse effects, such as record heatwaves and glacier collapses. He warned that the current rate of temperature rise would breach internationally agreed thresholds, leading to "utter devastation" and pushing the world towards catastrophic tipping points like the Amazon turning into a savanna. Despite these dire predictions, Gore expressed strong belief in the possibility of a positive tipping point where public opinion would be unstoppable.

While acknowledging that the world is on a dangerous trajectory toward a temperature rise of more than 2C hotter than the pre-industrial average, Gore expressed confidence that clean energy deployment would prevent the previously projected 4C or more temperature rise. He noted that clean energy is now more affordable than fossil fuels like coal and gas, and that the momentum towards adopting clean energy is gaining speed.

Gore concluded by expressing optimism that the world would win the climate crisis, though he emphasized that the remaining question was whether the victory would be achieved in time to avoid the negative tipping points he had warned about.