An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017) Movie Script
1
Al Gore's movie
An Inconvenient Truth
won him an Oscar, and yet,
much of the movie is nonsense.
"Sea levels may rise 20 feet"
is absurd!
But this is Al Gore.
He always goes down the road
of hyperbole.
Not only is he losing
the argument
on climate change,
but he's losing the science
as well.
You don't go
see Joseph Goebbels' films
to see the truth
about Nazi Germany.
You don't want
to go see Al Gore's film
to see the truth
about global warming.
And it's the most severe
winter storm in years,
which would seem to contradict
Al Gore's hysterical
global warming theories.
Donald Trump says
he's had it up to here
with Al Gore
and is calling for the
Nobel Peace Prize committee
to take the prize away.
Yes or no, do you believe
that human-caused global warming
is a moral,
ethical, and spiritual issue
affecting our survival?
Yes, I do.
Yes or no,
do you believe that reducing
fossil fuel-based energy usage
will lead to lower
greenhouse gas emissions?
Basically, yes.
I don't think we...
That's... That's good.
Senator Gore...
If I could just, uh, continue...
Well, you can't.
Now, it seems
that everything is blamed
on global warming.
Last summer, we had a
heat wave, and everyone said,
"Oh, that's proof
it's global warming."
Then we had a mild December.
"Oh, that's proof"
"it's global warming
that's taking place."
Now, I wonder how come you guys
never seem to notice it
when it gets cold?
The National Academy of Sciences
here in this country
and in the 16
largest or most-developed
countries in the world
agrees with the consensus
that I've stated.
Senator Gore, my time
is almost expired completely.
Are you aware of that?
It seems that everybody...
I would like to respond.
May I respond?
...global warming in
the media joined the chorus...
Excuse me, Senator Imhofe.
How can you ask a question
and not give the man
a minute to answer?
Please.
Senator, thank you. Um...
I've been sitting here
trying to think
what I could do or say
that, uh...
That might make it possible
to reach out to you.
And I'm serious about this.
I'd love to, um,
talk with you
without the cameras
and without the lights and...
And tell you, uh,
why I feel so strongly
about this.
And we've got to call the other,
I think, three or four speakers
for the Generation Client
Conference, too.
All right, so now back to
the Paris conference.
I'd like a briefing on
the must-do meetings in Paris.
And I'll circle back
to Christiana
well before then
on how I can best help her.
I need to talk to
Secretary Kerry
- about the long-term goal.
- Mmm-hmm.
I want to schedule
the China climate training
during the first three months
of the year.
I think it would be good
to lock that down.
Yeah, definitely.
Morning. Morning.
Thank you for your help.
Since An Inconvenient Truth
came out ten years ago,
climate-related
extreme weather events
have gotten so much worse.
And so I've continued
to give my slideshow
all around the world.
Now, I want to add
the latest images
of the flooding going on
right now in Louisiana.
Okay, I think both of those'll
fit really well there.
I mean, every week now
this stuff
just keeps getting worse
and more of it.
But...
Actually, there were times when
it really looked bleak and dark
because the forces trying
to stop the change regrouped
and poured tons of money
in trying to paralyze
the political system
in the U.S.
and in other countries.
I got really discouraged.
And there came a time for me
when I felt, wow, we could
lose this struggle.
We need to recruit more people.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
I hope you're having
a productive
and enjoyable, wonderful time
at this training session.
I've been doing this
a long time.
And I was reminded recently
of how long it's been
since I started this.
I was sitting in a restaurant.
A woman came walking by
in front of my table,
just staring at me.
And I didn't think
anything of it until,
a few moments later,
I saw the same woman
coming from
the opposite direction,
just staring at me.
So I looked up and I said,
"How do you do?"
And she took one step forward
and she said,
"You know,
if you dyed your hair black,"
"you would look
just like Al Gore."
And so I said, "Thank you."
And she said,
"You sound like him, too."
But anyway...
One of the comedians on TV
said recently,
"The way you know
global warming is real"
"is if the hottest year ever"
"is the year
you're currently in."
Fourteen of the 15
hottest years ever measured
have been since 2001.
The hottest of all was 2016.
This graph shows
average temperatures
from 1951 through 1980.
The white are the normal days,
the blue are
the cooler-than-average days,
and the red are
warmer-than-average days.
And in the 1980s,
the entire curve
shifted to the warm side.
And we saw, for the first time,
the appearance of
a statistically significant
number of extremely
hot days in the lower right.
In the 1990s,
the curve shifted further.
And in the last ten years,
the extremely hot days
have become more numerous
than the
cooler-than-average days.
We still have cool days.
We still have cold days.
But these extremely hot days
are becoming much more numerous.
In April of this year,
the temperature over Greenland
was much higher than normal.
An engineer on one of
the helicopters took a video
during this temperature spike.
Those are parts of the glacier
just exploding
with the high temperatures.
Hey, Eric. How you doing?
Good to see you again.
So, you see the line
on the ridge here?
Yes.
That grey line is
where the ice surface was
back in the '80s.
- Not so long ago.
- Not long ago at all.
It's amazing to think
that just 30 years ago,
where we are right now,
it was all covered
by the big ice sheet.
- You ready for me?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I'll hold the ladder.
- Thank you, Bianca.
- Yeah, no problem, Al.
Welcome to Swiss Camp!
We have 20
automatic weather stations
measuring the climate.
Swiss Camp is just one of them.
This is the cumulative
height change of melt.
Yes. I see.
Since 2000 to now,
we lost 12 meters
- of ice at that elevation.
- Wow.
That was our former station,
level with the surface.
- Yes.
- Very deep pillars.
We came back next season.
That's where we are now.
This is okay here?
- Around there?
- Yes. Yeah.
That would be a hole you don't
- want to step in, right?
- Yes.
So, it's going
straight down there?
So the water rushes down.
And since it's heavier than ice,
it pushes its way
underneath the ice sheet.
And we can measure
how the ice is lifted up
a few millimeters
to a centimeter.
And then the ice moves fast
and you reduce the friction.
And, in effect, the ice sheet
starts speeding up
in its flow toward the ocean.
That's correct.
So this makes the ice mass
like Swiss cheese.
It is frustrating that
for many years,
I've tried to communicate
that we've got to act
on the climate crisis.
But it's not happening
fast enough.
If I said
there weren't times when
I felt this was
a personal failure on my part,
I'd be lying.
So where
is all that water going?
I'll tell you
where some of it's going.
It's going into the streets
of Miami Beach, Florida.
High tides continue
to bring a flood of frustration.
Fort Lauderdale gets the award
for the "something you don't
see every day" video.
Fish swimming on Cordova Road.
Experts say in 30 years or so,
a drive along Ocean Drive
could be a drive in the ocean.
Downtown Miami could be awash.
We're showing you
an area that hasn't been
actually fixed at all,
as you can tell.
And then, on Wednesday,
we're gonna show you
some of the areas
that used to be like this,
but now we raised the road
and put in pumps.
We've seen dramatic results.
It's so much better.
So you raised the road with
saltwater-resistant materials?
Yes.
And what level of sea level rise
is this designed
to protect against?
We are building in about
a foot of sea level rise.
And I'm sure the projections
are gonna continue to move.
Kinda hard to pump the ocean.
That's why
we've got to raise above it.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's not easy.
It's not easy.
This is not a simple fix.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
You can only raise so much
before you change
everybody's lives around here.
Yeah.
Scott and I grew up here.
This wasn't the case
40 years ago.
So if anyone wants to argue
that it's not happening...
It's happening.
It's happening.
It's coming out of the manholes,
coming out of the drains.
And this is while the pumps
are operating at full capacity.
This is a stopgap measure
at best.
Look, it's coming out
into the street there.
Well, I've got to go onstage
in about 15 minutes.
- So...
- Right.
Show me where
the new slides are,
and then try to
fix these videos.
Put them on a stick,
and I'll try
to download them to my computer.
Okay.
I thought those boots
were gonna be high enough,
but they weren't.
All right.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I am so excited to be here
and so excited
that you are here
for this training.
I'm a little bit late
getting here
because I got up early
and put on some wading boots
and went over to
a couple of the streets
that are filled up
with water this morning.
Miami, in terms of
assets at risk,
is the number one city at risk
in the entire world
for sea level rise.
This is a major crisis.
Projected sea level rise
in South Florida,
possibly seven feet
or more in this century.
By population,
the top ten cities at risk:
Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka,
Guangzhou, China, et cetera.
West Africa.
A lot of people at risk there.
And, of course,
the low-lying islands,
the Maldives have an enormous
amount at risk.
Kiribati has
already purchased land
to move its entire population.
And again, this is from
the city we're in right now.
I mean, I just wonder
how the governor
sloshes through this and says,
"I don't notice anything.
Do you notice anything?"
So, Florida...
- Florida.
- ...is a challenge, and so...
- I can confirm that.
- Okay.
So, that's the big question
we have.
I cover the climate,
environmental stuff
all the time,
and you have a state
with a governor
who wouldn't even
meet with scientists
- to talk about climate change.
- Yeah.
How do you move forward on it?
In order to address
the environmental crisis,
we are gonna have to
spend some time
fixing the democracy crisis.
Because big money
has so much influence now,
our democracy has been hacked.
Large contributors
call the shots.
Have you ever thought about
running for office again?
I've used this line before,
so forgive me,
but I am
a recovering politician.
And the longer I go
without a relapse,
the less likely one becomes.
So, I just wanted to say,
we'll probably do, sort of,
three buckets of stuff.
- All right.
- So, there's...
- Is one of them climate?
- Yes, climate.
Yes. One of them is climate,
one of them is sort of
broadly like how politics
are different now
than they were,
- say, 15 years ago.
- Sure.
Citizens United...
I'm interested to hear
your thoughts on that.
- Okay, yeah.
- And then some 2016 stuff.
Okay. But I'm not gonna...
You can decline.
I know you're not gonna...
I'm not gonna commit news.
Yes, I know.
But I'll try to get you to.
Okay.
But we will talk about climate?
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I got to feed the beast,
Mr. Vice President.
Sometimes it seems to me that
the climate crisis is simply
not getting the kind of
coverage in the media
that it should.
You have a
Republican Party right now...
Historically large field, right?
There's no one on climate...
Yeah, it's odd, isn't it?
...in the entire lineup.
Since when did the United States
abandon its traditional
world leadership role?
Especially at a time when,
just this past week,
the President of China says,
"Okay, we're going to adopt
a cap and trade program,"
"and we're reducing
our CO2 emissions,"
"and we want to create jobs"
"in solar and wind
and efficiency."
This is the most serious
global challenge
we've ever faced.
No other country
can play the role
that the U.S. can play.
Do you think that we're reaching
that tipping point
to the point that
it's not going to be
any more denial?
We are at a turning point.
And we can successfully
reach an agreement
in this big global negotiation
in Paris
at the end of November
to have a real meaningful turn
in the right direction.
At what moment did you decide
that you wanted to leave
politics aside and actually
move into this, uh,
new career that you have?
Well, to be honest,
that decision was one made
by the Supreme Court
of the United States.
I enjoyed politics,
but this is a mission
that I have dedicated myself to.
And there's a hunger
for information
about what's happening,
why it's happening,
and how we can fix it.
I usually start
with a black screen.
And, trust me,
after only
two or three times through,
you will associate your own
way of telling each story
with the picture,
and it'll come so easily.
The way the memory works...
Ten years ago,
I made the decision
to launch a training program,
so that anyone
who wanted to learn
the skills to communicate
to thousands of others
could come and get trained.
...'cause really,
all we're trying to do
is get the first stage going,
which is just waking people up.
There were only 50
of them in the beginning.
But I look back
on that first training
and it makes me smile,
because they were real pioneers,
in my way of thinking about it.
This is the first picture
that any of us ever saw
of the Earth from space.
It was taken
on Christmas Eve, 1968,
during the Apollo 8 mission.
And this was the first time
that human beings
left near-Earth orbit
and went far enough into space
to see the planet whole,
floating in the void.
And I've always
started my slideshows
with those pictures.
When people can see
the Earth from space,
they naturally find it easier
to feel a connection
to our shared home.
And the last image
from the Apollo program,
The Blue Marble,
the one picture of the entire
Earth fully illuminated,
completely changed the way
people think about the planet.
It energized the modern
environmental movement.
I put that picture
on my office wall
in the West Wing
of the White House,
and I looked at it every day.
I called up NASA and I said,
"Hey, I've been looking
at this same picture here,"
"and I'm just wondering
if there's another one."
I thought, what if we could
have images on a daily basis?
Might that help to build
the commitment people have
for saving the climate balance?
And that's when I learned
there's really not another one.
