Climate Change Bomb With Al Gore

Former American Vice President Al Gore delivered a few fiery remarks at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday getting angry at the world’s inaction on climate change. My favourite line was, “The accumulated amount of greenhouse gases is trapping as much extra heat as would be released by 600,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every single day on the Earth. That’s what’s boiling the oceans!” Anyway, without further ado, here’s the best three minutes from former Vice President Al Gore.

We are not winning the crisis is still getting worse faster than we are deploying these Solutions and we need to make changes quickly emissions are still going up all these promises of the last few years to cut a mission emissions are still going up people are familiar with that Thin Blue Line that the astronauts bring back in their pictures from space that's the that's the part of the atmosphere that has oxygen the troposphere uh and it's only five to seven kilometres thick that's what we're using as an open sewer we're still putting 162 million tons into it every single day and the accumulated amount is now trapping as much extra heat as would be released by 600 000 Hiroshima class atomic bombs exploding every single day on the earth that's what's boiling the oceans creating these atmospheric rivers and the rain bombs and sucking the moisture out of the land and creating the droughts and melting the ice and raising the sea level and causing these waves of climate refugees predicted to reach 1 billion in this Century look at the xenophobia and political authoritarian trends that have come from just a few million refugees what about a billion we would lose our capacity for self-governance we have to act we've heard about divides at this conference between the North and South and the East and West there's another divide increasingly between those who are old enough to be in positions of power and the young people of this world Greta Thunberg was just arrested in Germany I agree with her efforts to stop that a coal mine in Germany the World Bank is completely failing okay what do I say to these young activists that I train around the world when they come to me and they say are you okay with putting the the CEO of one of the largest oil companies in the world in as the president of the cop is that really okay the people in Authority are not doing their job there's a lot of blah blah blah but we are still failing badly we cannot let the oil companies and gas companies and Petro States tell us what is permissible in the last cop we were not allowed to even discuss scaling down oil and gas can't discuss it every piece of pro-climate legislation at the national level the regional level the local level Municipal level the oil and gas industry and the coal industry they come in and fight it tooth and nail the people of this world and including the young people of this world can say we are now in charge of our own destiny we're going to stop using the sky as an open sewer we're going to save the future and give people hope we can do it and remember that political will is itself a renewable resource.

Also in climate news, the ABC even published this, “Sydney’s Observatory Hill weather station has finally ended its longest spell below 30 degrees Celsius in 140 years. Sydney’s official weather station just north of the CBD had recorded 330 consecutive days below 30°C, second only to the record 339 days from 1882 to 1883. It was a case of now or never for Observatory Hill to break its low streak. A cool southerly change overnight will drop Sydney city’s maximums to the low-to-mid 20s for the remainder of the week.”

And what do you think about protesters who vandalise precious artwork (usually in the name of “protecting the planet from irreversible climate change”)? Let’s face it, they do it because they know the media will put them on television when they do it. On Thursday, Frederick McCubbin’s ‘Down on His Luck’, a 134-year-old painting, was defaced in a protest against Woodside Energy, one of Australia’s largest energy companies. Ceramic artist and illustrator Joana Partyka held a stencil over the canvas and sprayed the logo of Woodside Energy in yellow over the 1889 oil painting. Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton also unfurled an Aboriginal flag on the floor of the Art Gallery of Western Australian, while Ms Partyka glued her hand to a wall. The gallery says the painting was covered by perspex acrylic and was undamaged in the incident.

What do I say to these young activists that I train around the world? We have to act! That’s what we’re using as an open sewer. What about a billion? One billion in this Century. The World Bank is completely failing. 600 000 Hiroshima class atomic bombs exploding every single day on the earth. That's what's boiling the oceans. Is that really okay?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn