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Al Gore compares climate deniers to racists
The former V.P. says global warming doubters will one day be seen similarly to racists, and urges people who support emissions cuts to 'win the conversation.'
Mon, Aug 29 2011 at 11:07 AM
 6
Al Gore interview

HEATED DISCUSSION: Al Gore speaks with FearLess Revolution co-founder Alex Bogusky in an interview Friday. (Photo: UStream)

People who oppose efforts to solve global warming will one day be loathed like racists, Al Gore said in a recent interview with FearLess Revolution co-founder Alex Bogusky. Just as racism has faded over time, he said, climate change skepticism must also be condemned and corrected until its adherents see their folly.
 
"There came a time when people said, 'Hey man, why do you talk that way? That's wrong, I don't go for that, so don't talk that way around me. I just don't believe that,'" Gore said, discussing how people's responses to racism have changed over time.
 
"That happened in millions of conversations, and slowly the conversation was won," he added. "And we still have racism, God knows, but it's so different now and so much better. And we have to win the conversation on climate."
 
Gore touched on a wide range of topics during the interview, including the link between meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. "Industrial agriculture is a part of the problem," he said, blaming a "shift toward a more meat-intensive diet" for contributing to Americans' oversized carbon footprints. Gore recommended organic farming as a more sustainable alternative, arguing for "more productive, safer methods that put carbon back in the soil" and that can produce "safer and better food."
 
Other topics covered in the hourlong interview — which was broadcast live on UStream Friday — included the origins of Gore's interest in science and his opposition to mountaintop removal mining, which he called a "horrible practice." But much of the attention has focused on his comparison of climate skepticism to racism, which Gore traced "back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding." Bogusky countered that the scientific literacy required to understand climate change makes it "a little bit different" than race relations, and Gore agreed, clarifying that "I think it's the same where the moral component is concerned."
 
Gore has elevated his profile in recent months, following a hiatus he took from the spotlight last year. He kept a low profile after he separated from his wife, Tipper, last summer, and then fought accusations of sexual assault from an Oregon masseuse (he was later cleared of all charges). But he returned to public view in June with a 7,000-word essay in Rolling Stone, in which he called out President Obama and others for their failure to act on climate change. He then garnered even more attention earlier this month, when he gave a profanity-laced speech at the Aspen Institute in Colorado, calling "bulls**t" on skeptics who have "polluted" discussions about climate change.
 
See Gore's FearLess Revolution interview below:
 
 

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Comments: 6
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anonymous
Parker Funden Aug 29 2011 at 6:41 PM

Every "scientist" that has denied climate change has been proven to be either a Republican or an oil company consultant.

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anonymous
Consensus is NO... Aug 30 2011 at 3:26 PM

You left out the most important one, that is they are also correct. Which is why we refuse to join your cult. No matter what pope Al the self righteous proclaims.

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anonymous
Ryan Aug 29 2011 at 3:08 PM

Maybe, Al, it's because you have turned this into a political "conversation", a la racism, rather than keeping it strictly scientific.