That's what led to the idea
of the DSCOVR satellite.
Not only for these pictures,
but because of
the amazing scientific
data gathering that you can do
from that special point
in space.
There was opposition
in the Congress.
I was about to run
for president,
and that may have had
something to do with it.
But once I finally
got it approved,
other instruments
started being added to it.
And one was the crucial
early-warning device
for solar storms
that threaten electric
utility grids and pipelines.
And NASA built the satellite,
gave it a launch date.
And then after
the Supreme Court decision
and the inauguration
of Bush and Cheney,
they canceled
the satellite launch.
Please stand for the invocation.
Reverend Graham.
The new administration,
they didn't really realize
they were also canceling
this solar storm
early-warning system.
And the businesses
that depend on it
started making a lot of noise.
And they proposed
to resolve that quandary
by taking all of
the climate instruments
and the camera
off of the satellite,
replacing them with
the equivalent of sandbags
and only leaving
the one instrument
that these powerful industries
wanted to be put into orbit.
I thought,
"Wow, that is extremism."
By the end of it,
this satellite was
put in storage.
We had a real opportunity
to start building
enough public support
to really get on track
to solving the climate crisis.
But we lost that opportunity.
And now, we cannot afford
to lose it again.
Okay, Bo.
This house was my home
when I was growing up as a boy.
My mother and father built it.
LBJ came to this farm.
He fell out with my dad
when my dad became one of
the leading opponents
of the Vietnam War,
but they served in the Senate
together a long time.
Here's a picture of my dad
doing Meet the Press, and...
Then, many years later,
me doing Meet the Press.
Here's a, uh,
handwritten note that
my second-oldest daughter,
Kristin, wrote back in 1987,
when we had
a family meeting to go over
whether or not
I should run for President.
It's divided into good parts
and bad parts.
"Number 1: Wants to do it."
"Number 2: Has a good chance."
"Number 3: A lot of people"
"who know the other candidates
don't like them."
Um...
"He might get elected."
"It would be a good time
to run things."
"He thinks
he could solve problems."
"The bad points. Number 1:
He would not be here a lot."
"Number 2: Uh..."
"It would be hard to
get more publicity"
"than some of the others."
"Number 3:"
"Would not like to have Social
Security around all the time."
Meaning the Secret Service,
of course.
Just moments ago,
I spoke with George W. Bush
and congratulated him
on becoming
the 43rd President of
the United States.
Neither he nor I anticipated
this long and difficult road.
Let there be no doubt
while I strongly disagree
with the court's decision,
I accept it.
I accept the finality of
this outcome,
which will be ratified
next Monday
in the Electoral College.
And tonight, for the sake of
our unity as a people
and the strength of
our democracy,
I offer my concession.
I had a detailed plan
for my life.
But it turned out that life
had a different plan for me.
You know, anybody
who decides to be a part of
helping to solve
the climate crisis has
a constant struggle
between hope and despair.
Uh, and so when you see
these slides about
all the damage
that's being done, hang on,
because hope is coming.
Don't sink too low!
Despair can be paralyzing.
But we're building up speed
and we're seeing
a tremendous amount of
positive change
that gives me the optimism
that I feel about this.
Let me give you some exciting
examples. Look at wind.
One day this month,
Scotland got 100% of
its electricity from wind.
In Portugal,
they had four days straight
last May on
renewable energy alone.
And on a global basis,
wind alone can supply
40 times the entire
global demand for energy.
But let's look at solar.
This, to me, is the most
exciting new development.
Fourteen years ago
the best projections available
were that we would be able
to install worldwide
one gigawatt of
solar electricity per year.
Well, when 2010 arrived,
we beat that goal by
17 times over.
Last year, we beat that goal
58 times over.
This year, we're on track to
beat that goal 73 times over.
This is an exponential curve,
and it is astonishing!
And it continues to go up
at a steeper rate
because the cost of
silicon solar cells
continues to go down.
I wish that every state
would encourage solar.
Including Florida.
You know, Florida's called
the Sunshine State?
The head of the second-biggest
fossil fuel utility there
was actually quoted as saying,
"Yes, we're the Sunshine State,"
"but, remember, we're also
the partly cloudy state."
And they have lobbied
the state legislature
to basically make it illegal
to lease a solar panel for
your rooftop from anybody
but the
fossil fuel-burning utility!
And they're trying to use
their legacy political power
to bend the politicians
to their will.
What the public wants
doesn't seem to matter.
It's pathetic!
In
Campaign 2016 segment tonight,
an interview with Donald Trump.
Not a believer
in global warming.
Obama thinks it's
the number one problem
of the world today,
and I think
it's very low on the list.
If you were President,
would you invest
a lot of money in
alternative energy
to get away from fossil fuels?
Now solar always
sounds better than it is.
You know, you get
your money back in 36 years.
The problem is the panels
destroy themselves
after ten years.
...you know, one of the top,
top professors at MIT.
Hey!
Hey, Mr. Vice President,
thank you so much for coming.
Thank you.
So, we're
in relatively early stages
of the investigation, but
some of these companies
and the denial organizations
and groups like the
American Petroleum Institute
have been actively seeking
to distort the market,
to suppress investment
in renewables
through this relatively
new line of propaganda,
which is,
"Even if everything"
"Al Gore's been saying
since the '80s is true,"
"it's gonna cost so much money,"
"it's gonna
cripple the economy."
It's an insidious theme
that we've seen before,
but it's coming back
with a new force.
And I think that
this is something we're
focusing on very intently.
We want to know who the groups
are who are doing this,
what is their analysis,
what's the science,
and what are the government
actions that are being taken?
Assuming for the moment
that the facts prove
that's what they did,
that's a violation of the law,
isn't it?
That's consumer
and securities fraud.
But it's clear that
what they've done is
essentially tried to cripple
our ability, mankind's ability,
to respond
to this existential threat.
A few days ago,
the Attorney General of
the State of New York
launched an investigation
of ExxonMobil
for fraud and funneling money
to this new form of denial
where people are out there
minimizing solar, saying,
"It's not going anywhere."
"Why are you wasting
your time on this?" Et cetera.
Utility monopolies really,
really fear disruption,
and have woken up and said,
"Wow, this solar thing,"
"I need to crush it
before it kills me."
The last two weeks,
we had 55,000 people
sign up in Nevada to say,
you know,
"I want choice,
I want energy freedom."
What happened in Nevada
will send a massive message
to the rest of the country.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Thank you. Will there
be bumps in the road?
You bet there will be.
But, at the end of the day,
you really are
on the front lines.
On the rooftops, if you will.
And we're seeing this play out
in every part of the world.
We've had 150 years of
burning fossil fuels
with the many blessings,
poverty's gone down,
living standards have increased.
So naturally, there still are
some people that say,
"Well, we just have to keep
relying on oil and gas"
"and even coal."
But it is worth pointing out
that in northern China,
life expectancy has gone down
five and a half years
because of air pollution.
And in Beijing, the mayor said,
"My city is not livable."
But in many parts of China
it is already cheaper
to get electricity
from solar and wind.
So this is the time
when your presentations
can provide support for your
government's determination
to do even better
with renewable energy.
Fine. How are you?
There are so many commitments
that governments are thinking
about making right now
for hundreds of new coal plants.
Even as the revolutionary drop
in cost from renewables
is picking up speed.
China's one of these countries.
And there are numbers of
others. India, others.
Unfortunately, they've looked
at the price of coal.
They see the price low,
and they feel they're compelled
therefore to try to provide
for their people.
So if India proceeds
to build the number of plants
it is currently planning,
and they are coal fired,
it can erase everything
everybody else
is trying to do
in terms of reductions.
We've got to figure out
a way to crack that nut.
Absolutely.
Now, climate change is high
on world leaders' agendas.
And that's because the crucial
U.N. talks in Paris
start in less than two months,
when the world gets together
to try to agree
on a global deal.
One of the sticking points
remains financing.
My agenda is dominated right now
by the preparations for the
climate conference in Paris.
The world's been preparing
for it a long time.
And the main objective is
to speed up
the transition
to renewable energy,
so that the entire world
can bring down
the pollution levels
while continuing
to reduce poverty.
But there is still a big divide
between rich countries
and poor countries.
So, thank you
for arranging this,
and for the privilege of
talking with you.
As you know,
I have this passion for
solving the climate crisis
that goes back 40 years. And...
Because I have studied it
so closely, I'm hoping that
the United States and India
will accelerate
our transitions to
renewable energy together.
India has always looked
at the United States
as a valuable partner.
But sadly, the Western world,
the developed world
does not seem
to be coming forth with
significant amounts of support.
And seems to be creating
more impediments.
All this talk about supporting
climate change
seems to be only talk,
and there's hardly
any action on that.
- In the U.S.?
- Yeah, from the U.S.
I don't think it's fair,
with all due respect,
if you may?
- Sure, please.
- Well, in the U.S.
in calendar year, uh, 2015,
if you look at the investments
in the U.S.
in the building of new, uh,
electric generating capacity,
three-quarters is
from solar and wind.
- May I respond to that?
- Yes. Please.
I'll do the same thing
after 150 years.
After I've used my coal.
After I've got my people jobs.
After I've created
my infrastructure
and highways and roads.
When I have technology.
When my people earn
$50,000-$70,000
per capita income,
using low-cost
fossil fuels-based energy.
The way the United States did
for 150 years.
It's very easy to say now that,
"Oh, we are not using coal!"
What about in the past?
So I'm only asking for
that carbon space
which you utilized
for 150 years.
My point is not
to deny your right
to make your own choices as to
what kind of energy you want.
Obviously you have that right.
But what I am saying,
when is the sun coming up today?
I don't see it anywhere.
I don't see the blue sky.
When any of us walk outside
and look up at the sky,
our natural impression is
that the sky looks like it's
a vast and limitless expanse.
Goes on forever.
Actually, the atmosphere
of the Earth
is a very thin shell
surrounding the planet.
And, of course, right now
we are putting 110 million tons
of heat-trapping
global-warming pollution
into that space
every single day.
We're using this
as an open sewer
for all of the gaseous waste
in our global civilization.
Agriculture is
a big cause of it.
Burning of forests and
burning of cropland.
But still, the main part of
the problem
is the emission of
carbon dioxide
from the burning of
coal, oil, and gas.
And that builds up heat energy
and raises temperatures.
India just set their
all-time high temperature
record in May.
123.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
The streets are melting.
We have built
a civilization for conditions
that we are now in the process
of radically changing.
All-time records have
been broken this year
in Thailand and Cambodia
and Laos.
In Pakistan, over 1,200 people
died in the heat wave there.
This year, they have dug
anticipatory mass graves
for the people
they fear will die
in this year's heat waves.
And we're seeing that
the higher temperatures
are shifting the balance
between microbes
and human beings.
The transportation revolution
has a lot to do with this.
Air travel.
But the climate conditions
have a big impact on that.
Let's look at Zika.
Here is the range of
the one mosquito
that they're most worried about.
And warmer conditions
increase that range
considerably.
But here is the kicker on this.
It's not just the mosquito,
it's the virus.
And the warmer temperatures
speed up
the incubation rate
inside the mosquito.
So we get an explosion
in the number of cases.
And now it's spread
to Miami, Florida.
And for the first time
in history,
pregnant women have been advised
not to go to part of
the United States of America.
In many areas of
Central America
and South America,
the doctors are delivering
a message
that I've never heard
in my life.
They're telling women,
"Don't get pregnant"
"for two years, while we try
to get a handle on this."
That's something new in
the history of the human race.
How long can we just
sit back and say,
"Oh, well, maybe some genius
will think up some miracle"?
I'm sorry, I'm getting all, um,
fired up here.
But let's step back
and take a global view
of the increasing temperatures
and the extra heat energy.
93% of all this heat energy
is going into the oceans.
And it has several consequences.
A direct consequence is
that when ocean-based storms
cross much warmer ocean waters
the storms get stronger
and more destructive.
Just a few years ago
Superstorm Sandy in the Atlantic
crossed areas of the ocean
9 degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than normal.
And it caused
tremendous destruction
in New Jersey and in New York.
And, by the way, ten years ago,
when the movie
An Inconvenient Truth
came out, the single most
criticized scene in that movie
was an animated scene showing
that the combination of
sea level rise and storm surge
would put the ocean water
into the 9/11 memorial site,
which was then
under construction.
And people said,
"That's ridiculous.
What a terrible exaggeration!"
Something happened last night
at one of the most iconic
locations in New York
the World Trade Center,
Ground Zero.
A flood of water
with a current so strong
it flooded the reconstruction.
There is a wakeup call here,
and that is climate change
and our vulnerability to it.
