1
00:00:39,123 --> 00:00:44,662
You look at that river,
gently flowing by.

2
00:00:44,663 --> 00:00:46,865
You notice the leaves

3
00:00:48,066 --> 00:00:50,468
rustling with the wind.

4
00:00:50,469 --> 00:00:52,670
You hear the birds.

5
00:00:52,671 --> 00:00:54,738
You hear the tree frogs.

6
00:00:54,739 --> 00:00:57,975
In the distance,
you hear a cow.

7
00:00:57,976 --> 00:01:00,310
You feel the grass.

8
00:01:00,311 --> 00:01:04,715
The mud gives a little bit
on the river bank.

9
00:01:04,716 --> 00:01:08,251
It's quiet. It's peaceful.

10
00:01:08,252 --> 00:01:10,621
And all of a sudden,

11
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it's a gear shift inside you.

12
00:01:13,792 --> 00:01:17,728
And it's like taking
a deep breath and going,

13
00:01:17,729 --> 00:01:20,699
<b>"Oh, yeah, I forgot about this."

14
00:01:28,607 --> 00:01:32,576
This is the first picture
of the earth from space

15
00:01:32,577 --> 00:01:34,845
that any of us ever saw.

16
00:01:34,846 --> 00:01:39,149
It was taken on, uh,
Christmas Eve 1968

17
00:01:39,150 --> 00:01:41,652
during the Apollo 8 Mission.

18
00:01:41,653 --> 00:01:44,422
...within relatively
comfortable boundaries.

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00:01:44,423 --> 00:01:49,060
But we are filling up that thin
shell of atmosphere with pollution.

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00:02:09,748 --> 00:02:12,617
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Al Gore.

21
00:02:13,618 --> 00:02:15,486
I am Al Gore.

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00:02:15,487 --> 00:02:18,155
I used to be the next president
of the United States Of America.

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00:02:21,793 --> 00:02:24,629
I don't find that
particularly funny.

24
00:02:49,588 --> 00:02:52,022
I've been trying to tell
this story for a long time,

25
00:02:52,023 --> 00:02:55,827
and I feel as if I've failed
to get the message across.

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00:03:17,749 --> 00:03:22,053
I was in politics for a long time
and I'm proud of my service.

27
00:03:28,292 --> 00:03:31,394
You gotta be kidding me.
This is a national disaster.

28
00:03:31,395 --> 00:03:34,898
Get every doggone Greyhound
bus line in the country,

29
00:03:34,899 --> 00:03:37,801
and get their... moving to
New Orleans.

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00:03:37,802 --> 00:03:39,803
That's them thinking small, man,

31
00:03:39,804 --> 00:03:43,106
and this is a major, major,
major deal.

32
00:03:43,107 --> 00:03:45,709
What do you need right now?

33
00:03:45,710 --> 00:03:48,679
There are good people,

34
00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:51,982
who are in politics
in both parties

35
00:03:51,983 --> 00:03:54,451
who hold this at arm's length

36
00:03:54,452 --> 00:03:57,555
because if they acknowledge it
and recognize it,

37
00:03:57,556 --> 00:04:00,558
then the moral imperative
to make a big change is

38
00:04:00,559 --> 00:04:02,826
is--is inescapable.

39
00:04:02,827 --> 00:04:07,699
...unless you fix the biggest damn
crisis in the history of this country.

40
00:04:21,079 --> 00:04:25,248
...scouted out landing spots
and they lost radio contact

41
00:04:25,249 --> 00:04:28,552
when they went around
the dark side of the moon.

42
00:04:28,553 --> 00:04:30,988
And there was inevitably
some suspense.

43
00:04:30,989 --> 00:04:34,091
Then when they came back
in radio contact,

44
00:04:34,092 --> 00:04:35,559
they looked up

45
00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:39,763
and they snapped this picture, and
it became known as Earth Rise.

46
00:04:39,764 --> 00:04:42,700
And that one picture exploded

47
00:04:42,701 --> 00:04:45,569
in the consciousness
of humankind.

48
00:04:45,570 --> 00:04:47,738
It lead to dramatic changes.

49
00:04:47,739 --> 00:04:49,406
Within 18 months
of this picture,

50
00:04:49,407 --> 00:04:52,509
the modern environmental
movement had begun.

51
00:04:52,510 --> 00:04:56,546
The next picture was taken on the
last of the Apollo missions,

52
00:04:56,547 --> 00:04:58,048
Apollo 17.

53
00:04:58,049 --> 00:05:01,952
This one was taken
on December 11, 1972,

54
00:05:01,953 --> 00:05:06,657
and it is the most commonly published
photograph in all of history.

55
00:05:06,658 --> 00:05:11,161
And it's the only picture of the
earth from space that we have

56
00:05:11,162 --> 00:05:14,564
where the sun was
directly behind the spacecraft

57
00:05:14,565 --> 00:05:20,437
so that the earth is fully lit
up and not partly in darkness.

58
00:05:20,438 --> 00:05:24,207
The next image I'm gonna show
you has almost never been seen.

59
00:05:24,208 --> 00:05:28,946
It was taken by a spacecraft
called The Galileo

60
00:05:28,947 --> 00:05:31,414
that went out to explore
the solar system.

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00:05:31,415 --> 00:05:36,586
And as it was leaving Earth's
gravity, it turned its cameras around

62
00:05:36,587 --> 00:05:41,091
and took a time lapse picture
of one day's worth of rotation,

63
00:05:41,092 --> 00:05:43,762
here compressed into 24 seconds.

64
00:05:45,664 --> 00:05:47,798
Isn't that beautiful?

65
00:05:47,799 --> 00:05:50,467
This image is a magical
image in a way.

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00:05:50,468 --> 00:05:53,436
It was made by a friend
of mine, Tom Van Sant.

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00:05:53,437 --> 00:05:57,174
He took 3,000 separate
satellite pictures

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00:05:57,175 --> 00:06:01,679
taken over a three-year period,
digitally stitched together.

69
00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:05,515
And he chose images that
would give a cloud-free view

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00:06:05,516 --> 00:06:08,251
of every square inch
of the earth's surface.

71
00:06:08,252 --> 00:06:12,422
All of the land masses
accurately portrayed.

