homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Al Gore: Global warming skeptics are this generation’s racists

Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that he has been fighting for a noble and important cause for years now. Global warming is one of the greatest challenges we have to handle as a species, and it won’t be easy at all. Even as it is, it’s hard to change things […]

Mihai Andrei
August 29, 2011 @ 5:05 am

share Share

Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that he has been fighting for a noble and important cause for years now. Global warming is one of the greatest challenges we have to handle as a species, and it won’t be easy at all. Even as it is, it’s hard to change things for the better, but if we’re not united on this one, and some people are still skeptic about climate change, fighting against the needed measures, then it’s almost impossible; and some day, these global warming skeptics will be looked back upon in the same light as racists, at least according to former vicepresident Al Gore.

In an interview with former advertising executive and Climate Reality Project collaborator Alex Bogusky, he makes a valid point, saying that in order for climate change alarmists to succeed, they must “win the conversation” against those who deny there is a crisis.

“I remember, again going back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding, there were two things that really made an impression on me,” Gore said. “My generation watched Bull Connor turning the hose on civil rights demonstrators and we went, ‘Whoa! How gross and evil is that?’ My generation asked old people, ‘Explain to me again why it is okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different?’ And when they couldn’t really answer that question with integrity, the change really started.”

Al Gore than stated that the best approach here would be to defeat the climate skeptics in the same way, and show both to the world and to them how wrong they are.

“Secondly, back to this phrase ‘win the conversation,’” he continued. “There came a time when friends or people you work with or people you were in clubs with — you’re much younger than me so you didn’t have to go through this personally — but there came a time when racist comments would come up in the course of the conversation and in years past they were just natural. Then there came a time when people would say, ‘Hey, man why do you talk that way, I mean that is wrong. I don’t go for that so don’t talk that way around me. I just don’t believe that.’ That happened in millions of conversations and slowly the conversation was won.”

skeptics might do as much Well, I’m not really sure what to say, but I do believe this is the right approach. The thing is, at the moment, it’s pretty difficult to draw a good and bad line as with racism; but then again, in the long run, climate skeptics could do a lot more damage to the planet than racists.

“This is an organized effort to attack the reputation of the scientific community as a whole, to attack their integrity, and to slander them with the lie that they are making up the science in order to make money,” Gore said.

share Share

New Catalyst Recycles Plastics Without Sorting. It Even Works on Dirty Trash

A nickel catalyst just solved the biggest problem in plastic recycling.

How Tariffs Could Help Canada Wean Itself from Fossil Fuels

Tariffs imposed by the U.S. could give its trading partners space to reduce their economies’ dependence on oil and gas.

Global Farmlands Already Grow Enough Food to Feed 15 Billion People but Half of Calories Never Make It to our Plates

Nearly half of the world’s food calories go to animals and engines instead of people.

Japan Just Switched on Asia’s First Osmotic Power Plant, Which Runs 24/7 on Nothing But Fresh Water and Seawater

A renewable energy source that runs day and night, powered by salt and fresh water.

Geologists Thought Rocks Take Millennia to Form. On This English Coastline, They’re Appearing in Decades

Soda tabs, zippers, and plastic waste are turning into rock before our eyes.

Hundreds of Americans Begged the EPA Not to Roll Back Climate Protections and Almost No One Listened

Public speaks out against EPA plan to rescind Endangerment Finding.

Birds Are Singing Nearly An Hour Longer Every Day Because Of City Lights

Light pollution is making birds sing nearly an hour longer each day

China Has Built the First Underwater AI Data Center Cooled by the Ocean Itself

By sinking servers beneath the sea, China may change the future of sustainable computing.

Scientists Master the Process For Better Chocolate and It’s Not in the Beans

Researchers finally control the fermentation process that can make or break chocolate.

These Seabirds Poop 5% of Their Body Weight Every Hour and They Only Do It While Flying Over the Ocean

Scientists strapped cameras to shearwaters and discovered nonstop midair pooping.