It was true ten years ago,
it was true five years ago.
It is undeniable today.
Years before,
the scientists predicted that
this would happen.
One year later,
in the Philippines,
Super Typhoon Haiyan
crossed areas of the Pacific
three degrees Celsius
warmer than normal.
And it became
the strongest and most
destructive ocean-based storm
ever to make landfall.
Uh, in the city of Tacloban
and nearby areas
there were 4.1 million
climate refugees.
Thousands of people were killed.
Even just remembering it now,
after more than two years,
just remembering
the sound of the wind.
And then the water came after.
Like a wall of water
just rushing in.
That's why we had to
climb to the roof.
In fact, I was shouting,
giving them orders
"Break that ceiling, we've gotta"
"get out of here
and we've gotta climb up."
If we went to any other place,
we would have died.
Because that had
a concrete structure,
and that's where
we were able to climb up.
People are running, are crying
because they don't know
what happened to their family.
We see a lot of dead people.
I saw Sir Alfred helping...
Helping, uh,
the other people to, to...
What do you call this? To...
- Recover the bodies?
- To recover the bodies.
Then...
Sorry.
No, that's okay. It's okay.
Thank God you're safe.
Actually, sir, I am so scared
when I'm telling this
to my friend...
It brings it back, doesn't it?
Yes, sir. I felt so, so scared.
When Tacloban was hit,
I knew that I wanted
to organize a training here
in the Philippines
to meet face-to-face
with the people
who were on the front lines
of this and empower them
to translate an excruciatingly
painful experience
into a focus on changing policy,
confronting public officials.
I don't know
any other way to do it.
The loss of life
was very tragic.
What a blessing it was that
Pope Francis came to Tacloban
to the ground zero
of that tragedy,
and delivered
a very powerful message that
"the gravest effects of
the climate crisis"
"are visited upon
the poorest people."
This is true
everywhere in the world.
Now, the second order
consequences
of the warming oceans
include some that
we're all experiencing
on a regular basis now.
When the temperature goes up,
the water vapor coming off
the oceans
into the sky
is increasing significantly.
This means that
every storm is different now
because it takes place
in a warmer and wetter world.
Water vapor is often funneled
thousands of kilometers
from the oceans over the land,
and then much more of it
falls at the same time.
Look at this downpour
that hit Tucson, Arizona,
and watch the water splash
off the city.
They're now calling
these things "rain bombs."
Houston's been hit
between May of last year
and May of this year.
Two 1-in-500-year floods and
one 1-in-1,000-year downpour.
Now, that's unusual.
Almost Noah-like.
This was in Spain last fall.
In Chile, last year. Epic event.
And now, today,
there are water rescues underway
in southeast Louisiana.
Give me a knife,
give me a knife.
Now, the same heat
that is bringing all that
water vapor off the oceans
is sucking the soil moisture
out of the ground.
And it's making the droughts
deeper and longer.
In China, in Vietnam,
in Thailand,
and all around the world.
And where there is drought,
the vegetation dries out
and the fires increase.
Every night on the evening
news is like a nature hike
through the Book of Revelations.
But the dots are very seldom
connected in the media.
This is global warming.
When we have scientists
tell us the dots connect,
we need to have in
our democracy a conversation
about cause and effect.
Let's look, for example,
at the story of
what has happened in Syria.
From 2006 to 2010,
they had
a record-breaking drought.
This farmer is one of many
who lost his farm.
60% of all the farms in Syria
were destroyed.
80% of all their livestock
were killed.
A climate-exacerbated drought
during that period contributed
to the displacement
of about 2 million people
before the conflict broke out.
Yes, many other causes.
The dictator there is a bad guy,
it's a multi-sided civil war,
and all of the rest.
But this drought is the worst
in at least 900 years.
As far back as the records go.
It is unprecedented!
And, of course,
since then the country
has been plunged
into horrific civil war.
The next generation,
if they live in a world
of floods and storms
and rising seas
and droughts and refugees
by the millions
escaping unlivable conditions,
destabilizing countries
around the world,
they would be well-justified
in looking back at us
and asking,
"What were you thinking?"
"Couldn't you hear what
the scientists were saying?"
"Couldn't you hear what Mother
Nature was screaming at you?"
Um, so, first off, Mr. Gore...
Tell us why you're here.
What's going on today?
This is a 24-hour
global broadcast
that is covered live
in every nation
around the world.
And we are attempting
to further mobilize
people in every nation
to support even more
ambitious outcomes
in the negotiation that
will take place here in Paris
just two weeks from now.
We are on air
in four minutes, please!
Rio, are you there?
Mr. Vice President,
welcome to the stage.
Thank you very much
and welcome, everyone,
to this global broadcast.
So, as I stand here today,
now just two weeks
from the opening of
the United Nations Conference
on Climate Change here in Paris,
what we need now is for people
all over the world to speak out.
And that's what the next
24 hours are all about.
Stand by.
We're gonna come to the toss.
We're on you. Go.
We've got to say to Mr. Gore
we'll cut this short
to get to Pharrell.
I'll get it settled.
Just don't do anything rash.
Can we cut it down?
Can we take it out early?
They've asked us
to bring your car over
by the trailer just in case
we need to get you out of here.
Okay. Is it terrorist related?
They don't know yet.
Probably, because
there's several shootings
around Paris.
There's several dead people.
And, uh, so it's pretty sure
it's terrorism.
"Police officials in France say"
"there's been
an explosion in a bar"
"near a Paris stadium"
"and a shootout
in a Paris restaurant."
"President Hollande evacuated
from Stade de France."
And there are apparently
18 dead, and AFP is reporting
hostages at the concert hall.
- Hostages?
- Yes.
That's all coming from police.
Wow.
Paris terror fear.
Multiple people are reported
killed in a shooting.
There's also word
of possible explosions...
Paris is under
an effective police state.
A curfew is in effect.
Police don't seem
to have a full handle
exactly what's going on.
But this is exactly
the kind of terror scenario
that the U.S. has long feared.
Okay.
Before I go on
to make my statement,
I just want to say something.
Those of us who are Americans
stand with you.
We express
our heartfelt condolences
for the tragedy here in
the city and in your country.
This scourge of terrorism
in our world...
Um...
We have to defeat this.
But we have to defeat it
not only with force of arms,
but with the force
of our values.
Caring about the future
and doing what the world
needs to do.
But, for now, I just wanted to
say to all of you,
especially those of you
from France,
what's in my heart
is in the hearts
of all the Americans here who
love you and care about you
and stand with you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we are suspending our broadcast
because of the tragedies
that have unfolded here.
The fact that those
terrible attacks
took place in the city
where the climate conference
was about to begin
caused many to connect
these two events
at a deep level
that is difficult
to articulate in words.
There have been
so many times when
big setbacks have tempted me
to deep despair.
But if I can draw
upon my faith tradition,
God said, "I lay before you"
"a choice
between life and death."
"Therefore, choose life."
We have come to Paris
to show our resolve.
We offer our condolences,
and we salute
the people of Paris
for insisting
this crucial conference go on.
To show the world we
are a global family
in solidarity
with the French people.
On behalf
of the Romanian people,
our deepest sympathies.
We show our sympathy
and solidarity
with the government
and people of France.
Is there a subway stop near here
where we could take the subway?
All right, so...
Okay. And I'll meet you
at Le Bourget?
Yeah, we'll meet you
at Le Bourget. Let's go.
Great. Welcome.
Yeah, yeah.
No. Not anymore.
I wish you were
elected president.
I wish I could call you
Mr. President.
- Thank you. All right.
- Thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. All right,
nice to meet you.
Oh, thank you!
Mr. Vice President.
- Good to see you again.
- Congratulations in person.
Thank you very much, sir.
And thanks for the change
you're bringing about.
- Good luck to you.
- I appreciate that.
It's Canadians, not me,
but thank you.
All right.
To the development
of a low-carbon economy,
our government is making
climate change a top priority.
Never before has
a responsibility so great
been in the hands of so few.
One of the secrets
of the human condition
is that suffering
binds us together.
Those 150 heads of state
were moved to speak
in ways I don't think
they otherwise would have.
Every one of them began
with, first, condolences,
and then solidarity.
And when they turned,
in the next paragraph,
to their hopes
for the conference,
they could not help but say
this is an opportunity
for us to make that
solidarity tangible and real.
I now give the floor to
Mr. Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister of India.
Democratic India
must grow rapidly
to meet the aspirations
of 1.25 billion people,
300 million of whom
are without access to energy.
Energy is a basic human need.
And there should be no place
for unilateral steps
that become
economic barriers for others.
So, we still need
conventional energy,
fossil fuel.
And anything else
will be morally wrong.
Thank you.
Hmm.
You know, I've been
to all of these different
climate conferences since 1992.
We parliamentarians
have an obligation
to accelerate the movement
toward meaningful changes
in policies
in every nation
on the face of this Earth
to stop the destruction of
the global ecological system.
It began with a great deal
of optimism in Rio...
Hello, Mr. Prime Minister.
...but it soon bogged down.
The process
used to bring nations together
to discuss our joint response
to climate change
is an important one.
But a growing population
requires more energy
to heat and cool our homes.
More gas to drive our cars.
For all that time,
the world has struggled
- to get its act together...
- Oh! Hey!
...and connect the science
to the policy.
There's no deal.
It's closed down.
Good morning.
But, for me, the last 20 years
was a very painful experience.
We're not going to recognize it.
We don't want to discuss it.
Painful not only because
of the lack of
a favorable outcome,
but also because there was
no way in to really
take hold
of the process and say,
"Okay, let me help you here."
I was relieved when
I got to Paris because
there were
influential men and women
from countries around the world,
some who'd been through
my training program...
...and who asked me
to help in the process.
Thank you.
- There's the boss.
- Hey!
How are you, dear?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
You ready for me?
I was in India
earlier this year, and...
I think that the emergence
of solar electricity
as a competitive viable option,
it opens up a pathway
that justifies realistic hope.
But, you know,
I do think that India,
well, Prime Minister Modi,
has been very, very clear
that their concern is
not just the existence
of technology,
but their access
to that technology.
So... With what trust
do they let go
of the whole fossil fuel
development model
that has been paraded in front
of them for 150 years,
and now we're saying,
"Excuse me,
this parade, it's done."
"Now we have to build
a different parade for you."
It would be most helpful
if that focus on renewables
can be seen from the developing
- country's perspective.
- Yeah.
But is that something
that you could
devote some time to
while you're here?
Of course.
I'm trying to solve
an Indian problem,
first and foremost.
Their plan is to build 400
new dirty coal plants.
Uh, and that's a disaster.
When India goes to borrow money
to build solar farms
or wind farms,
they have to pay 13%
plus an FX uncertainty.
And that is manifestly absurd.
Hey, Ben.
- Hey, Cory.
- Very good to see you.
Hey, Ed. How are you?
The challenge for us
is to find a way to make
renewables as cheap as coal,
and then partner with them
so that we don't build
this huge infrastructure
that will continue to provide
more carbon dioxide
decades in the future.
India has this plan,
200 gigawatts of coal.
I met with their energy
and power minister,
Piyush Goyal, in Delhi.
I asked,
what would it take to shift
another 100 gigawatts
from coal to renewables?
His answer was
incredibly specific.
Access to credit.
And, of course, with the
future of human civilization
in the balance,
we should probably
- ratchet that up a little bit.
- Wow.
More than 65%
of the world's carbon pollution
comes from the developing world.
Now, we're not pointing fingers.
This isn't a question of blame.
But we're here to change it.
The reason
that talks are stalled?
Because the U.S. government
put countries like India
as culprits,
as criminals, climate criminals.
And I don't think the U.S.
should be allowed
to get away with that.
Fabius has asked for
an urgent meeting, one on one.
They're getting frustrated
at the pace of the negotiations.
The long-term goal?
You spend a lot of time
each year in India.
So my narrow interest
is a way around
these high interest rates that
the Indians are
so concerned about
in deploying solar and wind.
But we're not gonna
sort that out
in the next couple of days.
Yeah.
The overnight deluge
of some 300 millimeters of rain
in a span of 18 hours
has wreaked havoc.
The news is
that it's only gonna get worse
and the flood waters are rising.
India's fourth-largest city
was paralyzed
by the heaviest rains
in more than a hundred years,
which cut off more than
three million people
from basic services for days.
It's amazing that
while we're here
and India is a holdout,
they're having this.
Part of their thing
is that they need more money
to deal with it, right?
So the sticking point is also
on that side in terms of
developed countries not
wanting to give that money.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yes.
During the days that we are here
in this conference,
we have seen a repeat
of the pattern of more floods
and landslides.
