LE BOURGET, France – Nobel laureate Al Gore said at the Paris climate summit on Thursday, December 3, that humanity must change how it lives, travels and grows food in order to avert global warming catastrophe.
"Do we really have to change the energy and transportation and agriculture and forestry systems in the world and shift to a low-carbon pattern?" the former US vice president asked in a speech.
"The answer is 'Yes'... because now the answer is coming from nature itself," he said.
Gore pointed to a string of extreme droughts, record-breaking downpours and high tides, along with melting Arctic ice as evidence of climate change.
"The television news every evening is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelations," said Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on climate change.
He added that the scientific community is "virtually unanimous" on the existence of man-made climate change and the evidence is "just as clear as it is for the existence of gravity."
Gore is in the French capital for the global climate conference, which kicked off Monday with 150 world leaders in attendance and aims to craft a world agreement to cut emissions in order to curb global warming.
"Hopefully there will be no doubt that we are going to solve the climate crisis," Gore said during a separate press appearance on Thursday.
"One hundred and fifty heads of state, the largest number ever gathered in history, are in the same place on the same day, and not a single word of climate denial."
Gore also sounded a hopeful note about humanity's ability to end its reliance on fossil fuels and shift to green energy sources. He said the amount of electricity provided by wind has grown exponentially and the cost of solar power has plummeted.
"Business community, investors... and others have brought the technologies of solar photovoltaics, wind power and efficiency... to the point where these new approaches are extremely competitive," he said.
A slideshow put together by Gore about the dangers of climate change was the basis of the popular 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which won two Academy Awards.
Negotiators in Paris will aim to strike a bargain that limits global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times by limiting greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. – Rappler.com