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00:06:12,423 --> 00:06:16,660
When that's all spread out,
it becomes an iconic image.

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00:06:16,661 --> 00:06:22,499
I show this because I--I wanna tell
you a story about two teachers I had.

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00:06:22,500 --> 00:06:27,170
One that I didn't like that much,
the other who is a real hero to me.

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00:06:27,171 --> 00:06:30,708
I had a grade school teacher
who taught geography

76
00:06:30,709 --> 00:06:34,377
by pulling a map of the world
down in front of the blackboard.

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00:06:34,378 --> 00:06:38,115
I had a classmate in the sixth
grade who raised his hand

78
00:06:38,116 --> 00:06:43,353
and he pointed to the outline of
the east coast of South America

79
00:06:43,354 --> 00:06:47,190
and he pointed
to the west coast of Africa

80
00:06:47,191 --> 00:06:50,293
and he asked,
"Did they ever fit together?"

81
00:06:50,294 --> 00:06:51,962
And the teacher said,

82
00:06:51,963 --> 00:06:55,665
"Of course not. That's the most
ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

83
00:06:55,666 --> 00:06:59,903
That student went on to become a
drug addict and a ne'er-do-well.

84
00:06:59,904 --> 00:07:02,672
The teacher went on to become
science advisor

85
00:07:02,673 --> 00:07:04,308
in the current administration.

86
00:07:14,185 --> 00:07:18,688
But, you know, the teacher
was actually reflecting

87
00:07:18,689 --> 00:07:22,893
the conclusion of the scientific
establishment of that time.

88
00:07:22,894 --> 00:07:28,231
Continents are so big,
obviously they don't move.

89
00:07:28,232 --> 00:07:32,135
But, actually, as we now know,
they did move.

90
00:07:32,136 --> 00:07:34,137
Uh, they moved apart
from one another.

91
00:07:34,138 --> 00:07:37,374
But at one time they did,
in fact, fit together.

92
00:07:37,375 --> 00:07:39,943
But that assumption
was a problem.

93
00:07:39,944 --> 00:07:42,712
It reflected
the well-known wisdom

94
00:07:42,713 --> 00:07:45,548
that what gets us into trouble
is not what we don't know,

95
00:07:45,549 --> 00:07:50,220
it's what we know for sure
that just ain't so.

96
00:07:50,221 --> 00:07:53,156
This is actually an important
point, believe it or not,

97
00:07:53,157 --> 00:07:55,993
because there is another
such assumption

98
00:07:55,994 --> 00:08:00,563
that a lot of people have in their
minds right now about global warming

99
00:08:00,564 --> 00:08:02,332
that just ain't so.

100
00:08:02,333 --> 00:08:06,136
The assumption is something like this.
The earth is so big

101
00:08:06,137 --> 00:08:09,739
we can't possibly have
any lasting harmful impact

102
00:08:09,740 --> 00:08:11,574
on the earth's environment.

103
00:08:11,575 --> 00:08:14,845
And maybe that was true at one
time, but it's not anymore.

104
00:08:14,846 --> 00:08:17,114
And one of the reasons
it's not true anymore

105
00:08:17,115 --> 00:08:21,519
is that the most vulnerable part
of the earth's ecological system

106
00:08:22,686 --> 00:08:24,822
is the atmosphere.

107
00:08:24,823 --> 00:08:28,658
Vulnerable because it's so thin.

108
00:08:28,659 --> 00:08:31,061
My friend, the late Carl
Sagan, used to say,

109
00:08:31,062 --> 00:08:34,497
"If you had a big globe
with a coat of varnish on it,

110
00:08:34,498 --> 00:08:37,734
"the thickness of that varnish
relative to that globe

111
00:08:37,735 --> 00:08:39,202
"is pretty much the same

112
00:08:39,203 --> 00:08:41,738
"as the thickness
of the earth's atmosphere

113
00:08:41,739 --> 00:08:44,774
"compared to the earth itself."

114
00:08:44,775 --> 00:08:46,543
And it's thin enough

115
00:08:46,544 --> 00:08:50,547
that we are capable
of changing its composition.

116
00:08:50,548 --> 00:08:53,116
That brings up the basic
science of global warming.

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00:08:53,117 --> 00:08:57,154
And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time
on this because, uh, you know it well.

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00:08:57,155 --> 00:09:00,690
The sun's radiation comes in
in the form of light waves

119
00:09:00,691 --> 00:09:02,392
and that heats up the Earth.

120
00:09:02,393 --> 00:09:07,230
And then some of the radiation that
is absorbed and warms the earth

121
00:09:07,231 --> 00:09:09,967
is reradiated back into space

122
00:09:09,968 --> 00:09:12,702
in the form
of infrared radiation.

123
00:09:12,703 --> 00:09:16,840
And some of the outgoing
infrared radiation is trapped

124
00:09:16,841 --> 00:09:20,944
by this layer of atmosphere and
held inside the atmosphere.

125
00:09:20,945 --> 00:09:25,015
And that's a good thing because it
keeps the temperature of the earth

126
00:09:25,016 --> 00:09:27,017
within certain boundaries,

127
00:09:27,018 --> 00:09:29,853
keeps it relatively
constant and livable.

128
00:09:29,854 --> 00:09:34,024
But the problem is this thin layer
of atmosphere is being thickened

129
00:09:34,025 --> 00:09:39,262
by all of the global warming
pollution that's being put up there.

130
00:09:39,263 --> 00:09:44,067
And what that does is it thickens
this layer of atmosphere,

131
00:09:44,068 --> 00:09:47,637
more of the outgoing
infrared is trapped.

132
00:09:47,638 --> 00:09:51,374
And so the atmosphere heats up worldwide.
That's global warming.

133
00:09:51,375 --> 00:09:53,643
Now, that's the
traditional explanation.

134
00:09:53,644 --> 00:09:56,380
Here's a... What I think
is a better explanation.

135
00:10:12,931 --> 00:10:16,433
You're probably wondering
why your ice cream went away.

136
00:10:16,434 --> 00:10:19,569
Well, Susie, the culprit
isn't foreigners.

137
00:10:19,570 --> 00:10:21,671
It's global warming.

138
00:10:21,672 --> 00:10:25,009
Global wha...
Yeah.