Indeed today, in Chennai,
these events continue.
They have had
1,500 millimeters of rain
in the last several weeks alone.
Five feet of rain.
The number of people
who have been killed
is in the hundreds.
Tens of thousands
have been relocated.
This is not the first time
this has happened.
Every storm is different now
because of the climate crisis.
Prime Minister Modi went from
Paris back to Tamil Nadu
and said, "We are feeling
climate change's"
"fast-growing impact now."
No, no, it's all right.
I'm sorry to call you
on a Saturday evening.
So, the other sticking point
is, um, you know, credit
at a sufficiently
low interest rate
to allow India to borrow.
Uh, and...
But that's a separate issue.
So, here is the idea that I had.
Elon has a record
of giving up IP
on some of the core aspects
in Tesla.
You know, you take it
and do what you can with it.
I talked to President Hollande
about it also.
I didn't mention the company,
uh, but I mentioned
the general idea.
Hollande and Ban Ki-moon,
and I'm sure, at least
at the ministerial level,
with India,
we could have, uh, you know,
halo equity for SolarCity
that would be incredible.
But before I call
Lyndon or Elon,
I wanted to run it by you.
Yeah, would you, please?
And also send me Lyndon's
cell phone if you have it.
Lyndon?
Hi, it's Al Gore.
I have a big idea for you.
SolarCity could be
the corporate hero of Paris
by announcing that it will give
the technology
to the new world-champion
solar cell
to India.
Well, here's the logic
for it, Lyndon.
The big holdout here
in the negotiations is India.
Yeah, but that's up
to them, okay?
That's up to them.
I'm talking about
breaking the impasse
and getting them over the hump.
Give it some thought, my friend.
Bye.
So he swallowed hard and said,
"Ugh, I might have
to think about that."
We'll see.
It's crunch time
at the climate change
conference in Paris.
With a deadline
for a deal fast approaching,
it's clear that...
There's still some really tough
negotiations going on
among developed
and developing nations.
There is an argument
about who's responsible
for climate change,
who should pay
for the consequences.
What do you think
of the global warming summit
in Paris this week?
I think it's ridiculous.
We have bigger problems
right now.
To have the President be there
for an extended
period of time talking about
global warming
being the biggest problem
facing this country is insane.
He ought to get back to work
and solve the ISIS problem.
So, Mr. Minister,
John Kerry asked me
to talk with you
and explain some of the details
on this extraordinary gift
being proposed by, uh,
the premier solar energy company
in the United States.
Give me the, uh, material.
"It's a hybrid polysilicon..."
And this is, uh...
It is a "silicon-based
bifacial PV cell"
"that combines
n-type substrates,"
"copper electrodes,"
"thin-film passivation layers"
"and a tunneling oxide layer"
"that yields
high conversion efficiencies."
And if, in return for this,
India remove its potential
objections to
the climate treaty,
then he said SolarCity
would be willing to do this.
Is there any precedent
for a technology
transfer to happen so quickly?
Well, you all know
about computer chips,
but let's take
a more mundane example.
Uh, cell phones.
Back around 1980,
I was in
the House of Representatives,
and I was so excited to buy
one of the very first
mobile phones.
Honestly, I felt that thing
was so cool.
And now there are
more mobile phones
than there are
people in the world.
Most of it in
developing countries
that had no landline
telephone grid.
And so they could leapfrog
and get telephone service
for the first time.
Well, guess what?
There are a lot of countries
where the landline
electricity grids
are not so great.
In Africa.
In the Indian subcontinent.
Now we're seeing this instead:
Solar panels.
This one in Africa's
on the roof of a grass hut.
Parents want their children
to have access
to the universe of information.
Chile. A developing country,
but it has great policy.
You talk about excitement,
this story gets me excited.
At the end of 2013, they had
11 megawatts of solar.
By the end of 2014,
more than 400 megawatts.
By the end of last year,
more than 800 megawatts.
So look at what they have
under construction this year
and under contract to
soon begin construction.
Isn't that great? I love this.
13.3 gigawatts!
And there are other countries
and many regions in the world
that are poised
for this kind of breakout.
We are seeing
a real turning here.
On a global basis,
the world gets more energy
from the sun each hour
than the entire global economy
uses for an entire year.
If we increase
the fraction of that
that we harvest
and use productively,
then we can solve that part
of the climate crisis.
There's been a lot of discussion
between India and U.S.
We know that President Obama
did make a call
to Prime Minister Modi.
What the outcomes
were of those talks,
we don't know yet.
What we do know is John Kerry
has been having
repeated discussion.
There was
a one-hour meeting today
with the environment minister.
How all this translates
into India's concerns
being met
still remains to be seen.
Do we have a deal,
Mr. President?
Do we have a deal?
Today is a historic day.
We have,
in the spirit of compromise,
agreed on a number of phrases.
And we have not only
an agreement,
but we have written
a new chapter of hope
in the lives of seven billion
people on the planet.
We hope
that Paris will reassure
this future generation
that we all together
will mitigate
the challenge
posed by climate change,
and we will give them
a better Earth.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup.
L'accord de Paris pour
le climat est accept.
We started
this COP commemorating
those fallen in tragic deaths.
We end this COP celebrating
a new chapter of hope
for the world.
This is exciting.
It's very exciting.
Yes, thank you, sir.
Thank you. I'm glad it helped.
The Paris Agreement
would not have happened
without President Obama,
Secretary of State John Kerry,
President Hollande of France.
Without a lot of people
who worked hard on that.
Virtually every nation
in the entire world agreed
to get to net-zero
greenhouse gas emissions
as early in the second half
of this century as possible.
This sends a signal to markets,
sends a signal to investors.
And it resulted
in the largest solar loan
in the history of the world
to help India move forward
more quickly
in its installation of solar.
It needs continuing work.
And one of the reasons
your role is so important
is to hold them to
what they've agreed to
and to keep the pressure on.
Because even with
all the agreements
put together,
it's still not enough.
But the basis is there
to ramp up
and make more progress.
There are cities in the U.S.
that have already
reached the goal of
100% renewable energy.
Rock Port, Missouri.
Greensburg, Kansas.
They were destroyed
by an F5 tornado,
and when they built back,
they say, "Hey",
"let's go 100% renewable,"
and they have.
Right here in Houston,
the home of the global
oil and gas industry,
you'll hear a lot of people say,
"Wind and solar's nice,"
"but it won't really
lead anywhere."
And a lot of people
are now saying
that is a strange new form
of denial.
But look at what's happening
in Georgetown, Texas.
Howdy!
Howdy, Mr. Vice President Gore.
How are you, Mr. Mayor?
Welcome to the greatest city
on Planet Earth.
Spoken like a good mayor.
- Can I have one?
- Oh, sure.
I know they're for kids.
So, how long have you
been mayor?
I have been mayor for two years.
This green energy
initiative started
when I was on council in 2008.
I remember that. Mmm-hmm.
And the direction that
we gave to Chris
and crew was, in 2008, we said
by 2030 we want
our energy portfolio
- to be 30% renewable energy.
- Yeah.
Well, they've sort of
blown by that.
That was ambitious
at that time, anyway.
It was! Absolutely.
Currently we're
90% renewable energy.
We're getting our wind
out of Amarillo.
Our solar farm's being
built out in west Texas.
It should be up and running
next spring.
Oh.
And currently, we will be
the first city in Texas
to be 100% renewable.
And when we go 100% renewable,
we will be the largest city
in the country
that's renewable energy at 100%.
So, I assume that
the reason you did this
is that the two of you are
just rabid environmentalists.
Well, not exactly, because,
um, you're in Georgetown,
which is the reddest city
in the reddest county in Texas,
and I'm a conservative
Republican.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
But our duty to our ratepayers
is to provide them
with the lowest possible
utility cost.
And money talks.
But then, wouldn't it
just make sense
from a common-sense standpoint,
the less stuff you put
in the air, the better it is?
- Yeah.
- I mean, common sense.
You don't need scientists
to debate that.
- Can I use that line?
- You absolutely can.
Hey, let me tell you what.
You would be
the sport of all sports
if somebody could get
a picture of me
and Mr. Vice President?
That's just for
personal use, right?
Oh, yeah.
- All right, here we go.
- Come on.
Here's your camera right there.
Now, this is not an endorsement,
as you can well imagine.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, Beth Wade,
Community Impact newspaper.
Pleasure. Pleasure.
You think this city
can be a trailblazer
for other cities of like size?
Definitely.
Now, not every city has
a CPA as a mayor,
so that's another
advantage for you.
But when other cities
really look at the facts,
I think you're gonna see
a massive wave
switching over to
pollution-free renewable energy.
Well, what we always say is,
don't we have a moral
and ethical obligation
to leave the planet
better than we found it?
You better be careful
talking like that.
T-minus 10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5,
4, 3, 2, 1,
0.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9.
Falcon 9 has cleared the towers.
The Falcon takes flight,
propelling the Deep Space
Climate Observatory DSCOVR
on a million-mile journey
to protect our Planet Earth.
When President Obama
was elected,
I went to see him and
told him the story of
the DSCOVR satellite and
how it was cancelled.
And he allocated the money,
and it finally got launched.
Second stage engine
ignition
has occurred on time.
Remember, when I
mentioned the Blue Marble,
it was the only photograph
of its kind.
But here's one
from the first week
of last December.
This was taken by a brand-new
NASA and NOAA satellite
called DSCOVR
that orbits the sun
along with the Earth
and the scientists
are learning so much.
For example, for the first time
they're learning about
the real energy balance
of the Earth.
Energy in and energy out.
Don't let anybody tell you
that we're gonna get on
rocket ships and go to
Mars and live in hermetically
sealed buildings.
We couldn't even evacuate
the city of New Orleans
when the hurricane hit there.
This is our home.
Delegates at the United Nations
Climate Summit
are expressing panic
over Tuesday's election results,
saying President-elect
Donald Trump
may threaten the future
of any international agreement
to slow catastrophic
climate change.
Trump has said he will "cancel
the Paris Climate Agreement"
and also promised to promote
coal power and fracking,
and says he will allow
for oil and gas drilling
on federal land.
A famous boxer once said,
"Everybody has a plan"
"until he gets
punched in the face."
Days into his presidency,
Donald Trump is sending
chills down the spines
of environmentalists
and some EPA employees.
This trifecta
of cabinet appointments,
all staunch
fossil fuel supporters
who've expressed doubts
about the urgency
of climate change.
For all the years
I've been involved
in this struggle, there have
been lots of setbacks.
So now we have another one.
With all these new threats,
there's never been
a more important time
to speak truth to power.
I do my best
to speak for
the public interest in solving
the climate crisis.
Even though it sounds
a little highfalutin,
I try to answer to the truth
of what needs to be done.
And each of us, in our own ways,
has the obligation
and some ability
to feel what is more likely
to be true than not.
And if you work hard enough
to get the best
available evidence,
you can feel if you're onto
what the right thing is.
And that's not arrogance,
that's just a feeling that
I think everybody
is familiar with.
And I've been
working on this issue
long enough that I feel very,
very deeply about
what the right thing is.
I'm not confused about it.
I remember vividly
when the Civil Rights
Movement first began to
pick up steam.
We saw Bull Connor
turning fire hoses
on young African-American kids,
and we asked
the older generation
why it's just and fair
to have laws
that discriminate
on the basis of skin color.
And when they couldn't
answer that question,
the laws began to change.
This movement
to solve the climate crisis
is in the tradition of every
great moral movement
that has advanced
the cause of humankind.
And every single one of them
has met with resistance
to the point
where many of the advocates
felt despair
and wondered, "How long
is this gonna take?"
Martin Luther King famously
answered a question during
some of the bleakest hours
of the Civil Rights Movement,
when someone asked,
"How long is this gonna take?"
He said, "How long? Not long."
"Because no lie
can live forever."
"How long? Not long."
"Because the moral arc
of the universe is long,"
"but it bends toward justice."
"How long? Not long."
We are close in this movement.
We are very close
to the tipping point
beyond which this movement,
like the abolition movement,
like the women's
suffrage movement,
like the Civil Rights Movement,
like the anti-apartheid
movement,
like the movement
for gay rights,
is resolved into a choice
between right and wrong.
And because of who we are
as human beings,
the outcome is foreordained.
And it is right to save
the future for humanity!
It is wrong
to pollute this Earth
and destroy the climate balance!
It is right to give hope
to the future generation!
It will not be easy.
And we, too, in this movement
will encounter a series of no's.
The great American poet
Wallace Stevens,
in the last century,
one of his lines was this,
"After the last no comes a yes."
"And on that yes
the future world depends."
Bye-bye, guys. Thank you!
