‘We need to stop using the sky as an open sewer’: Former US Vice-President Al Gore on unprecedented climate danger

SINGAPORE: The world must “stop using the sky as an open sewer” or risk catastrophic consequences from climate change, said former United States Vice-President Al Gore.

Speaking to CNA in Singapore, the long-time climate advocate warned of rising temperatures, melting ice and increasingly erratic weather, saying predictions he highlighted 20 years ago in the documentary An Inconvenient Truth had proved “exactly accurate”.

“The fact that (scientists) accurately predicted these horrific consequences we're experiencing right now should give us reason to pay more attention to what they're warning about if we don't change,” he said on Monday (Sep 7).

“I think we are beginning to change, but we need to stop using the sky as an open sewer.”

CLIMATE DANGERS ARE ACCELERATING

Gore said the world pumps 175 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere daily.

The accumulated amount now traps as much extra heat as would be released by 800,000 first-generation atomic bombs exploding on Earth every day, he said.

The past 11 years – from 2015 through 2025 – were the warmest on record globally.

Gore said scientists predict this year will be the hottest yet, with 2027 likely to eclipse that record, as a “super El Nino” pushes temperatures even higher.

At the same time, the climate crisis is intensifying the water cycle, with warmer oceans sending more water vapour into the atmosphere. That is contributing to extreme downpours known as “rain bombs”, punctuated by longer and deeper droughts that threaten agriculture, he said.

Among the most serious threats is the accelerating loss of the world's ice, with the devastation in Nepal a stark reminder that the climate crisis is no longer a distant danger.

Gore warned that 80 per cent of the ice in the Himalayas was projected to disappear by the end of the century unless the world changes course.

Greenland is losing about 30 million tonnes of ice every hour, he said, while Antarctica is also increasingly contributing to sea-level rise.

The combination of rising seas and stronger storm surges poses a threat to low-lying areas, including Singapore, he noted.

Gore also pointed to the growing danger posed by the combination of extreme heat and humidity, which could make larger parts of the world physiologically uninhabitable.

World Health Organization climate experts have warned that within the next 25 years, more than one billion climate refugees could cross international borders “to escape unlivable conditions in the places they've always called home”.

CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION ‘UNSTOPPABLE’

But Gore said another major change in recent years has been the emergence of affordable clean-energy technologies, including solar and wind power, batteries and electric vehicles.

One in every four cars sold globally is now an EV, he said. 

“We're seeing an incredible surge of investment in solar and wind and batteries and EVs, and now the global investments in renewables and the sustainability transition has overtaken the investments in fossil fuels.”

“But it's still not happening nearly quickly enough, and we are at risk of crossing certain dangerous negative tipping points.”

He described the challenge as “a race between the accelerating danger and the accelerating availability of the solutions”.

Gore also dismissed the notion of “climate realism” – the argument that the energy transition must accommodate the reality of continued dependence on fossil fuels.

“It's nonsense. The so-called climate realism propaganda is yet another form of climate denial,” he said. “Actually, what we're seeing is an unstoppable transition away from fossil fuels.”

Solar power has become cheaper while “the fuel for both solar and wind is free”, he noted.

“They can't charge for the sun, they can't charge for the wind, and so naturally, this most powerful industry in history which sells the dirty fossil fuels is going all out to oppose this transition,” said Gore, referring to the political power wielded by fossil fuel companies and petrostates, which he accused of exerting enormous influence over energy policy. 

“Unfortunately, in some nations, including my own, the politicians are under the thumb of these powerful fossil fuel companies, and that is what we have to overcome.”

TRAINING CLIMATE ADVOCATES IN SINGAPORE

Gore, founder and chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit devoted to solving the climate crisis, is in Singapore to conduct a two-day training involving about 800 climate advocates.

The training is designed to equip participants with the latest knowledge on climate science, solutions to tackle the crisis and the skills to communicate them to others.

“My most powerful ally is mother nature, because it's now obvious to everyone in the world,” said Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for their efforts to raise awareness of man-made climate change.

Recent extreme weather events are beginning to capture people's attention and make them more receptive to solutions that are already available, he added.

“We simply need to implement them by overcoming the political power and deceptions and dishonesty of the polluters who are doing everything they can to stop this transition.”

Gore said the movement to combat climate change should be viewed alongside previous movements built around moral causes, such as the abolition of slavery.

“We are very close now to a tipping point beyond which this movement will not only be unstoppable; it will accelerate,” he stressed.

“If enough people hear this message and act upon it, we will solve the climate crisis in time.”

While some people believe political will is the missing ingredient, Gore said it could be replenished.

“Political will is itself a renewable resource. The purpose of these trainings is to renew that resource.”

COULD CHINA FILL THE CLIMATE LEADERSHIP GAP?

In the interview, Gore also touched on US President Donald Trump's repeated declarations that the climate crisis is a hoax. 

“My own president tragically keeps calling this crisis a hoax, which is patently ridiculous to any reasonable person,” he said.

But Gore argued that economic forces behind the green transition were proving resilient to Trump's policies.

Last year, 92 per cent of all new power-generation capacity installed in the US was renewable, he said.

Investors can see that renewable energy is cheaper and cleaner and creates “three times as many jobs per dollar spent”, Gore added. “They're not listening to him. He has had an impact in slowing this transition slightly, but reality is on our side.”

With the US retreating from global climate initiatives, Gore said China was showing signs that it could take on a larger diplomatic role.

He pointed to indications that China is considering hosting the 2028 UN climate talks (COP33), saying a gathering in Beijing could become as influential as the Paris climate conference a decade ago.

While China has continued building coal plants, its fossil-fuel emissions have begun to fall.

Gore also highlighted the extraordinary scale of China's renewable energy rollout.

“It's fantastic. They have chosen wisely to invest heavily in solar and wind and electric vehicles and batteries and fast trains and efficient buildings.”