139
00:10:26,144 --> 00:10:27,777
Meet Mr. Sunbeam.

140
00:10:27,778 --> 00:10:31,248
He comes all the way
from the sun to visit Earth.

141
00:10:31,249 --> 00:10:35,118
Hello, Earth. Just popping in
to brighten your day.

142
00:10:37,721 --> 00:10:40,090
And now I'll be on my way.

143
00:10:40,091 --> 00:10:42,325
Not so fast, Sunbeam.

144
00:10:42,326 --> 00:10:46,297
We're greenhouse gases.
You ain't going nowhere.

145
00:10:51,002 --> 00:10:52,669
Oh, God, it hurts.

146
00:10:52,670 --> 00:10:55,738
Pretty soon, Earth is
chock-full of Sunbeams.

147
00:10:55,739 --> 00:10:58,976
Their rotting corpses heating
our atmosphere.

148
00:11:01,112 --> 00:11:04,481
How do we get rid
of the greenhouse grasses?

149
00:11:04,482 --> 00:11:07,050
Fortunately,
our handsomest politicians

150
00:11:07,051 --> 00:11:11,288
came up with a cheap, last-minute
way to combat global warming.

151
00:11:11,289 --> 00:11:13,190
Ever since 2063,

152
00:11:13,191 --> 00:11:17,996
we simply drop a giant ice cube
into the ocean every now and then.

153
00:11:19,763 --> 00:11:23,000
Just like Daddy puts
in his drink every morning.

154
00:11:23,001 --> 00:11:25,068
And then he gets mad.

155
00:11:25,069 --> 00:11:28,805
Of course, since the greenhouse
gases are still building up,

156
00:11:28,806 --> 00:11:33,143
it takes more and more ice
each time.

157
00:11:33,144 --> 00:11:36,113
Thus, solving the problem
once and for all.

158
00:11:36,114 --> 00:11:37,581
But... Once and for all!

159
00:11:45,589 --> 00:11:48,858
This is, uh, the image
that started me

160
00:11:48,859 --> 00:11:51,394
in my interest in this issue.

161
00:11:51,395 --> 00:11:53,730
And I saw it
when I was a college student

162
00:11:53,731 --> 00:11:56,666
because I had a professor
named Roger Revelle

163
00:11:56,667 --> 00:12:00,470
who was the first person to
propose measuring carbon dioxide

164
00:12:00,471 --> 00:12:02,306
in the earth's atmosphere.

165
00:12:05,309 --> 00:12:08,511
He saw where
the story was going

166
00:12:08,512 --> 00:12:11,414
after the first few chapters.

167
00:12:11,415 --> 00:12:14,951
After the first few years
of data,

168
00:12:14,952 --> 00:12:18,988
he intuited what it meant

169
00:12:18,989 --> 00:12:21,659
for what w-was yet to come.

170
00:12:23,827 --> 00:12:27,264
They designed the experiment
in 1957.

171
00:12:27,265 --> 00:12:29,632
He hired Charles David Keeling

172
00:12:29,633 --> 00:12:32,569
who was very faithful
and precise

173
00:12:32,570 --> 00:12:36,539
in making these measurements
for decades.

174
00:12:36,540 --> 00:12:39,776
They started sending these
weather balloons up every day

175
00:12:39,777 --> 00:12:42,679
and they chose
the middle of the Pacific

176
00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:47,550
because it was the area
that was most remote.

177
00:12:47,551 --> 00:12:50,120
And he was a very
hard-nosed scientist.

178
00:12:50,121 --> 00:12:53,091
He really emphasized
the hard data.

179
00:12:55,459 --> 00:12:57,660
It was a wonderful time for me

180
00:12:57,661 --> 00:12:59,929
because, like a lot
of young people,

181
00:12:59,930 --> 00:13:03,900
I came into contact
with intellectual ferment,

182
00:13:03,901 --> 00:13:07,370
ideas that I'd never considered

183
00:13:07,371 --> 00:13:10,108
in my wildest dreams before.

184
00:13:11,142 --> 00:13:13,943
And he showed our class

185
00:13:13,944 --> 00:13:18,548
the results of his measurements
after only a few years.

186
00:13:18,549 --> 00:13:21,251
It was startling to me.

187
00:13:21,252 --> 00:13:24,354
Now he was startled

188
00:13:24,355 --> 00:13:26,456
and made it clear to our class

189
00:13:26,457 --> 00:13:29,492
what he felt
the significance of it was.

190
00:13:29,493 --> 00:13:33,563
And I just soaked it up
like a sponge.

191
00:13:33,564 --> 00:13:35,398
He drew the connections

192
00:13:35,399 --> 00:13:39,802
between the larger changes
in our civilization

193
00:13:39,803 --> 00:13:43,173
and this pattern
that was now visible

194
00:13:43,174 --> 00:13:45,175
in the atmosphere
of the entire planet.

195
00:13:45,176 --> 00:13:48,911
And then he projected into the
future where this was headed

196
00:13:48,912 --> 00:13:51,314
unless we made some adjustments.

197
00:13:51,315 --> 00:13:54,552
And it was just as clear as day.

198
00:13:57,155 --> 00:13:59,689
After the first seven,
eight, nine years,

199
00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:02,892
you could see the pattern
that was developing.

200
00:14:02,893 --> 00:14:04,394
But I asked a question.

201
00:14:04,395 --> 00:14:08,131
Why is it that it goes
up and down once each year?

202
00:14:08,132 --> 00:14:11,801
And he explained that if you look
at the land mass of the earth,

203
00:14:11,802 --> 00:14:14,837
very little of it
is south of the equator.

204
00:14:14,838 --> 00:14:17,774
The vast majority of it
is north of the equator,

205
00:14:17,775 --> 00:14:21,344
and most of the vegetation
is north of the equator.

206
00:14:21,345 --> 00:14:25,582
And so, when the Northern Hemisphere
is tilted toward the sun,

207
00:14:25,583 --> 00:14:28,151
as it is in our spring
and summer,

208
00:14:28,152 --> 00:14:31,954
the leaves come out and they
breathe in carbon dioxide,

209
00:14:31,955 --> 00:14:34,357
and the amount
in the atmosphere goes down.

