20140707_AG

Source: BBC News

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28199131

Date: 07/07/2014

Event: Al Gore: "This is the biggest challenge that our civilisation faces"

Credit: BBC News

People:

• Jon Donnison: BBC journalist (Sydney Correspondent)
• Al Gore: 45th Vice President of the United States, author of An Inconvenient Truth

Jon Donnison: Would you regard the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, to be a Climate Reality leader?

Al Gore [laughing]: No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I don't really know him as a person, but you won't be surprised that I'm not impressed with his views on climate. It's not a personal matter - I just think that we're way past time where it's responsible for any national leader to reject the science behind the climate crisis. This is the biggest challenge that our civilisation faces, and we need to get on with solutions.

Jon Donnison: It's 8 years since your film An Inconvenient Truth came out - are we in a better place now than we were, 8 years ago, or worse?

Al Gore: I think we are. I think that the great recession, in 2008 and 2009, had rocked a lot of people back and re-focussed them exclusively on jobs and economic activity, and I think that that, kind of, put things in neutral, for a while. But I think that the knowledge of the climate crisis - both the dangers it presents to us and the opportunities it presents to us - is now far more widespread than it was 7 or 8 years ago.

Jon Donnison: You talk about the knowledge. Prime Minister Abbott famously described the science behind human-induced climate change as "absolute crap". Do you think that's - is that knowledgeable?

Al Gore: No. No - I don't think it's responsible to dismiss the science behind the climate crisis.

Jon Donnison: I've covered the fires - the forest fires here in Australia, floods... One of the things often people will say to you, when you say to them "Is this global warming, in effect, the petri dish of climate change, if you like, happening in Australia?" And they say "Well, it's always been like this. There's always been floods, there's always been droughts - that's just the way Australia is". That's what Tony Abbott says.

Al Gore [chuckles]: Well, the science doesn't support that view. Of course, there have always been fires and floods and droughts. But not like now. They're more extreme and they're more frequent.

Jon Donnison: You've dedicated your life to this cause, really, for the last 8 years. Um, political ambitions over? Don't fancy throwing your hat into the ring, against Hillary in the Primaries?

Al Gore: I may have used this analogy or metaphor once too often, but I'm a recovering politician. And the longer I go without a relapse, the more confident I become that I will not succumb to that again. I haven't renounced it entirely, but I have no plans of that sort.

Jon Donnison: I saw Hillary Clinton being interviewed on the BBC the other week, saying she's not made her mind up yet. Would you - would you back her if she went for President?

Al Gore: Well, it's premature to back anyone, at this point, particularly someone who hasn't announced her candidacy yet. If she does run, she'll be an extremely formidable candidate, and I think she'll be the favourite.