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anonymous
paradigm shift Aug 29 2011 at 12:44 PM
it is true considered in context. that is, most of poorest already third world countries with NO financial resources to cope with climatic changes from countries like US causing it, will be most affected. exhibit 1: somalia.....followed by haiti, bangladesh maldives so on... US official policy: fu*& you....or spending 550 million and counting on relief funds for drought stricken somalia while continuing to blindly ignore the root causes (most of which has already been shown to be siphoned by
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al qaeda affiliated groups and isn't going to starving people anyway).... Obama's official position on this and everything else "well I tried"...followed by 'can't we just get along"....I am not really grounded and really am unable to stick to any position, as in I am flexible on everything and you will always win if you just keep on being stubborn enough, eventually I will fold" and not really caring what happens....if somalia follows radical right policies in US, millions of raped women in somalia will be in jail for asking for it and if they get abortion they will be tried as murderers..... if americans don't kick out every radical right in the US who really want anarchy, then you will get what they are promising. it won't affect them a bit.
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mememine69's picture
mememine69 Aug 29 2011 at 11:30 AM
Climate Blame was a tragic exaggeration and one of science’s worst crimes next to poisoning the planet with their pesticides they developed. Every single one of the countless thousands of consensus climate change scientists has issued their own unique conclusion to the CO2 issue ranging from negligible effects to complete runaway unstoppable warming (death for all). This shows normal people that climate change was a consultant's w*t-dream so show us all the links you like you faded domes, it won't
.... More
make the CO2 blunder real. More proof? How can the countless thousands of consensus scientists be outnumbering the protesters and why wouldn't a few thousand of these countless thousands of saintly scientists at least start marching in the streets and ACTING like this was really the emergency THEY said it was? And here is proof none of YOU remaining CO2 climate crisis believers don’t even believe it yourselves; NONE of you are acting like this is the “catastrophic” crisis YOU say it is. I’ll have an ounce of respect for you fear mongers when you admit that climate change crisis is the end of life on the planet as we know it. You cry “catastrophic”, “unstoppable”, “irreversible damage”, drought, famine……….yet NONE of you can be quoted as saying this is the end of the world. Remember, studying the effects of something that hasn’t happened isn’t consensus and it’s not a crime to exaggerate and exploit a study of worst case scenarios. Your personal definitions of climate crisis makes you doomers look like bible thumpers, not appreciators of sound science. We former believers are convinced you remaining doomers don’t love the planet, you hate humanity itself for why else would you try SO hard to believe this 25 year old CO2 mistake and why would you want to hand over the management of the planet’s temperature to carbon trading markets run by corporations and politicians. Climate Blame has done to journalism, science and progressivism what Bush and the Iraq War did for the neocons reputation. Obama never even mentioned the crisis in his state of the union address after 25 years of climate warnings, so can one of you phony planet lovers explain why that would not have enraged the countless thousands of climate change consensus scientists? REAL planet lovers are happy a crisis was averted, as for the rest of you misery worshipers and car accident rubber neckers, we see right through your insincerity. The world has walked away from trying to control the climate and taxing the air to make the weather colder and demanding voters sacrifice themselves to lower the seas will see governments change, be defeated shifting voter support to the right. Nice job doomers. Meanwhile, the UN and the entire SCIENCE world had allowed carbon trading to trump 3rd world fresh water relief, starvation rescue and 3rd world education for just over 25 years of climate control instead of the obviously needed population control. REAL planet lovers are happy a crisis was averted.
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anonymous
Al Bore Aug 29 2011 at 11:28 AM
Climate Blame was a tragic exaggeration and one of science’s worst crimes next to poisoning the planet with their pesticides they developed. Every single one of the countless thousands of consensus climate change scientists has issued their own unique conclusion to the CO2 issue ranging from negligible effects to complete runaway unstoppable warming (death for all). This shows normal people that climate change was a consultant's w*t-dream so show us all the links you like you faded domes, it won't
.... More
make the CO2 blunder real. More proof? How can the countless thousands of consensus scientists be outnumbering the protesters and why wouldn't a few thousand of these countless thousands of saintly scientists at least start marching in the streets and ACTING like this was really the emergency THEY said it was? And here is proof none of YOU remaining CO2 climate crisis believers don’t even believe it yourselves; NONE of you are acting like this is the “catastrophic” crisis YOU say it is. I’ll have an ounce of respect for you fear mongers when you admit that climate change crisis is the end of life on the planet as we know it. You cry “catastrophic”, “unstoppable”, “irreversible damage”, drought, famine……….yet NONE of you can be quoted as saying this is the end of the world. Remember, studying the effects of something that hasn’t happened isn’t consensus and it’s not a crime to exaggerate and exploit a study of worst case scenarios. Your personal definitions of climate crisis makes you doomers look like bible thumpers, not appreciators of sound science. We former believers are convinced you remaining doomers don’t love the planet, you hate humanity itself for why else would you try SO hard to believe this 25 year old CO2 mistake and why would you want to hand over the management of the planet’s temperature to carbon trading markets run by corporations and politicians. Climate Blame has done to journalism, science and progressivism what Bush and the Iraq War did for the neocons reputation. Obama never even mentioned the crisis in his state of the union address after 25 years of climate warnings, so can one of you phony planet lovers explain why that would not have enraged the countless thousands of climate change consensus scientists? REAL planet lovers are happy a crisis was averted, as for the rest of you misery worshipers and car accident rubber neckers, we see right through your insincerity. The world has walked away from trying to control the climate and taxing the air to make the weather colder and demanding voters sacrifice themselves to lower the seas will see governments change, be defeated shifting voter support to the right. Nice job doomers. Meanwhile, the UN and the entire SCIENCE world had allowed carbon trading to trump 3rd world fresh water relief, starvation rescue and 3rd world education for just over 25 years of climate control instead of the obviously needed population control. REAL planet lovers are happy a crisis was averted.
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