210
00:14:34,358 --> 00:14:38,161
But when the Northern Hemisphere
is tilted away from the sun,

211
00:14:38,162 --> 00:14:40,430
as it is in our fall and winter,

212
00:14:40,431 --> 00:14:43,700
the leaves fall
and exhale carbon dioxide,

213
00:14:43,701 --> 00:14:47,537
and the amount in the
atmosphere goes back up again.

214
00:14:47,538 --> 00:14:50,240
And so, it's as if
the entire earth

215
00:14:50,241 --> 00:14:52,909
once each year
breaths in and out.

216
00:14:55,446 --> 00:15:00,850
So we started measuring
carbon dioxide in 1958.

217
00:15:00,851 --> 00:15:02,952
And you can see

218
00:15:02,953 --> 00:15:06,656
that by the middle '60s, when
he showed my class this image,

219
00:15:06,657 --> 00:15:09,025
it was already clear
that it was going up.

220
00:15:09,026 --> 00:15:13,296
I respected him and learned from
him so much, I followed this.

221
00:15:13,297 --> 00:15:16,833
And when I went to the
Congress in the middle 1970s,

222
00:15:16,834 --> 00:15:19,702
I helped to organize the first
hearings on global warming

223
00:15:19,703 --> 00:15:23,406
and asked my professor to come
and be the leadoff witness.

224
00:15:23,407 --> 00:15:25,342
And I thought that would have
such a big impact,

225
00:15:25,343 --> 00:15:29,145
we'd be on the way to solving this
problem, but it didn't work that way.

226
00:15:29,146 --> 00:15:32,782
But I kept having hearings. And
in 1984 I went to the Senate

227
00:15:32,783 --> 00:15:35,952
and really dug deeply
into this issue

228
00:15:35,953 --> 00:15:38,087
with science roundtables
and the like.

229
00:15:38,088 --> 00:15:42,525
I wrote a book, uh, about it,
ran for President in 1988,

230
00:15:42,526 --> 00:15:45,094
partly to try to gain some
visibility for that issue.

231
00:15:45,095 --> 00:15:49,632
And in 1992 went to the White House.
We passed a version of a carbon tax

232
00:15:49,633 --> 00:15:52,168
and some other measures
to try to address this.

233
00:15:52,169 --> 00:15:55,972
Went to Kyoto in 1997
to help get a treaty

234
00:15:55,973 --> 00:15:59,309
that's so controversial,
in the US at least.

235
00:15:59,310 --> 00:16:01,411
In 2000,

236
00:16:01,412 --> 00:16:05,715
my opponent pledged
to regulate CO2 and then...

237
00:16:05,716 --> 00:16:08,217
T-That--That was not
a pledge that was kept.

238
00:16:08,218 --> 00:16:11,087
But the point of this is

239
00:16:11,088 --> 00:16:13,656
all this time you can see

240
00:16:13,657 --> 00:16:16,393
what I have seen
all these years.

241
00:16:16,394 --> 00:16:19,696
It just keeps going up.
It is relentless.

242
00:16:19,697 --> 00:16:23,566
And now we're beginning to see
the impact in the real world.

243
00:16:23,567 --> 00:16:27,169
This is Mount Kilimanjaro
more than 30 years ago

244
00:16:27,170 --> 00:16:28,805
and more recently.

245
00:16:28,806 --> 00:16:31,941
And a friend of mine just
came back from Kilimanjaro

246
00:16:31,942 --> 00:16:34,844
with a picture he took
a couple of months ago.

247
00:16:34,845 --> 00:16:37,780
Another friend, Lonnie
Thompson, studies glaciers.

248
00:16:37,781 --> 00:16:43,119
Here's Lonnie with a last sliver of
one of the once mighty glaciers.

249
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:48,591
Within the decade there will be
no more snows of Kilimanjaro.

250
00:16:48,592 --> 00:16:51,461
This is happening
in Glacier National Park.

251
00:16:51,462 --> 00:16:55,264
I climbed to the top of this in
1998 with one of my daughters.

252
00:16:55,265 --> 00:16:59,168
Within 15 years, this will be the
park formerly known as Glacier.

253
00:16:59,169 --> 00:17:03,906
Here is what's been happening year
by year to the Columbia Glacier.

254
00:17:03,907 --> 00:17:07,209
It just retreats
every single year.

255
00:17:07,210 --> 00:17:10,547
And it's a shame 'cause these
glaciers are so beautiful.

256
00:17:10,548 --> 00:17:13,583
But those who go up to see them,

257
00:17:13,584 --> 00:17:16,587
here's what they're seeing
every day, now.

258
00:17:28,131 --> 00:17:31,000
In the Himalayas, uh,
there's a particular problem

259
00:17:31,001 --> 00:17:34,471
because 40 percent of all
the people in the world

260
00:17:34,472 --> 00:17:37,740
get their drinking water
from rivers and spring systems

261
00:17:37,741 --> 00:17:41,444
that are fed more than half
by the melt water

262
00:17:41,445 --> 00:17:43,279
coming off the glaciers.

263
00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,984
And within this next half century those
40 percent o-of the people on Earth

264
00:17:47,985 --> 00:17:51,153
are gonna face
a very serious shortage

265
00:17:51,154 --> 00:17:54,223
because o-of this melting.

266
00:17:54,224 --> 00:17:56,593
Italy, the Italian Alps.

267
00:17:56,594 --> 00:17:58,495
Same sight today.

268
00:17:58,496 --> 00:18:01,263
An old postcard
from Switzerland.

269
00:18:01,264 --> 00:18:04,801
Throughout the Alps,
we're seeing the same story.

270
00:18:04,802 --> 00:18:07,203
It's also true in South America.

271
00:18:07,204 --> 00:18:09,839
This is Peru 15 years ago.

272
00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:12,174
And the same glacier today.

273
00:18:12,175 --> 00:18:17,414
This is Argentina 20 years ago.
Same glacier today.

274
00:18:17,415 --> 00:18:22,619
Seventy-five years ago in Patagonia
on the tip of South America.

275
00:18:22,620 --> 00:18:26,957
This vast expanse
of ice is now gone.

276
00:18:28,125 --> 00:18:30,226
There's a message in this.

