EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Seven years after his controversial film An Inconvenient Truth was credited with raising international public awareness of climate change, the former US Vice President Al Gore has returned with another set of disturbing predictions. His new book is simply called The Future - The Six Drivers of Global Change. It follows a familiar theme, sounding the alarm on population growth, globalisation, food and water security information and other technologies and how all of these factors stand to further harm the planet. Al Gore joined us from Nashville, Tennessee earlier today.
Al Gore, thanks for being with us.
AL GORE, FORMER US VICE PRESIDENT: My pleasure.
EMMA ALBERICI: You make the fairly stunning claim in your book that there is no prior period, you write, of change that remotely resembles what humanity is about to experience. Now I found that pretty hard to believe when you consider the Industrial Revolution, the development of the steam engine, running water, electricity, railroads, the telephone, the printing press, the internet.
AL GORE: Yes, those prior changes were dramatic indeed. But now we are in an age of artificial intelligence and rapid growth of every sort, splicing of genes, the crossing of species boundaries, the creation of entirely new forms of life that don't appear in nature, the use of computers to connect the thoughts and feelings of billions of people around the world, not only to one another, but to an impressive array of intelligent devices and machines and sensors and databases throughout the world. To put this change in perspective, consider that in the history of the human race it took 200,000 years to reach a population of one billion people, and yet we've added that many people in just the first 13 years of this century and we'll add another billion in the next 13 years and another billion 14 years after that. So the changes underway in the area of genetics and networks and computers and military technology and the shifting power relationships with the rise of China and the movement of power from West to East and the pressure on fresh water and topsoil and living species, these and other changes truly are unprecedented.
EMMA ALBERICI: Does that mean global warming then is no longer the biggest challenge facing policymakers now?
AL GORE: No, I think it is the biggest challenge, but it is one of these six drivers of global change. And one of the points that I make in this book is that the climate crisis is connected to these other changes. For example, the shifting power relationships and the movement of decision-making from democratic processes to private markets, the redistribution of power to emerging centres of power around the world. These and other changes complicate the climate crisis, but if we tackle the climate crisis successfully, it will help us get a handle on these other changes as well.
EMMA ALBERICI: Back in 2006 when your film An Inconvenient Truth was released, the promotional material said that if the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction. So on that measure we have about three years left to get this right?
AL GORE: Well there are scientists who point to the troubling signs of change already occurring. This past year we saw half of the north polar ice cap disappear in the summer months and the scientists do say that in the next few years the rest of it may also disappear. We saw in my country Superstorm Sandy this past year and 60 per cent of the US has been in drought in the hottest year ever measured in the history of the US. Huge fires in the American West. And of course, Australia has always been a continent of extreme weather, but the extremes have appeared to get worse there as well. Last week's downpours and deluges in Queensland continue a pattern. The fires just not too many weeks before are of the kind that have led Australian firefighters to say, as they've said to me, that they have never experienced the kinds of fires that they have been called upon to fight in recent years. So these changes are gathering momentum. The extreme weather events connected to the climate crisis are becoming more intense and more frequent. Most scientists do believe that even though these changes are now unfolding and will continue to unfold, no matter what we do, the worst changes - the worst of it can still be prevented and must be prevented.
EMMA ALBERICI: Did you believe president Barack Obama when he put climate change at the centre of his recent inaugural speech, especially given how little progress he'd made in his previous four years in the White House?
AL GORE: Well, yes, I did is the short answer. I think that a commitment as bold and as salient as the one he made right at the key part of his speech. It was the first issue that he turned to and he spent more words on it than on any other. I think that is the kind of commitment that he will be forced to follow up on. And, remember that he has the ability to make important changes even if Congress does not act. We already have a law requiring the regulation of pollution and the Supreme Court has ruled that global warming pollution is pollution and must be regulated. I do believe him. And even though I was among those who pointed out the lack of progress in his first term, it's fair to say that he did more than any previous president and so he deserves some credit. But, yes, much more is needed and I was greatly encouraged by his commitment to do much more.
