Al Gore on Extreme Heat and the Fight Against
Fossil Fuels
The past few weeks have him even more worried than
usual.
July 18,
2023
David
Gelles
By David
Gelles
It’s been
17 years since former Vice President Al Gore raised the alarm about climate
change with his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Since then, he’s been
shouting from the rooftops about the risks of global warming more or less
nonstop.
But the
events of the past few weeks have Gore even more worried than usual.
“Everywhere
you look in the world, the extremes have now seemingly reached a new level,” he
told me in an interview. “The temperatures in the North Atlantic and the
unprecedented decline of the Antarctic sea ice, both simultaneously. We see it
in upstate New York, we see it in Vermont, we see it in southern Japan, we see
it in India. We see it in the unprecedented drought in Uruguay and in
Argentina.”
We can’t
always say that a specific weather event was caused by climate change, but it
is making certain extremes more likely. And this summer, the extreme weather
chaos that Gore predicted in “An Inconvenient Truth” seems to have arrived all
at once.
“Every
night on the TV news is like taking a nature hike through the Book of
Revelation,” Gore said.
‘We know
how to fix this’
Despite the
apocalyptic weather news, Gore is also hopeful.
Clean
energy is cheaper than ever, and electric vehicle sales are surging,
turbocharged by government subsidies. Put that all together, and Gore thinks
developed economies could draw down their emissions with surprising speed.
“If you
sketch out what the potential curves take you to by 2030 or 2040, it becomes
increasingly realistic to say, ‘Yes, these expansive goals definitely are
achievable,’” he said.
To make the
point about how quickly renewable energy is growing, Gore quoted the economist
Rudiger Dornbusch: “Sometimes things take longer to happen than you think they
will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”
But Gore
was quick to add that every second counts. The faster we stop burning fossil
fuels and releasing other planet-warming emissions, the more quickly global
temperatures can stabilize.
“We know
how to fix this,” he said. “We can stop the temperatures going up worldwide with
as little as a three-year time lag by reaching net zero,” he said. “And if we
stay at true net zero, we’ll see half of the human-caused CO2 coming out of the
atmosphere in as little as 30 years.”
In other
words, all hope is not lost. But Gore has no illusions about how hard it will
be.
“Eighty
percent of all the energy used in the world today still comes from fossil
fuels,” he said. What’s more, Gore acknowledged that the oil, gas and coal
companies are not going down without a fight.
Do masks
work? The best thing to do to prevent breathing in pollutants is to stay
indoors. If you have to go outside, put on a mask. But a surgical mask, scarf
or bandanna won’t do much to protect you from pollutants. Instead, use a N95
face mask or respirator mask. Cover both your nose and mouth.
How can I
keep indoor air clean? By some estimates, a good air filtration system can cut
smoke pollution indoors by about 50 to 80%. If you have central air or an
air-conditioning unit, close your windows and switch your system’s filtration
settings to recirculate. Portable air purifiers with HEPA filters can work well
in smaller spaces. Portable fans and ceiling fans can also help.
Who is most
at risk? All children and adults with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions
are among the most vulnerable to toxins in smoke. Older adults and pregnant
women are also at higher risk of serious health effects. These people should
seek medical assistance if experiencing discomfort or heightened symptoms.
What should
I do if I have a headache? Breathing in wildfire smoke can cause headaches. To
ward that off, restrict the amount of time you spend outdoors, and try to
optimize the quality of your indoor air. The most effective treatment for
headaches can vary from person to person, but over-the-counter medications like
Tylenol or Advil can help. Staying hydrated is also critical.
Can I go
for a run? You probably shouldn’t, especially if you suffer from chronic
respiratory conditions like asthma. During exercise, we largely breathe through
our mouths, which — unlike noses — don’t have a natural filtration system for
pollutants. Exercising in a highly polluted environment has been linked to
cardiovascular health risks. Smoky conditions can also hinder visibility.