277
00:18:30,227 --> 00:18:32,128
It is worldwide.

278
00:18:32,129 --> 00:18:34,864
And the ice has stories
to tell us.

279
00:18:34,865 --> 00:18:38,100
My friend, Lonnie Thompson,
digs core drills in the ice.

280
00:18:38,101 --> 00:18:39,936
They dig down

281
00:18:39,937 --> 00:18:43,440
and they bring the core drills
back up and they look at the ice

282
00:18:43,441 --> 00:18:45,241
and they study it.

283
00:18:45,242 --> 00:18:49,646
When the snow falls, it traps
little bubbles of atmosphere

284
00:18:49,647 --> 00:18:51,881
and they can go in and measure

285
00:18:51,882 --> 00:18:56,152
how much CO2 is in the atmosphere
the year that that snow fell.

286
00:18:56,153 --> 00:18:58,855
What's even more interesting,
I think, is

287
00:18:58,856 --> 00:19:02,859
they can measure the different
isotopes of oxygen

288
00:19:02,860 --> 00:19:06,162
and figure out
a very precise thermometer

289
00:19:06,163 --> 00:19:08,565
and tell you what
the temperature was

290
00:19:08,566 --> 00:19:13,970
the year that, uh, that bubble was
trapped in the snow as it fell.

291
00:19:13,971 --> 00:19:17,373
When I was in Antarctica,
I saw cores like this.

292
00:19:17,374 --> 00:19:19,542
And a guy looked at it.
He said,

293
00:19:19,543 --> 00:19:23,412
"Right here is where the US
Congress passed the Clean Air Act."

294
00:19:23,413 --> 00:19:24,781
And I couldn't believe it.

295
00:19:24,782 --> 00:19:26,883
But you can see the difference
with the naked eye.

296
00:19:26,884 --> 00:19:29,886
Just a couple of years
after that law was passed,

297
00:19:29,887 --> 00:19:32,354
it's very clearly
distinguishable.

298
00:19:32,355 --> 00:19:35,492
They can count back year by year

299
00:19:35,493 --> 00:19:38,160
the same way a forester reads
tree rings.

300
00:19:38,161 --> 00:19:42,499
And you can see each annual layer
from the melting and re-freezing,

301
00:19:42,500 --> 00:19:47,069
so they can go back in a lot of these
mountain glaciers 1,000 years.

302
00:19:47,070 --> 00:19:50,873
And they constructed a
thermometer of the temperature.

303
00:19:50,874 --> 00:19:55,011
The blue is cold
and the red is warm.

304
00:19:55,012 --> 00:19:58,280
Now, uh, I show this
for a couple of reasons.

305
00:19:58,281 --> 00:20:03,085
Number one, the so-called
skeptics will sometimes say,

306
00:20:03,086 --> 00:20:06,723
"Oh, this whole thing,
this is a cyclical phenomenon.

307
00:20:06,724 --> 00:20:09,592
"There was a medieval
warming period, after all."

308
00:20:09,593 --> 00:20:13,230
Well, yeah, there--there was.
There--There it is, right there.

309
00:20:15,198 --> 00:20:16,633
There are two others.

310
00:20:16,634 --> 00:20:19,669
But compared to
what's going on now,

311
00:20:19,670 --> 00:20:21,337
there's just no comparison.

312
00:20:21,338 --> 00:20:25,508
So if you look at 1,000 years'
worth of temperature

313
00:20:25,509 --> 00:20:28,878
and compare it to
1,000 years of CO2,

314
00:20:28,879 --> 00:20:33,082
you can see how closely
they fit together.

315
00:20:33,083 --> 00:20:36,653
Now, 1,000 years of CO2
in the mountain glaciers,

316
00:20:36,654 --> 00:20:38,154
that's one thing.

317
00:20:38,155 --> 00:20:43,226
But in Antarctica, they can
go back 650,000 years.

318
00:20:45,529 --> 00:20:48,164
This incidentally, uh,
is the first time

319
00:20:48,165 --> 00:20:54,036
anybody outside of a small group
of scientists has seen this image.

320
00:20:54,037 --> 00:20:57,073
This is the present day,
uh, era,

321
00:20:57,074 --> 00:20:59,776
and that's the last ice age.

322
00:20:59,777 --> 00:21:03,880
Then it goes up. That... We're going
back in time now 650,000 years.

323
00:21:03,881 --> 00:21:07,149
That's the period of warming
between the last two ice ages.

324
00:21:07,150 --> 00:21:10,753
That's the second
and third ice age back.

325
00:21:10,754 --> 00:21:13,823
Fourth, fifth, sixth

326
00:21:13,824 --> 00:21:16,525
and seventh ice age back.

327
00:21:16,526 --> 00:21:18,895
Now, an important point.

328
00:21:18,896 --> 00:21:24,066
In all of this time,
650,000 years,

329
00:21:24,067 --> 00:21:27,236
the CO2 level
has never gone above

330
00:21:27,237 --> 00:21:30,139
300 parts per million.

331
00:21:30,140 --> 00:21:32,374
Now, as I said, they can
also measure temperature.

332
00:21:32,375 --> 00:21:36,614
Here's what the temperature
has been on our earth.

333
00:21:38,048 --> 00:21:40,917
Now, one thing that kind
of jumps out at you is...

334
00:21:40,918 --> 00:21:45,087
Well, let me put it this way. If
my classmate from the sixth grade

335
00:21:45,088 --> 00:21:47,690
that talked about Africa
and South America were here,

336
00:21:47,691 --> 00:21:52,028
he would say, "Did--did--did--
did they ever fit together?"

337
00:21:52,029 --> 00:21:54,897
"Most ridiculous thing
I've ever heard."

338
00:21:54,898 --> 00:21:56,633
But they did, of course.

339
00:21:56,634 --> 00:22:00,469
And the--the relationship
is actually very complicated.

340
00:22:00,470 --> 00:22:04,040
But there is one relationship
that is far more powerful

341
00:22:04,041 --> 00:22:05,875
than all the others
and it is this.

342
00:22:05,876 --> 00:22:10,913
When there is more carbon dioxide,
the temperature gets warmer

343
00:22:10,914 --> 00:22:14,450
because it traps more heat
from the sun inside.