Al Gore's movie
An Inconvenient Truth
won him an Oscar, and yet,
much of the movie is nonsense.
"Sea levels may rise 20 feet"
is absurd!
But this is Al Gore.
He always goes down the road
of hyperbole.
Not only is he losing
the argument
on climate change,
but he's losing the science
as well.
You don't go
see Joseph Goebbels' films
to see the truth
about Nazi Germany.
You don't want
to go see Al Gore's film
to see the truth
about global warming.
And it's the most severe
winter storm in years,
which would seem to contradict
Al Gore's hysterical
global warming theories.
Donald Trump says
he's had it up to here
with Al Gore
and is calling for the
Nobel Peace Prize committee
to take the prize away.
Yes or no, do you believe
that human-caused global warming
is a moral,
ethical, and spiritual issue
affecting our survival?
Yes, I do.
Yes or no,
do you believe that reducing
fossil fuel-based energy usage
will lead to lower
greenhouse gas emissions?
Basically, yes.
I don't think we...
That's... That's good.
Senator Gore...
If I could just, uh, continue...
Well, you can't.
Now, it seems
that everything is blamed
on global warming.
Last summer, we had a
heat wave, and everyone said,
"Oh, that's proof
it's global warming."
Then we had a mild December.
"Oh, that's proof"
"it's global warming
that's taking place."
Now, I wonder how come you guys
never seem to notice it
when it gets cold?
The National Academy of Sciences
here in this country
and in the 16
largest or most-developed
countries in the world
agrees with the consensus
that I've stated.
Senator Gore, my time
is almost expired completely.
Are you aware of that?
It seems that everybody...
I would like to respond.
May I respond?
...global warming in
the media joined the chorus...
Excuse me, Senator Imhofe.
How can you ask a question
and not give the man
a minute to answer?
Please.
Senator, thank you. Um...
I've been sitting here
trying to think
what I could do or say
that, uh...
That might make it possible
to reach out to you.
And I'm serious about this.
I'd love to, um,
talk with you
without the cameras
and without the lights and...
And tell you, uh,
why I feel so strongly
about this.
And we've got to call the other,
I think, three or four speakers
for the Generation Client
Conference, too.
All right, so now back to
the Paris conference.
I'd like a briefing on
the must-do meetings in Paris.
And I'll circle back
to Christiana
well before then
on how I can best help her.
I need to talk to
Secretary Kerry
- about the long-term goal.
- Mmm-hmm.
I want to schedule
the China climate training
during the first three months
of the year.
I think it would be good
to lock that down.
Yeah, definitely.
Morning. Morning.
Thank you for your help.
Since An Inconvenient Truth
came out ten years ago,
climate-related
extreme weather events
have gotten so much worse.
And so I've continued
to give my slideshow
all around the world.
Now, I want to add
the latest images
of the flooding going on
right now in Louisiana.
Okay, I think both of those'll
fit really well there.
I mean, every week now
this stuff
just keeps getting worse
and more of it.
But...
Actually, there were times when
it really looked bleak and dark
because the forces trying
to stop the change regrouped
and poured tons of money
in trying to paralyze
the political system
in the U.S.
and in other countries.
I got really discouraged.
And there came a time for me
when I felt, wow, we could
lose this struggle.
We need to recruit more people.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
I hope you're having
a productive
and enjoyable, wonderful time
at this training session.
I've been doing this
a long time.
And I was reminded recently
of how long it's been
since I started this.
I was sitting in a restaurant.
A woman came walking by
in front of my table,
just staring at me.
And I didn't think
anything of it until,
a few moments later,
I saw the same woman
coming from
the opposite direction,
just staring at me.
So I looked up and I said,
"How do you do?"
And she took one step forward
and she said,
"You know,
if you dyed your hair black,"
"you would look
just like Al Gore."
And so I said, "Thank you."
And she said,
"You sound like him, too."
But anyway...
One of the comedians on TV
said recently,
"The way you know
global warming is real"
"is if the hottest year ever"
"is the year
you're currently in."
Fourteen of the 15
hottest years ever measured
have been since 2001.
The hottest of all was 2016.
This graph shows
average temperatures
from 1951 through 1980.
The white are the normal days,
the blue are
the cooler-than-average days,
and the red are
warmer-than-average days.
And in the 1980s,
the entire curve
shifted to the warm side.
And we saw, for the first time,
the appearance of
a statistically significant
number of extremely
hot days in the lower right.
In the 1990s,
the curve shifted further.
And in the last ten years,
the extremely hot days
have become more numerous
than the
cooler-than-average days.
We still have cool days.
We still have cold days.
But these extremely hot days
are becoming much more numerous.
In April of this year,
the temperature over Greenland
was much higher than normal.
An engineer on one of
the helicopters took a video
during this temperature spike.
Those are parts of the glacier
just exploding
with the high temperatures.
Hey, Eric. How you doing?
Good to see you again.
So, you see the line
on the ridge here?
Yes.
That grey line is
where the ice surface was
back in the '80s.
- Not so long ago.
- Not long ago at all.
It's amazing to think
that just 30 years ago,
where we are right now,
it was all covered
by the big ice sheet.
- You ready for me?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I'll hold the ladder.
- Thank you, Bianca.
- Yeah, no problem, Al.
Welcome to Swiss Camp!
We have 20
automatic weather stations
measuring the climate.
Swiss Camp is just one of them.
This is the cumulative
height change of melt.
Yes. I see.
Since 2000 to now,
we lost 12 meters
- of ice at that elevation.
- Wow.
That was our former station,
level with the surface.
- Yes.
- Very deep pillars.
We came back next season.
That's where we are now.
This is okay here?
- Around there?
- Yes. Yeah.
That would be a hole you don't
- want to step in, right?
- Yes.
So, it's going
straight down there?
So the water rushes down.
And since it's heavier than ice,
it pushes its way
underneath the ice sheet.
And we can measure
how the ice is lifted up
a few millimeters
to a centimeter.
And then the ice moves fast
and you reduce the friction.
And, in effect, the ice sheet
starts speeding up
in its flow toward the ocean.
That's correct.
So this makes the ice mass
like Swiss cheese.
It is frustrating that
for many years,
I've tried to communicate
that we've got to act
on the climate crisis.
But it's not happening
fast enough.
If I said
there weren't times when
I felt this was
a personal failure on my part,
I'd be lying.
So where
is all that water going?
I'll tell you
where some of it's going.
It's going into the streets
of Miami Beach, Florida.
High tides continue
to bring a flood of frustration.
Fort Lauderdale gets the award
for the "something you don't
see every day" video.
Fish swimming on Cordova Road.
Experts say in 30 years or so,
a drive along Ocean Drive
could be a drive in the ocean.
Downtown Miami could be awash.
We're showing you
an area that hasn't been
actually fixed at all,
as you can tell.
And then, on Wednesday,
we're gonna show you
some of the areas
that used to be like this,
but now we raised the road
and put in pumps.
We've seen dramatic results.
It's so much better.
So you raised the road with
saltwater-resistant materials?
Yes.
And what level of sea level rise
is this designed
to protect against?
We are building in about
a foot of sea level rise.
And I'm sure the projections
are gonna continue to move.
Kinda hard to pump the ocean.
That's why
we've got to raise above it.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's not easy.
It's not easy.
This is not a simple fix.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
You can only raise so much
before you change
everybody's lives around here.
Yeah.
Scott and I grew up here.
This wasn't the case
40 years ago.
So if anyone wants to argue
that it's not happening...
It's happening.
It's happening.
It's coming out of the manholes,
coming out of the drains.
And this is while the pumps
are operating at full capacity.
This is a stopgap measure
at best.
Look, it's coming out
into the street there.
Well, I've got to go onstage
in about 15 minutes.
- So...
- Right.
Show me where
the new slides are,
and then try to
fix these videos.
Put them on a stick,
and I'll try
to download them to my computer.
Okay.
I thought those boots
were gonna be high enough,
but they weren't.
All right.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I am so excited to be here
and so excited
that you are here
for this training.
I'm a little bit late
getting here
because I got up early
and put on some wading boots
and went over to
a couple of the streets
that are filled up
with water this morning.
Miami, in terms of
assets at risk,
is the number one city at risk
in the entire world
for sea level rise.
This is a major crisis.
Projected sea level rise
in South Florida,
possibly seven feet
or more in this century.
By population,
the top ten cities at risk:
Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka,
Guangzhou, China, et cetera.
West Africa.
A lot of people at risk there.
And, of course,
the low-lying islands,
the Maldives have an enormous
amount at risk.
Kiribati has
already purchased land
to move its entire population.
And again, this is from
the city we're in right now.
I mean, I just wonder
how the governor
sloshes through this and says,
"I don't notice anything.
Do you notice anything?"
So, Florida...
- Florida.
- ...is a challenge, and so...
- I can confirm that.
- Okay.
So, that's the big question
we have.
I cover the climate,
environmental stuff
all the time,
and you have a state
with a governor
who wouldn't even
meet with scientists
- to talk about climate change.
- Yeah.
How do you move forward on it?
In order to address
the environmental crisis,
we are gonna have to
spend some time
fixing the democracy crisis.
Because big money
has so much influence now,
our democracy has been hacked.
Large contributors
call the shots.
Have you ever thought about
running for office again?
I've used this line before,
so forgive me,
but I am
a recovering politician.
And the longer I go
without a relapse,
the less likely one becomes.
So, I just wanted to say,
we'll probably do, sort of,
three buckets of stuff.
- All right.
- So, there's...
- Is one of them climate?
- Yes, climate.
Yes. One of them is climate,
one of them is sort of
broadly like how politics
are different now
than they were,
- say, 15 years ago.
- Sure.
Citizens United...
I'm interested to hear
your thoughts on that.
- Okay, yeah.
- And then some 2016 stuff.
Okay. But I'm not gonna...
You can decline.
I know you're not gonna...
I'm not gonna commit news.
Yes, I know.
But I'll try to get you to.
Okay.
But we will talk about climate?
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I got to feed the beast,
Mr. Vice President.
Sometimes it seems to me that
the climate crisis is simply
not getting the kind of
coverage in the media
that it should.
You have a
Republican Party right now...
Historically large field, right?
There's no one on climate...
Yeah, it's odd, isn't it?
...in the entire lineup.
Since when did the United States
abandon its traditional
world leadership role?
Especially at a time when,
just this past week,
the President of China says,
"Okay, we're going to adopt
a cap and trade program,"
"and we're reducing
our CO2 emissions,"
"and we want to create jobs"
"in solar and wind
and efficiency."
This is the most serious
global challenge
we've ever faced.
No other country
can play the role
that the U.S. can play.
Do you think that we're reaching
that tipping point
to the point that
it's not going to be
any more denial?
We are at a turning point.
And we can successfully
reach an agreement
in this big global negotiation
in Paris
at the end of November
to have a real meaningful turn
in the right direction.
At what moment did you decide
that you wanted to leave
politics aside and actually
move into this, uh,
new career that you have?
Well, to be honest,
that decision was one made
by the Supreme Court
of the United States.
I enjoyed politics,
but this is a mission
that I have dedicated myself to.
And there's a hunger
for information
about what's happening,
why it's happening,
and how we can fix it.
I usually start
with a black screen.
And, trust me,
after only
two or three times through,
you will associate your own
way of telling each story
with the picture,
and it'll come so easily.
The way the memory works...
Ten years ago,
I made the decision
to launch a training program,
so that anyone
who wanted to learn
the skills to communicate
to thousands of others
could come and get trained.
...'cause really,
all we're trying to do
is get the first stage going,
which is just waking people up.
There were only 50
of them in the beginning.
But I look back
on that first training
and it makes me smile,
because they were real pioneers,
in my way of thinking about it.
This is the first picture
that any of us ever saw
of the Earth from space.
It was taken
on Christmas Eve, 1968,
during the Apollo 8 mission.
And this was the first time
that human beings
left near-Earth orbit
and went far enough into space
to see the planet whole,
floating in the void.
And I've always
started my slideshows
with those pictures.
When people can see
the Earth from space,
they naturally find it easier
to feel a connection
to our shared home.
And the last image
from the Apollo program,
The Blue Marble,
the one picture of the entire
Earth fully illuminated,
completely changed the way
people think about the planet.
It energized the modern
environmental movement.
I put that picture
on my office wall
in the West Wing
of the White House,
and I looked at it every day.
I called up NASA and I said,
"Hey, I've been looking
at this same picture here,"
"and I'm just wondering
if there's another one."
I thought, what if we could
have images on a daily basis?
Might that help to build
the commitment people have
for saving the climate balance?
And that's when I learned
there's really not another one.
