We continue with Al Gore’s recent appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, to promote his latest book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which turned into an eco-friendly master class on the subject. In our first installment we explored their conversation on the status of the Ozone layer, the next topic of conversation is climate change.

Letterman asked, what Gore believed would happen if we simply ignored climate change? Basically and tragically, the former vice-president said that it could end civilization on earth, as we know it. Gore gave an eco-friendly explanation that humans need a narrow climate balance to live, if we wreck it, it would create a hostile environment in which humans could not survive. So what is the narrow temperature range that our species needs to flourish? The going consensus is a 2-degree centigrade increase would be safe. In fact we have incurred a much smaller change and the polar ice caps are melting, so who in fact was it that deemed this increase safe? This was an eco-friendly compromise between what politicians can achieve and what the scientists believe, so this 2 degrees centigrade is not a completely scientific number.

Gore stressed the fact that humans cannot adapt to the unrestrained effects of global warming as already we are seeing those that are forced to adapt to the current environmental changes around the world.  Specific examples were given in this interview; they included the fact that those living near the Nile Delta are less than 1 meter above sea level due to the rising water levels. Another example was the Maldives, who recently held a cabinet meeting under water to help draw media attention to their environmental plight.

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