344
00:22:14,451 --> 00:22:18,487
In the parts of the United States
that contain the modern cities

345
00:22:18,488 --> 00:22:23,025
of Cleveland, Detroit, New
York, in the northern tier,

346
00:22:23,026 --> 00:22:27,163
this is the difference
between a nice day

347
00:22:27,164 --> 00:22:31,367
and having a mile
of ice over your head.

348
00:22:31,368 --> 00:22:35,772
Keep that in mind
when you look at this fact.

349
00:22:35,773 --> 00:22:37,774
Carbon dioxide,

350
00:22:37,775 --> 00:22:41,678
having never gone above
300 parts per million,

351
00:22:41,679 --> 00:22:44,314
here is where CO2 is now.

352
00:22:48,652 --> 00:22:51,587
Way above where it's ever been

353
00:22:51,588 --> 00:22:54,090
as far back as this record
will measure.

354
00:22:54,091 --> 00:22:57,526
Now, if you'll bear with me, I
wanna really emphasize this point.

355
00:22:57,527 --> 00:23:00,296
The--The crew here

356
00:23:00,297 --> 00:23:03,332
has tried to teach me how to
use this contraption here.

357
00:23:03,333 --> 00:23:05,902
So, if I don't
kill myself, I'll...

358
00:23:13,777 --> 00:23:16,680
It's already right here.

359
00:23:17,948 --> 00:23:21,784
Look how far above
the natural cycle this is,

360
00:23:21,785 --> 00:23:24,420
and we've done that.

361
00:23:24,421 --> 00:23:27,556
But, ladies and gentlemen,
in the next 50 years,

362
00:23:27,557 --> 00:23:30,126
really, in less than 50 years,

363
00:23:30,127 --> 00:23:32,328
it's gonna continue to go up.

364
00:23:32,329 --> 00:23:36,465
When some of these children
who are here are my age,

365
00:23:36,466 --> 00:23:40,669
here is what it's going to be
in less than 50 years.

366
00:23:47,077 --> 00:23:49,747
You've heard of off the charts.

367
00:23:52,082 --> 00:23:56,385
Within less than 50 years,
it'll be here.

368
00:23:56,386 --> 00:23:59,655
There's not a single fact
or date or number

369
00:23:59,656 --> 00:24:03,325
that's been used to make this
up that's in any controversy.

370
00:24:03,326 --> 00:24:07,196
The so-called skeptics
look at this and they say,

371
00:24:07,197 --> 00:24:11,101
"So? That seems perfectly okay."

372
00:24:17,507 --> 00:24:19,876
Well,

373
00:24:19,877 --> 00:24:23,645
again, if on the
temperature side,

374
00:24:23,646 --> 00:24:30,052
if this much on the cold side is
a mile of ice over our heads,

375
00:24:30,053 --> 00:24:34,324
what would that much
on the warm side be?

376
00:24:35,926 --> 00:24:40,797
Ultimately this is really
not a political issue

377
00:24:40,798 --> 00:24:43,732
so much as a--a moral issue.

378
00:24:43,733 --> 00:24:46,468
If we allow that to happen,

379
00:24:46,469 --> 00:24:49,339
it is deeply unethical.

380
00:24:51,641 --> 00:24:55,077
I had such faith
in our democratic system,

381
00:24:55,078 --> 00:24:57,313
our self-government.

382
00:24:57,314 --> 00:25:01,250
I actually thought and believed

383
00:25:01,251 --> 00:25:06,155
that the story would be compelling
enough to cause a real sea change

384
00:25:06,156 --> 00:25:09,491
in the way the Congress
reacted to that issue.

385
00:25:09,492 --> 00:25:13,062
I thought they would
be startled, too.

386
00:25:13,063 --> 00:25:14,998
And they weren't.

387
00:25:18,268 --> 00:25:20,402
The struggles,

388
00:25:20,403 --> 00:25:26,175
the victories that aren't really victories,
the defeats that aren't really defeats.

389
00:25:26,176 --> 00:25:30,546
They can serve to magnify
the significance

390
00:25:30,547 --> 00:25:34,016
of some trivial step forward,

391
00:25:34,017 --> 00:25:38,554
exaggerate the seeming
importance

392
00:25:38,555 --> 00:25:40,924
of some massive setback.

393
00:25:44,962 --> 00:25:47,464
April 3, 1989.

394
00:25:48,932 --> 00:25:51,600
My son pulled loose from my hand

395
00:25:51,601 --> 00:25:54,171
and chased his friend
across the street.

396
00:25:56,739 --> 00:25:58,541
He was six years old.

397
00:26:01,478 --> 00:26:04,281
The machine
was breathing for him.

398
00:26:07,684 --> 00:26:11,088
We were possibly
going to lose him.

399
00:26:15,325 --> 00:26:18,561
He finally, uh, took a breath.

400
00:26:21,464 --> 00:26:24,868
We stayed in the hospital
for a month.

401
00:26:26,870 --> 00:26:30,239
It was almost as if, uh,

402
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,309
you could look at that
calendar and just go...

403
00:26:33,310 --> 00:26:36,879
<b>And everything just flew off.

404
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:39,282
Seemed trivial, insignificant.

405
00:26:40,884 --> 00:26:43,219
He was so brave.
He was such...

406
00:26:43,220 --> 00:26:46,523
Uh, he was such a--a brave guy.

407
00:26:49,092 --> 00:26:51,894
It just turned my whole world
upside down

408
00:26:51,895 --> 00:26:56,832
and then shook it
until everything fell out.

409
00:26:56,833 --> 00:27:02,304
My way of being in the world, it
just changed everything for me.

410
00:27:02,305 --> 00:27:05,342
How should I spend my time
on this earth?

411
00:27:11,014 --> 00:27:13,415
I really dug in,

412
00:27:13,416 --> 00:27:17,219
trying to learn about it
much more deeply.

413
00:27:17,220 --> 00:27:19,355
I went to Antarctica.

414
00:27:19,356 --> 00:27:22,024
Went to the South Pole,
the North Pole, the Amazon.

415
00:27:22,025 --> 00:27:27,229
Went to places where scientists
could help me understand

416
00:27:27,230 --> 00:27:29,731
parts of the issue that

417
00:27:29,732 --> 00:27:32,669
I didn't really understand
in depth.