How can I
monitor the quality of the air? Several apps, including AirNow Mobile App, can
help you track air quality levels. Home air quality monitors are limited in
their abilities and reliability; keep that in mind if you choose to use one.
“Fossil
fuel companies are desperately trying to use their political and economic
networks and their successful capture of policy in too many countries to slow
down this transition,” he said. “They don’t disclose their emissions. They
don’t have any phase-out plan. They’re not committed to a real net zero
pathway. They’re greenwashing. They’re performing anti-climate plotting.”
Gore is
particularly livid about the fact that fossil fuel companies continue to play a
major role at the annual United Nations climate change conference known as COP
(full name: Conference of the Parties to the United Nations climate
convention).
Hundreds of
oil and gas executives participate in the proceedings, and this year, the
president of COP, which will begin in November in the United Arab Emirates, is
also the head of that country’s state oil company.
Tensions
are rising, and Gore said he didn’t think the COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber,
should be in the role.
“The
president of COP28 obviously is not the right person for the job,” Gore said.
“This is not a good time to undermine the confidence that people deserve to
have in the process.”
Gore
suggested reforming the COP process in ways that would limit the influence of
fossil fuel companies, and removing the ability for rich countries to veto
language calling for a phase out of fossil fuels, as they have done for years.
“The
climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis,” Gore told me. “If the
world is not permitted to discuss the phasing down of fossil fuels because the
fossil fuel companies don’t want the world to discuss it, that’s the sign of a
very flawed process.”
Extreme
weather around the world
Record heat
is blanketing much of the globe. The heat index at an airport in Iran reached
152 degrees Fahrenheit (67 degrees Celsius). Italy, Greece and Spain are
sweltering, with temperatures as high as 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Almost 80
million people are facing dangerous levels of heat across the United States.
As parts of
China experienced record heat, John Kerry, the White House’s climate envoy,
arrived in Beijing to restart climate talks on Sunday.
Smoke from
wildfires in western Canada is blanketing cities in the Midwest and the
Northeast of the United States. Wildfires in the Canary Islands of Spain forced
more than 4,000 people from their homes and burned about 10,000 acres.
Optics and
action at the World Bank
Almost one
year ago, Al Gore called David Malpass, then president of World Bank, a
“climate denier,” setting the wheels in motion for Malpass’s early exit. His
replacement, Ajay Banga, has been in office for a mere six weeks.
How’s it
going so far?
Banga, the
former chief executive of Mastercard, seems to be having a ball. He kicked off
a months-long world tour, recruited chief executives to join the bank’s new
private investors club and received the rock star treatment at the Global
Citizen Concert in Paris. But beyond the spectacle, he has started to deliver,
too.
Last month,
at a global finance summit in Paris, he said that the World Bank would pause
debt repayments for countries that were recently hit by a disaster.
Mia
Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados and a champion of calls to reshape the
global financial system, gave his praises at the Paris festival. She told a
cheering crowd that developing countries had been waiting for the debt pause
for years.
“Ajay,
you’ve done it in 19 days,” she said. “And, if I could sing, I would tell you
we’ve only just begun.”
Rishikesh
Ram Bhandary, a climate finance expert at Boston University’s Global
Development Policy Center, told me that the “ball is still very much in his
court in terms of clearly articulating how he can transform the bank.”
Still, one
thing is certain, he said: “There is a lot of enthusiasm and energy surrounding
his presidency.” — Manuela Andreoni
We’ll be
interviewing world leaders, activists and business leaders onstage, and sharing
ideas, working through problems and answering tough questions in real time.
You can
register here to attend.
What else
we’re reading
BlackRock,
once the face of environmentally focused investing, added the head of Saudi
Arabia’s state oil company to its board, DealBook reports.
Ford is
slashing the price of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck as demand
softens and inventories pile up.
Worms
brought by humans to the Arctic are changing one of the planet’s most fragile
ecosystems.
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