EMMA ALBERICI: In your closing remarks in the book you question China's commitment to environmental action when that country is so focused on rapid economic growth and building markets. Do you get the sense Beijing is serious about tackling this issue?
AL GORE: Well I think that in the classic saying, there's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is they're still building another new coal plant every 10 days or so and their pollution levels are so high now that admissions to hospitals for respiratory ailments have been multiplied five times over. But the good news is that there are increasing protests from the people of China, and their new leadership, taking power formally next month, appears to be strongly committed to forward the movement on reforms. They have now instituted a cap-and-trade system in two cities and five provinces and they have announced that it will serve as a pilot for a nation-wide cap-and-trade program starting within two years. They are spending far more money on solar power, wind power, fast trains, smart grids and other advances in renewable technology than any other country by far. And so, I have the feeling that the good news is building faster than the bad news and Xi Jinping, the new president of China, has stated a welcome commitment to make even more progress.
EMMA ALBERICI: Here in Australia, we have a carbon tax, but our Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who opinion polls say could well be prime minister by September, he's campaigning on a platform that would scrap the carbon tax on day one of his government. He also has no interest in the emissions trading scheme that was to follow. What's your message to him?
AL GORE: Well, if I were a citizen of your country - I am not, so I don't wish to interfere in your politics - but I would certainly question the conclusion that public opinion polls are going to decide the outcome of an election so far away. I'm very impressed with your current prime minister. I think she's shown a great deal of courage and vision. And I think that Australians may look very carefully at the progress that has taken place and also look at the very powerful evidence that the climate crisis is having a very harsh impact on Australia, as predicted, as your own scientists have eloquently warned over and over again. So I have a great deal of faith and confidence in the people of Australia and will be watching along with others around the world as your election year unfolds.
EMMA ALBERICI: Australia's conservatives prefer a direct action plan, planting trees and providing financial incentives for industry and farmers to reduce emissions. What do you think of that approach?
AL GORE: Well, it didn't work here. It hasn't worked anywhere. And either we are serious about confronting this crisis or we are not. If we decided to give up on solving the climate crisis - I can't imagine that we will, but if we did, we would create a future in which the generations to come would look back at us and our time and ask, "What were they thinking? Didn't they care about us?" The fact that every single National Academy of Science on the planet says we've got to confront this. Every professional scientific society. 97, 98 per cent of the climate scientists. Mother Nature now speaking very loudly and persuasively in keeping with what the scientists predicted would unfold. We really have to rise to this challenge and I refuse to believe that we will not.
EMMA ALBERICI: Accepting that there's only so much you personally can do from the sidelines, will you again run for the presidency perhaps in 2016?
AL GORE: Well I have jokingly put it this way: I'm a recovering politician. And I've gone for long enough now without a relapse to build my confidence that I will not do that again.
EMMA ALBERICI: You recently sold your American television network, Current TV, to Al Jazeera, which is owned by the Qatari government, a country with the world's biggest per capita emissions. That's not exactly practising what you preach, is it?
AL GORE: Well I disagree with what you say there. I understand the point you're making, but I disagree with it. Simply because in doing extensive diligence on Al Jazeera, it became abundantly obvious - and people who watch Al Jazeera English know this - that it has long since established itself as an outstanding news gathering organisation with a reputation for integrity and objective reporting. And by the way, it's coverage of the climate crisis has been outstanding, of higher quality and is much more extensive than any of the networks that we have here in the United States, so it's a big net positive.
EMMA ALBERICI: You received some $100 million from this deal from Qatar. That does seem to suggest that the life of a climate change crusader can't necessarily co-exist with that of a profit-driven businessman.
AL GORE: Well, you can express that view if you wish. I have worked very hard to integrate sustainability into markets and into the investment process and I don't agree that business and environmental protection are opposed one to the other. In fact, if you look at our future and how we can shape it constructively, we have two powerful tools: one is democracy and one is capitalism. Capitalism unlocks more of the human potential. It is the best way of organising economic activity. And I think we have to use markets and businesses and investments to create a brighter future, just as we have to use our democracy and we need reforms, both in democracy and capitalism.