418
00:27:36,706 --> 00:27:40,443
The possibility of losing
what was most precious to me.

419
00:27:41,644 --> 00:27:44,780
I gained a-an ability

420
00:27:46,383 --> 00:27:49,686
that maybe I didn't have before.

421
00:27:50,887 --> 00:27:52,654
But when I felt it,

422
00:27:52,655 --> 00:27:57,060
I felt that we could
really lose it,

423
00:27:58,928 --> 00:28:03,633
that what we take for granted might
not be here for our children.

424
00:28:06,336 --> 00:28:09,171
These are actual measurements
of atmospheric temperatures

425
00:28:09,172 --> 00:28:11,473
since our Civil War.

426
00:28:11,474 --> 00:28:14,643
In any given year, it might
look like it's going down,

427
00:28:14,644 --> 00:28:17,713
but the overall trend
is extremely clear.

428
00:28:17,714 --> 00:28:19,448
And in recent years,

429
00:28:19,449 --> 00:28:23,952
it's uninterrupted
and it is intensifying.

430
00:28:23,953 --> 00:28:28,257
In fact, if you look at the 10
hottest years ever measured

431
00:28:28,258 --> 00:28:30,292
in this atmospheric record,

432
00:28:30,293 --> 00:28:33,395
they've all occurred
in the last 14 years.

433
00:28:33,396 --> 00:28:38,100
And the hottest of all was 2005.

434
00:28:38,101 --> 00:28:41,370
We have already seen
some of the heat waves

435
00:28:41,371 --> 00:28:43,605
that are similar
to what scientists are saying

436
00:28:43,606 --> 00:28:45,374
are gonna be a lot more common.

437
00:28:45,375 --> 00:28:46,875
Couple of years ago in Europe

438
00:28:46,876 --> 00:28:49,111
they had that massive heat wave

439
00:28:49,112 --> 00:28:52,648
that killed 35,000 people.

440
00:28:52,649 --> 00:28:55,584
India didn't get
as much attention,

441
00:28:55,585 --> 00:28:58,354
but the same year
the temperature there went

442
00:28:58,355 --> 00:29:01,557
to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

443
00:29:01,558 --> 00:29:04,026
This past summer
in the American West,

444
00:29:04,027 --> 00:29:07,963
there were a lot of cities that broke
all-time records for high temperatures

445
00:29:07,964 --> 00:29:13,335
and number of consecutive days with
100 degree temperature or more.

446
00:29:13,336 --> 00:29:18,107
Two hundred cities and towns in
the west set all-time records.

447
00:29:18,108 --> 00:29:22,511
And in the east there were a lot
of cities that did the same thing.

448
00:29:22,512 --> 00:29:26,082
Including, incidentally,
New Orleans.

449
00:29:26,083 --> 00:29:30,086
So the temperature increases are
taking place all over the world,

450
00:29:30,087 --> 00:29:32,088
including in the oceans.

451
00:29:32,089 --> 00:29:36,592
This is the natural range of variability
for temperature in the oceans.

452
00:29:36,593 --> 00:29:38,394
You know, people say,
"Oh, it's just natural.

453
00:29:38,395 --> 00:29:40,796
"It goes up and down,
so don't worry about it."

454
00:29:40,797 --> 00:29:45,101
This is the range that would be
expected over the last 60 years,

455
00:29:45,102 --> 00:29:48,970
but the scientists who specialize in
global warming have computer models

456
00:29:48,971 --> 00:29:54,710
that long ago predicted this
range of temperature increase.

457
00:29:54,711 --> 00:29:57,246
Now I'm gonna show you,
recently released,

458
00:29:57,247 --> 00:30:01,183
the actual ocean temperatures.

459
00:30:01,184 --> 00:30:06,222
And, of course, when the oceans get
warmer, that causes stronger storms.

460
00:30:06,223 --> 00:30:08,990
We have seen
in the last couple of years

461
00:30:08,991 --> 00:30:10,726
a lot of big hurricanes.

462
00:30:10,727 --> 00:30:15,664
Hurricane Jeanne and Frances
and Ivan were among them.

463
00:30:15,665 --> 00:30:19,535
And the same year that we had
that string of big hurricanes,

464
00:30:19,536 --> 00:30:23,505
we also set an all-time record for
tornadoes in the United States.

465
00:30:23,506 --> 00:30:27,576
Japan again didn't get as much
attention in our news media,

466
00:30:27,577 --> 00:30:30,546
but they set an
all-time record for typhoons.

467
00:30:30,547 --> 00:30:31,980
Previous record was seven.

468
00:30:31,981 --> 00:30:36,185
Here are all 10 of the ones
they had in 2004.

469
00:30:36,186 --> 00:30:38,320
The science textbooks have had
to be rewritten

470
00:30:38,321 --> 00:30:42,224
because they say that it's impossible to
have a hurricane in the South Atlantic.

471
00:30:42,225 --> 00:30:44,960
But the same year
the first one ever hit Brazil.

472
00:30:44,961 --> 00:30:48,530
Summer of 2005 has been
one for the books.

473
00:30:48,531 --> 00:30:52,168
The first one was Emily
that socked into Yucatan.

474
00:30:52,169 --> 00:30:56,138
Then Hurricane Dennis came along
and it did a lot of damage,

475
00:30:56,139 --> 00:30:58,140
including to the oil industry.

476
00:30:58,141 --> 00:31:02,544
This is the largest oil platform in
the world after Dennis went through.

477
00:31:02,545 --> 00:31:05,781
This one was driven
into the bridge at Mobile.

478
00:31:05,782 --> 00:31:09,318
And then, of course,
came Katrina.

479
00:31:09,319 --> 00:31:14,190
It's worth remembering that when it
hit Florida, it was a Category One.

480
00:31:14,191 --> 00:31:18,126
But it killed a lot of people and caused
billions of dollars' worth of damage.

481
00:31:18,127 --> 00:31:20,429
And then what happened?

482
00:31:20,430 --> 00:31:22,464
Before it hit New Orleans,

483
00:31:22,465 --> 00:31:25,634
it went over warmer waters.