That's what led to the idea
of the DSCOVR satellite.
Not only for these pictures,
but because of
the amazing scientific
data gathering that you can do
from that special point
in space.
There was opposition
in the Congress.
I was about to run
for president,
and that may have had
something to do with it.
But once I finally
got it approved,
other instruments
started being added to it.
And one was the crucial
early-warning device
for solar storms
that threaten electric
utility grids and pipelines.
And NASA built the satellite,
gave it a launch date.
And then after
the Supreme Court decision
and the inauguration
of Bush and Cheney,
they canceled
the satellite launch.
Please stand for the invocation.
Reverend Graham.
The new administration,
they didn't really realize
they were also canceling
this solar storm
early-warning system.
And the businesses
that depend on it
started making a lot of noise.
And they proposed
to resolve that quandary
by taking all of
the climate instruments
and the camera
off of the satellite,
replacing them with
the equivalent of sandbags
and only leaving
the one instrument
that these powerful industries
wanted to be put into orbit.
I thought,
"Wow, that is extremism."
By the end of it,
this satellite was
put in storage.
We had a real opportunity
to start building
enough public support
to really get on track
to solving the climate crisis.
But we lost that opportunity.
And now, we cannot afford
to lose it again.
Okay, Bo.
This house was my home
when I was growing up as a boy.
My mother and father built it.
LBJ came to this farm.
He fell out with my dad
when my dad became one of
the leading opponents
of the Vietnam War,
but they served in the Senate
together a long time.
Here's a picture of my dad
doing Meet the Press, and...
Then, many years later,
me doing Meet the Press.
Here's a, uh,
handwritten note that
my second-oldest daughter,
Kristin, wrote back in 1987,
when we had
a family meeting to go over
whether or not
I should run for President.
It's divided into good parts
and bad parts.
"Number 1: Wants to do it."
"Number 2: Has a good chance."
"Number 3: A lot of people"
"who know the other candidates
don't like them."
Um...
"He might get elected."
"It would be a good time
to run things."
"He thinks
he could solve problems."
"The bad points. Number 1:
He would not be here a lot."
"Number 2: Uh..."
"It would be hard to
get more publicity"
"than some of the others."
"Number 3:"
"Would not like to have Social
Security around all the time."
Meaning the Secret Service,
of course.
Just moments ago,
I spoke with George W. Bush
and congratulated him
on becoming
the 43rd President of
the United States.
Neither he nor I anticipated
this long and difficult road.
Let there be no doubt
while I strongly disagree
with the court's decision,
I accept it.
I accept the finality of
this outcome,
which will be ratified
next Monday
in the Electoral College.
And tonight, for the sake of
our unity as a people
and the strength of
our democracy,
I offer my concession.
I had a detailed plan
for my life.
But it turned out that life
had a different plan for me.
You know, anybody
who decides to be a part of
helping to solve
the climate crisis has
a constant struggle
between hope and despair.
Uh, and so when you see
these slides about
all the damage
that's being done, hang on,
because hope is coming.
Don't sink too low!
Despair can be paralyzing.
But we're building up speed
and we're seeing
a tremendous amount of
positive change
that gives me the optimism
that I feel about this.
Let me give you some exciting
examples. Look at wind.
One day this month,
Scotland got 100% of
its electricity from wind.
In Portugal,
they had four days straight
last May on
renewable energy alone.
And on a global basis,
wind alone can supply
40 times the entire
global demand for energy.
But let's look at solar.
This, to me, is the most
exciting new development.
Fourteen years ago
the best projections available
were that we would be able
to install worldwide
one gigawatt of
solar electricity per year.
Well, when 2010 arrived,
we beat that goal by
17 times over.
Last year, we beat that goal
58 times over.
This year, we're on track to
beat that goal 73 times over.
This is an exponential curve,
and it is astonishing!
And it continues to go up
at a steeper rate
because the cost of
silicon solar cells
continues to go down.
I wish that every state
would encourage solar.
Including Florida.
You know, Florida's called
the Sunshine State?
The head of the second-biggest
fossil fuel utility there
was actually quoted as saying,
"Yes, we're the Sunshine State,"
"but, remember, we're also
the partly cloudy state."
And they have lobbied
the state legislature
to basically make it illegal
to lease a solar panel for
your rooftop from anybody
but the
fossil fuel-burning utility!
And they're trying to use
their legacy political power
to bend the politicians
to their will.
What the public wants
doesn't seem to matter.
It's pathetic!
In
Campaign 2016 segment tonight,
an interview with Donald Trump.
Not a believer
in global warming.
Obama thinks it's
the number one problem
of the world today,
and I think
it's very low on the list.
If you were President,
would you invest
a lot of money in
alternative energy
to get away from fossil fuels?
Now solar always
sounds better than it is.
You know, you get
your money back in 36 years.
The problem is the panels
destroy themselves
after ten years.
...you know, one of the top,
top professors at MIT.
Hey!
Hey, Mr. Vice President,
thank you so much for coming.
Thank you.
So, we're
in relatively early stages
of the investigation, but
some of these companies
and the denial organizations
and groups like the
American Petroleum Institute
have been actively seeking
to distort the market,
to suppress investment
in renewables
through this relatively
new line of propaganda,
which is,
"Even if everything"
"Al Gore's been saying
since the '80s is true,"
"it's gonna cost so much money,"
"it's gonna
cripple the economy."
It's an insidious theme
that we've seen before,
but it's coming back
with a new force.
And I think that
this is something we're
focusing on very intently.
We want to know who the groups
are who are doing this,
what is their analysis,
what's the science,
and what are the government
actions that are being taken?
Assuming for the moment
that the facts prove
that's what they did,
that's a violation of the law,
isn't it?
That's consumer
and securities fraud.
But it's clear that
what they've done is
essentially tried to cripple
our ability, mankind's ability,
to respond
to this existential threat.
A few days ago,
the Attorney General of
the State of New York
launched an investigation
of ExxonMobil
for fraud and funneling money
to this new form of denial
where people are out there
minimizing solar, saying,
"It's not going anywhere."
"Why are you wasting
your time on this?" Et cetera.
Utility monopolies really,
really fear disruption,
and have woken up and said,
"Wow, this solar thing,"
"I need to crush it
before it kills me."
The last two weeks,
we had 55,000 people
sign up in Nevada to say,
you know,
"I want choice,
I want energy freedom."
What happened in Nevada
will send a massive message
to the rest of the country.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Thank you. Will there
be bumps in the road?
You bet there will be.
But, at the end of the day,
you really are
on the front lines.
On the rooftops, if you will.
And we're seeing this play out
in every part of the world.
We've had 150 years of
burning fossil fuels
with the many blessings,
poverty's gone down,
living standards have increased.
So naturally, there still are
some people that say,
"Well, we just have to keep
relying on oil and gas"
"and even coal."
But it is worth pointing out
that in northern China,
life expectancy has gone down
five and a half years
because of air pollution.
And in Beijing, the mayor said,
"My city is not livable."
But in many parts of China
it is already cheaper
to get electricity
from solar and wind.
So this is the time
when your presentations
can provide support for your
government's determination
to do even better
with renewable energy.
Fine. How are you?
There are so many commitments
that governments are thinking
about making right now
for hundreds of new coal plants.
Even as the revolutionary drop
in cost from renewables
is picking up speed.
China's one of these countries.
And there are numbers of
others. India, others.
Unfortunately, they've looked
at the price of coal.
They see the price low,
and they feel they're compelled
therefore to try to provide
for their people.
So if India proceeds
to build the number of plants
it is currently planning,
and they are coal fired,
it can erase everything
everybody else
is trying to do
in terms of reductions.
We've got to figure out
a way to crack that nut.
Absolutely.
Now, climate change is high
on world leaders' agendas.
And that's because the crucial
U.N. talks in Paris
start in less than two months,
when the world gets together
to try to agree
on a global deal.
One of the sticking points
remains financing.
My agenda is dominated right now
by the preparations for the
climate conference in Paris.
The world's been preparing
for it a long time.
And the main objective is
to speed up
the transition
to renewable energy,
so that the entire world
can bring down
the pollution levels
while continuing
to reduce poverty.
But there is still a big divide
between rich countries
and poor countries.
So, thank you
for arranging this,
and for the privilege of
talking with you.
As you know,
I have this passion for
solving the climate crisis
that goes back 40 years. And...
Because I have studied it
so closely, I'm hoping that
the United States and India
will accelerate
our transitions to
renewable energy together.
India has always looked
at the United States
as a valuable partner.
But sadly, the Western world,
the developed world
does not seem
to be coming forth with
significant amounts of support.
And seems to be creating
more impediments.
All this talk about supporting
climate change
seems to be only talk,
and there's hardly
any action on that.
- In the U.S.?
- Yeah, from the U.S.
I don't think it's fair,
with all due respect,
if you may?
- Sure, please.
- Well, in the U.S.
in calendar year, uh, 2015,
if you look at the investments
in the U.S.
in the building of new, uh,
electric generating capacity,
three-quarters is
from solar and wind.
- May I respond to that?
- Yes. Please.
I'll do the same thing
after 150 years.
After I've used my coal.
After I've got my people jobs.
After I've created
my infrastructure
and highways and roads.
When I have technology.
When my people earn
$50,000-$70,000
per capita income,
using low-cost
fossil fuels-based energy.
The way the United States did
for 150 years.
It's very easy to say now that,
"Oh, we are not using coal!"
What about in the past?
So I'm only asking for
that carbon space
which you utilized
for 150 years.
My point is not
to deny your right
to make your own choices as to
what kind of energy you want.
Obviously you have that right.
But what I am saying,
when is the sun coming up today?
I don't see it anywhere.
I don't see the blue sky.
When any of us walk outside
and look up at the sky,
our natural impression is
that the sky looks like it's
a vast and limitless expanse.
Goes on forever.
Actually, the atmosphere
of the Earth
is a very thin shell
surrounding the planet.
And, of course, right now
we are putting 110 million tons
of heat-trapping
global-warming pollution
into that space
every single day.
We're using this
as an open sewer
for all of the gaseous waste
in our global civilization.
Agriculture is
a big cause of it.
Burning of forests and
burning of cropland.
But still, the main part of
the problem
is the emission of
carbon dioxide
from the burning of
coal, oil, and gas.
And that builds up heat energy
and raises temperatures.
India just set their
all-time high temperature
record in May.
123.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
The streets are melting.
We have built
a civilization for conditions
that we are now in the process
of radically changing.
All-time records have
been broken this year
in Thailand and Cambodia
and Laos.
In Pakistan, over 1,200 people
died in the heat wave there.
This year, they have dug
anticipatory mass graves
for the people
they fear will die
in this year's heat waves.
And we're seeing that
the higher temperatures
are shifting the balance
between microbes
and human beings.
The transportation revolution
has a lot to do with this.
Air travel.
But the climate conditions
have a big impact on that.
Let's look at Zika.
Here is the range of
the one mosquito
that they're most worried about.
And warmer conditions
increase that range
considerably.
But here is the kicker on this.
It's not just the mosquito,
it's the virus.
And the warmer temperatures
speed up
the incubation rate
inside the mosquito.
So we get an explosion
in the number of cases.
And now it's spread
to Miami, Florida.
And for the first time
in history,
pregnant women have been advised
not to go to part of
the United States of America.
In many areas of
Central America
and South America,
the doctors are delivering
a message
that I've never heard
in my life.
They're telling women,
"Don't get pregnant"
"for two years, while we try
to get a handle on this."
That's something new in
the history of the human race.
How long can we just
sit back and say,
"Oh, well, maybe some genius
will think up some miracle"?
I'm sorry, I'm getting all, um,
fired up here.
But let's step back
and take a global view
of the increasing temperatures
and the extra heat energy.
93% of all this heat energy
is going into the oceans.
And it has several consequences.
A direct consequence is
that when ocean-based storms
cross much warmer ocean waters
the storms get stronger
and more destructive.
Just a few years ago
Superstorm Sandy in the Atlantic
crossed areas of the ocean
9 degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than normal.
And it caused
tremendous destruction
in New Jersey and in New York.
And, by the way, ten years ago,
when the movie
An Inconvenient Truth
came out, the single most
criticized scene in that movie
was an animated scene showing
that the combination of
sea level rise and storm surge
would put the ocean water
into the 9/11 memorial site,
which was then
under construction.
And people said,
"That's ridiculous.
What a terrible exaggeration!"
Something happened last night
at one of the most iconic
locations in New York
the World Trade Center,
Ground Zero.
A flood of water
with a current so strong
it flooded the reconstruction.
There is a wakeup call here,
and that is climate change
and our vulnerability to it.
