This is the fourth installment in the saga that is the Letterman/Gore interview of 2009. As you are well aware the Nobel Prize laureate was on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote his latest book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which is a follow up to his award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.  The interview became an eco-friendly Master Class and fodder for discussion.

Unlike the other blogs in this series we will be looking at a host of issues, the first topic of conversation is the extinction of animals. The point was made that when Dave’s son Harry (now six) and Gore’s grandchildren are the age these two men are now, it is predicted that there will be fifty percent fewer species of animals and plants in the world. Gore mentioned the eminent biologist E. O. Wilson, who believes that the most serious crisis facing the earth is extinction.

Apparently, in the history of the world there have been five great extinctions; however, in the past these were cause by something like an asteroid hitting the earth. The last great extinction was about 65 million years ago, so that goes to show that it is truly a rarity. We now find ourselves in the midst of the 6th great extinction, in the history of the planet earth. The main difference this time is that the extinction is not caused by asteroid but by humans.  We can change how we conduct our civilization, we need to become an eco-friendly society, if we want to reverse these effects. Letterman chimed with his dry wit claiming that he felt that an asteroid would be much more exciting.

The next topic was the pacific gyre. Dave asked if it was true that there is a continent sized floating mound of garbage (the size of Australia) in the South Pacific or Indian Ocean. Basically, Gore agreed with this statement. He then explained that the pacific gyre is a mound of trash that has been trapped in the currents of the ocean and it has become a symbol of our disposable society. Gore then shared an eco-friendly fact that will shock and appall you – in the United Sates the number of aluminum cans not recycled in the last 10 years is enough to rebuild the entire fleet of aircraft in the world twenty-five times over!! Dave astutely inquired if the pacific gyre is causing problems for plant and aquatic life in the area and what is being done about it? Gore replied that sadly some forms of life in the ocean mistake the plastic as food and it harms them, people are trying to clean it up but the effort is not big enough.

What would be an eco-friendly solution to the problem? The solution is to stop dumping trash in the ocean and dispose of it properly or better yet, consume less.  It is amazing that the solutions to such large problems seem so simple. Once again Mr. Gore manages to educate in an entertaining fashion even when revealing frightening truths.