Climate change 'significantly worse' than feared: Al Gore by Staff Writers

Davos, Switzerland (AFP) Jan 24, 2008

Climate change is occurring far faster than even the worst predictions of
the UN's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change foresaw, Al
Gore warned Thursday.

New evidence shows "the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding
more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had
warned us," the former US vice president and climate campaigner told
delegates at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.

There are now forecasts that the North Pole ice cap may disappear entirely
during summer months in as little as five years, Gore said.

"This is a planetary emergency. There has never been anything remotely like
it in the entire history of human civilisation. We are putting at risk all
of human civilisation," he added.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a
report the size of three phone books on the reality and risks of climate
change, its fourth assessment in 18 years.

In October both Gore and the IPCC, comprising around 3,000 experts, jointly
won a Nobel prize for their roles in highlighting climate change. Gore said
a "little bit of progress" had been made at December's climate conference in
Bali, Indonesia.

He added though that there was a "big, large blank spot" in the road map
agreed in Bali, reserved for the United States' environmental policy once a
new president is elected in November and inaugurated in January.

He said that the single most important policy that could be implemented
would be a tax on carbon emissions that is applied across the whole world,
"so that those who don't pay the price for carbon don't have an advantage
over those who do."

"I think it is really important from a climate change point of view to move
away from the idea that personal actions from each of us represents the
solution to this crisis.

"These are important... but in addition to changing the light bulbs it is
important to change the laws," Gore said.

He stopped short of endorsing any US presidential candidate but said that
"whoever is elected will have a better position" on climate change than the
current administration of US President George W. Bush.

Gore was appearing at Davos beside Africa activist and U2 frontman Bono in
an effort to combine the fights against climate change and poverty.

"The brunt of this climate crisis is going to be felt in the developing
world. All your work... will be undone if you don't focus on this," Bono
said.

"It is clear that those people who have least created this climate crisis...
are the least equipped to deal with it."

Gore added: "I want to say to everyone who wants to solve the climate
crisis, they have to take Bono's agenda on extreme poverty, on fighting
disease and dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis and make it an integral part of
the world's effort to solve the climate crisis."



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