It was true ten years ago,
it was true five years ago.
It is undeniable today.
Years before,
the scientists predicted that
this would happen.
One year later,
in the Philippines,
Super Typhoon Haiyan
crossed areas of the Pacific
three degrees Celsius
warmer than normal.
And it became
the strongest and most
destructive ocean-based storm
ever to make landfall.
Uh, in the city of Tacloban
and nearby areas
there were 4.1 million
climate refugees.
Thousands of people were killed.
Even just remembering it now,
after more than two years,
just remembering
the sound of the wind.
And then the water came after.
Like a wall of water
just rushing in.
That's why we had to
climb to the roof.
In fact, I was shouting,
giving them orders
"Break that ceiling, we've gotta"
"get out of here
and we've gotta climb up."
If we went to any other place,
we would have died.
Because that had
a concrete structure,
and that's where
we were able to climb up.
People are running, are crying
because they don't know
what happened to their family.
We see a lot of dead people.
I saw Sir Alfred helping...
Helping, uh,
the other people to, to...
What do you call this? To...
- Recover the bodies?
- To recover the bodies.
Then...
Sorry.
No, that's okay. It's okay.
Thank God you're safe.
Actually, sir, I am so scared
when I'm telling this
to my friend...
It brings it back, doesn't it?
Yes, sir. I felt so, so scared.
When Tacloban was hit,
I knew that I wanted
to organize a training here
in the Philippines
to meet face-to-face
with the people
who were on the front lines
of this and empower them
to translate an excruciatingly
painful experience
into a focus on changing policy,
confronting public officials.
I don't know
any other way to do it.
The loss of life
was very tragic.
What a blessing it was that
Pope Francis came to Tacloban
to the ground zero
of that tragedy,
and delivered
a very powerful message that
"the gravest effects of
the climate crisis"
"are visited upon
the poorest people."
This is true
everywhere in the world.
Now, the second order
consequences
of the warming oceans
include some that
we're all experiencing
on a regular basis now.
When the temperature goes up,
the water vapor coming off
the oceans
into the sky
is increasing significantly.
This means that
every storm is different now
because it takes place
in a warmer and wetter world.
Water vapor is often funneled
thousands of kilometers
from the oceans over the land,
and then much more of it
falls at the same time.
Look at this downpour
that hit Tucson, Arizona,
and watch the water splash
off the city.
They're now calling
these things "rain bombs."
Houston's been hit
between May of last year
and May of this year.
Two 1-in-500-year floods and
one 1-in-1,000-year downpour.
Now, that's unusual.
Almost Noah-like.
This was in Spain last fall.
In Chile, last year. Epic event.
And now, today,
there are water rescues underway
in southeast Louisiana.
Give me a knife,
give me a knife.
Now, the same heat
that is bringing all that
water vapor off the oceans
is sucking the soil moisture
out of the ground.
And it's making the droughts
deeper and longer.
In China, in Vietnam,
in Thailand,
and all around the world.
And where there is drought,
the vegetation dries out
and the fires increase.
Every night on the evening
news is like a nature hike
through the Book of Revelations.
But the dots are very seldom
connected in the media.
This is global warming.
When we have scientists
tell us the dots connect,
we need to have in
our democracy a conversation
about cause and effect.
Let's look, for example,
at the story of
what has happened in Syria.
From 2006 to 2010,
they had
a record-breaking drought.
This farmer is one of many
who lost his farm.
60% of all the farms in Syria
were destroyed.
80% of all their livestock
were killed.
A climate-exacerbated drought
during that period contributed
to the displacement
of about 2 million people
before the conflict broke out.
Yes, many other causes.
The dictator there is a bad guy,
it's a multi-sided civil war,
and all of the rest.
But this drought is the worst
in at least 900 years.
As far back as the records go.
It is unprecedented!
And, of course,
since then the country
has been plunged
into horrific civil war.
The next generation,
if they live in a world
of floods and storms
and rising seas
and droughts and refugees
by the millions
escaping unlivable conditions,
destabilizing countries
around the world,
they would be well-justified
in looking back at us
and asking,
"What were you thinking?"
"Couldn't you hear what
the scientists were saying?"
"Couldn't you hear what Mother
Nature was screaming at you?"
Um, so, first off, Mr. Gore...
Tell us why you're here.
What's going on today?
This is a 24-hour
global broadcast
that is covered live
in every nation
around the world.
And we are attempting
to further mobilize
people in every nation
to support even more
ambitious outcomes
in the negotiation that
will take place here in Paris
just two weeks from now.
We are on air
in four minutes, please!
Rio, are you there?
Mr. Vice President,
welcome to the stage.
Thank you very much
and welcome, everyone,
to this global broadcast.
So, as I stand here today,
now just two weeks
from the opening of
the United Nations Conference
on Climate Change here in Paris,
what we need now is for people
all over the world to speak out.
And that's what the next
24 hours are all about.
Stand by.
We're gonna come to the toss.
We're on you. Go.
We've got to say to Mr. Gore
we'll cut this short
to get to Pharrell.
I'll get it settled.
Just don't do anything rash.
Can we cut it down?
Can we take it out early?
They've asked us
to bring your car over
by the trailer just in case
we need to get you out of here.
Okay. Is it terrorist related?
They don't know yet.
Probably, because
there's several shootings
around Paris.
There's several dead people.
And, uh, so it's pretty sure
it's terrorism.
"Police officials in France say"
"there's been
an explosion in a bar"
"near a Paris stadium"
"and a shootout
in a Paris restaurant."
"President Hollande evacuated
from Stade de France."
And there are apparently
18 dead, and AFP is reporting
hostages at the concert hall.
- Hostages?
- Yes.
That's all coming from police.
Wow.
Paris terror fear.
Multiple people are reported
killed in a shooting.
There's also word
of possible explosions...
Paris is under
an effective police state.
A curfew is in effect.
Police don't seem
to have a full handle
exactly what's going on.
But this is exactly
the kind of terror scenario
that the U.S. has long feared.
Okay.
Before I go on
to make my statement,
I just want to say something.
Those of us who are Americans
stand with you.
We express
our heartfelt condolences
for the tragedy here in
the city and in your country.
This scourge of terrorism
in our world...
Um...
We have to defeat this.
But we have to defeat it
not only with force of arms,
but with the force
of our values.
Caring about the future
and doing what the world
needs to do.
But, for now, I just wanted to
say to all of you,
especially those of you
from France,
what's in my heart
is in the hearts
of all the Americans here who
love you and care about you
and stand with you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we are suspending our broadcast
because of the tragedies
that have unfolded here.
The fact that those
terrible attacks
took place in the city
where the climate conference
was about to begin
caused many to connect
these two events
at a deep level
that is difficult
to articulate in words.
There have been
so many times when
big setbacks have tempted me
to deep despair.
But if I can draw
upon my faith tradition,
God said, "I lay before you"
"a choice
between life and death."
"Therefore, choose life."
We have come to Paris
to show our resolve.
We offer our condolences,
and we salute
the people of Paris
for insisting
this crucial conference go on.
To show the world we
are a global family
in solidarity
with the French people.
On behalf
of the Romanian people,
our deepest sympathies.
We show our sympathy
and solidarity
with the government
and people of France.
Is there a subway stop near here
where we could take the subway?
All right, so...
Okay. And I'll meet you
at Le Bourget?
Yeah, we'll meet you
at Le Bourget. Let's go.
Great. Welcome.
Yeah, yeah.
No. Not anymore.
I wish you were
elected president.
I wish I could call you
Mr. President.
- Thank you. All right.
- Thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. All right,
nice to meet you.
Oh, thank you!
Mr. Vice President.
- Good to see you again.
- Congratulations in person.
Thank you very much, sir.
And thanks for the change
you're bringing about.
- Good luck to you.
- I appreciate that.
It's Canadians, not me,
but thank you.
All right.
To the development
of a low-carbon economy,
our government is making
climate change a top priority.
Never before has
a responsibility so great
been in the hands of so few.
One of the secrets
of the human condition
is that suffering
binds us together.
Those 150 heads of state
were moved to speak
in ways I don't think
they otherwise would have.
Every one of them began
with, first, condolences,
and then solidarity.
And when they turned,
in the next paragraph,
to their hopes
for the conference,
they could not help but say
this is an opportunity
for us to make that
solidarity tangible and real.
I now give the floor to
Mr. Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister of India.
Democratic India
must grow rapidly
to meet the aspirations
of 1.25 billion people,
300 million of whom
are without access to energy.
Energy is a basic human need.
And there should be no place
for unilateral steps
that become
economic barriers for others.
So, we still need
conventional energy,
fossil fuel.
And anything else
will be morally wrong.
Thank you.
Hmm.
You know, I've been
to all of these different
climate conferences since 1992.
We parliamentarians
have an obligation
to accelerate the movement
toward meaningful changes
in policies
in every nation
on the face of this Earth
to stop the destruction of
the global ecological system.
It began with a great deal
of optimism in Rio...
Hello, Mr. Prime Minister.
...but it soon bogged down.
The process
used to bring nations together
to discuss our joint response
to climate change
is an important one.
But a growing population
requires more energy
to heat and cool our homes.
More gas to drive our cars.
For all that time,
the world has struggled
- to get its act together...
- Oh! Hey!
...and connect the science
to the policy.
There's no deal.
It's closed down.
Good morning.
But, for me, the last 20 years
was a very painful experience.
We're not going to recognize it.
We don't want to discuss it.
Painful not only because
of the lack of
a favorable outcome,
but also because there was
no way in to really
take hold
of the process and say,
"Okay, let me help you here."
I was relieved when
I got to Paris because
there were
influential men and women
from countries around the world,
some who'd been through
my training program...
...and who asked me
to help in the process.
Thank you.
- There's the boss.
- Hey!
How are you, dear?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
You ready for me?
I was in India
earlier this year, and...
I think that the emergence
of solar electricity
as a competitive viable option,
it opens up a pathway
that justifies realistic hope.
But, you know,
I do think that India,
well, Prime Minister Modi,
has been very, very clear
that their concern is
not just the existence
of technology,
but their access
to that technology.
So... With what trust
do they let go
of the whole fossil fuel
development model
that has been paraded in front
of them for 150 years,
and now we're saying,
"Excuse me,
this parade, it's done."
"Now we have to build
a different parade for you."
It would be most helpful
if that focus on renewables
can be seen from the developing
- country's perspective.
- Yeah.
But is that something
that you could
devote some time to
while you're here?
Of course.
I'm trying to solve
an Indian problem,
first and foremost.
Their plan is to build 400
new dirty coal plants.
Uh, and that's a disaster.
When India goes to borrow money
to build solar farms
or wind farms,
they have to pay 13%
plus an FX uncertainty.
And that is manifestly absurd.
Hey, Ben.
- Hey, Cory.
- Very good to see you.
Hey, Ed. How are you?
The challenge for us
is to find a way to make
renewables as cheap as coal,
and then partner with them
so that we don't build
this huge infrastructure
that will continue to provide
more carbon dioxide
decades in the future.
India has this plan,
200 gigawatts of coal.
I met with their energy
and power minister,
Piyush Goyal, in Delhi.
I asked,
what would it take to shift
another 100 gigawatts
from coal to renewables?
His answer was
incredibly specific.
Access to credit.
And, of course, with the
future of human civilization
in the balance,
we should probably
- ratchet that up a little bit.
- Wow.
More than 65%
of the world's carbon pollution
comes from the developing world.
Now, we're not pointing fingers.
This isn't a question of blame.
But we're here to change it.
The reason
that talks are stalled?
Because the U.S. government
put countries like India
as culprits,
as criminals, climate criminals.
And I don't think the U.S.
should be allowed
to get away with that.
Fabius has asked for
an urgent meeting, one on one.
They're getting frustrated
at the pace of the negotiations.
The long-term goal?
You spend a lot of time
each year in India.
So my narrow interest
is a way around
these high interest rates that
the Indians are
so concerned about
in deploying solar and wind.
But we're not gonna
sort that out
in the next couple of days.
Yeah.
The overnight deluge
of some 300 millimeters of rain
in a span of 18 hours
has wreaked havoc.
The news is
that it's only gonna get worse
and the flood waters are rising.
India's fourth-largest city
was paralyzed
by the heaviest rains
in more than a hundred years,
which cut off more than
three million people
from basic services for days.
It's amazing that
while we're here
and India is a holdout,
they're having this.
Part of their thing
is that they need more money
to deal with it, right?
So the sticking point is also
on that side in terms of
developed countries not
wanting to give that money.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yes.
During the days that we are here
in this conference,
we have seen a repeat
of the pattern of more floods
and landslides.
