A “moralist, philosopher, thinker, teacher, doer, and a rock star,” was how Chancellor David Peterson described former Vice President Al Gore last Wednesday night at Convocation Hall. For the 300 attendees lucky enough to score a $50 ticket ($20 for students), spending the evening with the former Vice President was a rare experience where a sense of privilege mingled with a collective feeling of personal responsibility.
To climate-change skeptics, Gore gave ample evidence of a crisis. Tropical storms have increased in frequency and severity, recent heat waves in Europe and India have caused thousands of deaths, and both flooding and droughts increasingly disrupt the populations of Africa and Asia. Large populations of pests like the mountain pine beetle, no longer held in check by low winter temperatures, are devastating wide swaths of Canadian forests. Elsewhere, malarial mosquitoes now exist at higher altitudes than before, putting human populations at risk. All these effects can be blamed on a level of carbon dioxide unprecedented in the last million years of natural warming and glaciation. Gore graphically emphasized the impact of warming on millions of “climate refugees” that would be driven from coastal cities if major ice sheets melt.
According to Gore, the climate system, like the political system, is capable of sudden and substantial changes. We have every technological tool we need to start fixing the problem, he said, including approaches that are not easy to implement but that are available now: efficiency improvements, mileage standards, and renewable energy, to name but a few.
Gore also trounced the misconception that the environment must be traded off against the economy. Societies have historically found it difficult to act for their own good, he said, citing a recent example of controversy where high-ranking U.S. officials were found to have obscured an EPA release revealing a scientific consensus on climate change. But the conclusion, he said, is that the rest of the world-corporate leaders, cities, and nations-is moving forward, even if some governments do not.
Gore gave a light-hearted mention of Canada’s per-capita energy consumption, which is higher than America’s. Gore warned that the United States is much more likely to neglect its responsibility if we fail to act.
“You, as Canadians have an opportunity to play a much larger role than you can possibly imagine,” he said.
Praising Mayor Miller for his leadership, Gore described Toronto as “a beacon of hope” with “a determination to get things right.”
Audience members were quick to engage Gore on the global and local policy aspects of climate change. One asked about the possible economic agreements with the emerging heavy polluters China and India.
Gore described Toronto as a ‘beacon of hope’ with ‘a determination to get things right.’
In his response, Gore stressed how the developed world’s vastly greater per-capita incomes require it to take up the responsibility of setting a good example. Banning incandescent light bulbs is just one case where new technology and the power of the consumer can make a difference, he said.
Gore took on a stern tone when the next student inquired about the “intensity targets” currently proposed by the Canadian government for industrial emissions. Such targets require reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of industrial output, but do not limit the total quantity of emissions.
“They’re just fooling you,” Gore said, with some impatience. “This is the overriding moral challenge of our time. Either we will confront it, or we will not. An intensity target is just an excuse for doing nothing. It means nothing, other than a strategy for trying to fool people into thinking that they’re doing something when they’re not.”
Gore argued that the global society could turn the climate crisis around, comparing it to smallpox and Apartheid.
Despite the reassurance provided by Gore’s authoritative and persuasive presentation-that at least one politician has taken climate change upon himself-Gore closed with a dramatically whispered plea to wake up and seize the climate challenge. Everything we have, he said, is in danger of slipping away.
Gore left Toronto with three spokespeople for his cause available to give a similar presentation, as well as a thumbs-up to Jack Layton’s invitation to speak at Parliament.