Indeed today, in Chennai,
these events continue.
They have had
1,500 millimeters of rain
in the last several weeks alone.
Five feet of rain.
The number of people
who have been killed
is in the hundreds.
Tens of thousands
have been relocated.
This is not the first time
this has happened.
Every storm is different now
because of the climate crisis.
Prime Minister Modi went from
Paris back to Tamil Nadu
and said, "We are feeling
climate change's"
"fast-growing impact now."
No, no, it's all right.
I'm sorry to call you
on a Saturday evening.
So, the other sticking point
is, um, you know, credit
at a sufficiently
low interest rate
to allow India to borrow.
Uh, and...
But that's a separate issue.
So, here is the idea that I had.
Elon has a record
of giving up IP
on some of the core aspects
in Tesla.
You know, you take it
and do what you can with it.
I talked to President Hollande
about it also.
I didn't mention the company,
uh, but I mentioned
the general idea.
Hollande and Ban Ki-moon,
and I'm sure, at least
at the ministerial level,
with India,
we could have, uh, you know,
halo equity for SolarCity
that would be incredible.
But before I call
Lyndon or Elon,
I wanted to run it by you.
Yeah, would you, please?
And also send me Lyndon's
cell phone if you have it.
Lyndon?
Hi, it's Al Gore.
I have a big idea for you.
SolarCity could be
the corporate hero of Paris
by announcing that it will give
the technology
to the new world-champion
solar cell
to India.
Well, here's the logic
for it, Lyndon.
The big holdout here
in the negotiations is India.
Yeah, but that's up
to them, okay?
That's up to them.
I'm talking about
breaking the impasse
and getting them over the hump.
Give it some thought, my friend.
Bye.
So he swallowed hard and said,
"Ugh, I might have
to think about that."
We'll see.
It's crunch time
at the climate change
conference in Paris.
With a deadline
for a deal fast approaching,
it's clear that...
There's still some really tough
negotiations going on
among developed
and developing nations.
There is an argument
about who's responsible
for climate change,
who should pay
for the consequences.
What do you think
of the global warming summit
in Paris this week?
I think it's ridiculous.
We have bigger problems
right now.
To have the President be there
for an extended
period of time talking about
global warming
being the biggest problem
facing this country is insane.
He ought to get back to work
and solve the ISIS problem.
So, Mr. Minister,
John Kerry asked me
to talk with you
and explain some of the details
on this extraordinary gift
being proposed by, uh,
the premier solar energy company
in the United States.
Give me the, uh, material.
"It's a hybrid polysilicon..."
And this is, uh...
It is a "silicon-based
bifacial PV cell"
"that combines
n-type substrates,"
"copper electrodes,"
"thin-film passivation layers"
"and a tunneling oxide layer"
"that yields
high conversion efficiencies."
And if, in return for this,
India remove its potential
objections to
the climate treaty,
then he said SolarCity
would be willing to do this.
Is there any precedent
for a technology
transfer to happen so quickly?
Well, you all know
about computer chips,
but let's take
a more mundane example.
Uh, cell phones.
Back around 1980,
I was in
the House of Representatives,
and I was so excited to buy
one of the very first
mobile phones.
Honestly, I felt that thing
was so cool.
And now there are
more mobile phones
than there are
people in the world.
Most of it in
developing countries
that had no landline
telephone grid.
And so they could leapfrog
and get telephone service
for the first time.
Well, guess what?
There are a lot of countries
where the landline
electricity grids
are not so great.
In Africa.
In the Indian subcontinent.
Now we're seeing this instead:
Solar panels.
This one in Africa's
on the roof of a grass hut.
Parents want their children
to have access
to the universe of information.
Chile. A developing country,
but it has great policy.
You talk about excitement,
this story gets me excited.
At the end of 2013, they had
11 megawatts of solar.
By the end of 2014,
more than 400 megawatts.
By the end of last year,
more than 800 megawatts.
So look at what they have
under construction this year
and under contract to
soon begin construction.
Isn't that great? I love this.
13.3 gigawatts!
And there are other countries
and many regions in the world
that are poised
for this kind of breakout.
We are seeing
a real turning here.
On a global basis,
the world gets more energy
from the sun each hour
than the entire global economy
uses for an entire year.
If we increase
the fraction of that
that we harvest
and use productively,
then we can solve that part
of the climate crisis.
There's been a lot of discussion
between India and U.S.
We know that President Obama
did make a call
to Prime Minister Modi.
What the outcomes
were of those talks,
we don't know yet.
What we do know is John Kerry
has been having
repeated discussion.
There was
a one-hour meeting today
with the environment minister.
How all this translates
into India's concerns
being met
still remains to be seen.
Do we have a deal,
Mr. President?
Do we have a deal?
Today is a historic day.
We have,
in the spirit of compromise,
agreed on a number of phrases.
And we have not only
an agreement,
but we have written
a new chapter of hope
in the lives of seven billion
people on the planet.
We hope
that Paris will reassure
this future generation
that we all together
will mitigate
the challenge
posed by climate change,
and we will give them
a better Earth.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup.
L'accord de Paris pour
le climat est accept.
We started
this COP commemorating
those fallen in tragic deaths.
We end this COP celebrating
a new chapter of hope
for the world.
This is exciting.
It's very exciting.
Yes, thank you, sir.
Thank you. I'm glad it helped.
The Paris Agreement
would not have happened
without President Obama,
Secretary of State John Kerry,
President Hollande of France.
Without a lot of people
who worked hard on that.
Virtually every nation
in the entire world agreed
to get to net-zero
greenhouse gas emissions
as early in the second half
of this century as possible.
This sends a signal to markets,
sends a signal to investors.
And it resulted
in the largest solar loan
in the history of the world
to help India move forward
more quickly
in its installation of solar.
It needs continuing work.
And one of the reasons
your role is so important
is to hold them to
what they've agreed to
and to keep the pressure on.
Because even with
all the agreements
put together,
it's still not enough.
But the basis is there
to ramp up
and make more progress.
There are cities in the U.S.
that have already
reached the goal of
100% renewable energy.
Rock Port, Missouri.
Greensburg, Kansas.
They were destroyed
by an F5 tornado,
and when they built back,
they say, "Hey",
"let's go 100% renewable,"
and they have.
Right here in Houston,
the home of the global
oil and gas industry,
you'll hear a lot of people say,
"Wind and solar's nice,"
"but it won't really
lead anywhere."
And a lot of people
are now saying
that is a strange new form
of denial.
But look at what's happening
in Georgetown, Texas.
Howdy!
Howdy, Mr. Vice President Gore.
How are you, Mr. Mayor?
Welcome to the greatest city
on Planet Earth.
Spoken like a good mayor.
- Can I have one?
- Oh, sure.
I know they're for kids.
So, how long have you
been mayor?
I have been mayor for two years.
This green energy
initiative started
when I was on council in 2008.
I remember that. Mmm-hmm.
And the direction that
we gave to Chris
and crew was, in 2008, we said
by 2030 we want
our energy portfolio
- to be 30% renewable energy.
- Yeah.
Well, they've sort of
blown by that.
That was ambitious
at that time, anyway.
It was! Absolutely.
Currently we're
90% renewable energy.
We're getting our wind
out of Amarillo.
Our solar farm's being
built out in west Texas.
It should be up and running
next spring.
Oh.
And currently, we will be
the first city in Texas
to be 100% renewable.
And when we go 100% renewable,
we will be the largest city
in the country
that's renewable energy at 100%.
So, I assume that
the reason you did this
is that the two of you are
just rabid environmentalists.
Well, not exactly, because,
um, you're in Georgetown,
which is the reddest city
in the reddest county in Texas,
and I'm a conservative
Republican.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
But our duty to our ratepayers
is to provide them
with the lowest possible
utility cost.
And money talks.
But then, wouldn't it
just make sense
from a common-sense standpoint,
the less stuff you put
in the air, the better it is?
- Yeah.
- I mean, common sense.
You don't need scientists
to debate that.
- Can I use that line?
- You absolutely can.
Hey, let me tell you what.
You would be
the sport of all sports
if somebody could get
a picture of me
and Mr. Vice President?
That's just for
personal use, right?
Oh, yeah.
- All right, here we go.
- Come on.
Here's your camera right there.
Now, this is not an endorsement,
as you can well imagine.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, Beth Wade,
Community Impact newspaper.
Pleasure. Pleasure.
You think this city
can be a trailblazer
for other cities of like size?
Definitely.
Now, not every city has
a CPA as a mayor,
so that's another
advantage for you.
But when other cities
really look at the facts,
I think you're gonna see
a massive wave
switching over to
pollution-free renewable energy.
Well, what we always say is,
don't we have a moral
and ethical obligation
to leave the planet
better than we found it?
You better be careful
talking like that.
T-minus 10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5,
4, 3, 2, 1,
0.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9.
Falcon 9 has cleared the towers.
The Falcon takes flight,
propelling the Deep Space
Climate Observatory DSCOVR
on a million-mile journey
to protect our Planet Earth.
When President Obama
was elected,
I went to see him and
told him the story of
the DSCOVR satellite and
how it was cancelled.
And he allocated the money,
and it finally got launched.
Second stage engine
ignition
has occurred on time.
Remember, when I
mentioned the Blue Marble,
it was the only photograph
of its kind.
But here's one
from the first week
of last December.
This was taken by a brand-new
NASA and NOAA satellite
called DSCOVR
that orbits the sun
along with the Earth
and the scientists
are learning so much.
For example, for the first time
they're learning about
the real energy balance
of the Earth.
Energy in and energy out.
Don't let anybody tell you
that we're gonna get on
rocket ships and go to
Mars and live in hermetically
sealed buildings.
We couldn't even evacuate
the city of New Orleans
when the hurricane hit there.
This is our home.
Delegates at the United Nations
Climate Summit
are expressing panic
over Tuesday's election results,
saying President-elect
Donald Trump
may threaten the future
of any international agreement
to slow catastrophic
climate change.
Trump has said he will "cancel
the Paris Climate Agreement"
and also promised to promote
coal power and fracking,
and says he will allow
for oil and gas drilling
on federal land.
A famous boxer once said,
"Everybody has a plan"
"until he gets
punched in the face."
Days into his presidency,
Donald Trump is sending
chills down the spines
of environmentalists
and some EPA employees.
This trifecta
of cabinet appointments,
all staunch
fossil fuel supporters
who've expressed doubts
about the urgency
of climate change.
For all the years
I've been involved
in this struggle, there have
been lots of setbacks.
So now we have another one.
With all these new threats,
there's never been
a more important time
to speak truth to power.
I do my best
to speak for
the public interest in solving
the climate crisis.
Even though it sounds
a little highfalutin,
I try to answer to the truth
of what needs to be done.
And each of us, in our own ways,
has the obligation
and some ability
to feel what is more likely
to be true than not.
And if you work hard enough
to get the best
available evidence,
you can feel if you're onto
what the right thing is.
And that's not arrogance,
that's just a feeling that
I think everybody
is familiar with.
And I've been
working on this issue
long enough that I feel very,
very deeply about
what the right thing is.
I'm not confused about it.
I remember vividly
when the Civil Rights
Movement first began to
pick up steam.
We saw Bull Connor
turning fire hoses
on young African-American kids,
and we asked
the older generation
why it's just and fair
to have laws
that discriminate
on the basis of skin color.
And when they couldn't
answer that question,
the laws began to change.
This movement
to solve the climate crisis
is in the tradition of every
great moral movement
that has advanced
the cause of humankind.
And every single one of them
has met with resistance
to the point
where many of the advocates
felt despair
and wondered, "How long
is this gonna take?"
Martin Luther King famously
answered a question during
some of the bleakest hours
of the Civil Rights Movement,
when someone asked,
"How long is this gonna take?"
He said, "How long? Not long."
"Because no lie
can live forever."
"How long? Not long."
"Because the moral arc
of the universe is long,"
"but it bends toward justice."
"How long? Not long."
We are close in this movement.
We are very close
to the tipping point
beyond which this movement,
like the abolition movement,
like the women's
suffrage movement,
like the Civil Rights Movement,
like the anti-apartheid
movement,
like the movement
for gay rights,
is resolved into a choice
between right and wrong.
And because of who we are
as human beings,
the outcome is foreordained.
And it is right to save
the future for humanity!
It is wrong
to pollute this Earth
and destroy the climate balance!
It is right to give hope
to the future generation!
It will not be easy.
And we, too, in this movement
will encounter a series of no's.
The great American poet
Wallace Stevens,
in the last century,
one of his lines was this,
"After the last no comes a yes."
"And on that yes
the future world depends."
Bye-bye, guys. Thank you!