484
00:31:25,635 --> 00:31:29,037
As the water temperature
increases,

485
00:31:29,038 --> 00:31:31,440
the wind velocity increases

486
00:31:31,441 --> 00:31:34,776
and the moisture content
increases.

487
00:31:34,777 --> 00:31:37,946
And you'll see Hurricane
Katrina form over Florida.

488
00:31:37,947 --> 00:31:41,350
And then as it comes into the
gulf over that warm water,

489
00:31:41,351 --> 00:31:45,487
it picks up that energy and gets
stronger and stronger and stronger.

490
00:31:45,488 --> 00:31:47,489
Look at that hurricane's eye.

491
00:31:47,490 --> 00:31:52,761
And, of course, the--the
consequences were so horrendous,

492
00:31:52,762 --> 00:31:55,898
there are no words,
uh, to describe it.

493
00:32:19,622 --> 00:32:23,325
Yeah, we're getting reports
and calls that are just breaking my heart.

494
00:32:23,326 --> 00:32:27,663
From people saying, "I've been in my attic.
I can't take it anymore.

495
00:32:27,664 --> 00:32:32,568
"The water is up to my-- up to my neck.
I don't think I can hold out."

496
00:32:32,569 --> 00:32:34,803
And that's happening
as we speak.

497
00:32:34,804 --> 00:32:39,074
We told-- We told everybody the importance
of the 17th Street Canal issue.

498
00:32:39,075 --> 00:32:41,877
We said, "Please, please,
take care of this.

499
00:32:41,878 --> 00:32:44,481
"We don't care what you do.
Figure it out."

500
00:32:51,888 --> 00:32:54,491
Something new for America.

501
00:32:57,026 --> 00:33:01,698
But how in God's name
could that happen here?

502
00:33:04,133 --> 00:33:08,870
There had been warnings that
hurricanes would get stronger.

503
00:33:08,871 --> 00:33:11,873
There were warnings
that this hurricane,

504
00:33:11,874 --> 00:33:15,010
days before it hit,
would breach the levees,

505
00:33:15,011 --> 00:33:19,515
would cause the kind of damage
that it ultimately did cause.

506
00:33:19,516 --> 00:33:23,752
And one question
we as a people need to decide

507
00:33:23,753 --> 00:33:27,623
is how we react
when we hear warnings

508
00:33:27,624 --> 00:33:31,192
from the leading scientists
in the world.

509
00:33:31,193 --> 00:33:35,831
There was another storm in the
1930s of a different kind.

510
00:33:35,832 --> 00:33:39,901
A horrible, unprecedented
storm in continental Europe,

511
00:33:39,902 --> 00:33:45,841
and Winston Churchill warned
the people of England

512
00:33:45,842 --> 00:33:49,611
that it was different from anything
that had ever happened before

513
00:33:49,612 --> 00:33:52,113
and they had to
get ready for it.

514
00:33:52,114 --> 00:33:55,917
And he... A-And--And a lot of
people did not want to believe it.

515
00:33:55,918 --> 00:33:59,187
And he got real impatient
with all the dithering.

516
00:33:59,188 --> 00:34:01,122
And he said this,

517
00:34:17,039 --> 00:34:21,142
Making mistakes in
generations and centuries past

518
00:34:21,143 --> 00:34:25,581
would have consequences
that we could overcome.

519
00:34:25,582 --> 00:34:28,316
We don't have
that luxury anymore.

520
00:34:28,317 --> 00:34:30,387
We didn't ask for it,

521
00:34:31,253 --> 00:34:33,221
but here it is.

522
00:34:33,222 --> 00:34:36,191
Al Gore is the
winner of the national popular vote.

523
00:34:36,192 --> 00:34:40,028
But the state of Florida, whomever
wins there wins the White House.

524
00:34:40,029 --> 00:34:42,498
We call
Florida, in the Al Gore column...

525
00:34:42,499 --> 00:34:46,368
<b>MALE ANNOUNCER
pulled back into the undecided column.

526
00:34:46,369 --> 00:34:49,405
George Bush is the president elect
of the United States. He is...

527
00:34:49,406 --> 00:34:52,974
Florida goes Bush.
The presidency is Bush. That's it.

528
00:34:52,975 --> 00:34:55,844
<b>GORE:</b> And at 2:18
this morning, we project...

529
00:34:55,845 --> 00:35:00,349
All right, we're officially saying
that Florida is too close to call.

530
00:35:24,907 --> 00:35:29,177
While I strongly disagree
with the court's decision,

531
00:35:29,178 --> 00:35:30,579
I accept it.

532
00:35:30,580 --> 00:35:33,450
I accept the finality
of this outcome.

533
00:35:41,691 --> 00:35:43,291
...do solemnly swear...

534
00:35:43,292 --> 00:35:45,727
I, George Walker Bush,
do solemnly swear...

535
00:35:45,728 --> 00:35:48,665
...that I will faithfully
execute the office of...

536
00:36:00,176 --> 00:36:03,680
Well, that was
a hard blow, but...

537
00:36:06,215 --> 00:36:08,485
What do you do? You...

538
00:36:10,753 --> 00:36:12,855
You make the best of it.

539
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:27,669
It brought into clear focus

540
00:36:27,670 --> 00:36:32,207
the mission that
I had been pursuing

541
00:36:32,208 --> 00:36:34,976
for all these years, and

542
00:36:36,178 --> 00:36:40,482
I started, uh, giving
the slide show again.

543
00:36:47,289 --> 00:36:50,559
One often unnoticed effect
of global warming

544
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:52,494
is it causes more precipitation,

545
00:36:52,495 --> 00:36:56,231
but more of it coming
in one-time big storm events.

546
00:36:56,232 --> 00:37:00,135
Because the evaporation off the oceans
puts all the moisture up there,

547
00:37:00,136 --> 00:37:04,005
when storm conditions trigger the
downpour, more of it falls down.

548
00:37:04,006 --> 00:37:07,375
The insurance industry has
actually noticed this.

549
00:37:07,376 --> 00:37:10,011
Their recovered losses
are going up.

550
00:37:10,012 --> 00:37:12,514
You see the damage from these
severe weather events?

551
00:37:12,515 --> 00:37:16,084
And 2005 is not even
on this yet.

552
00:37:16,085 --> 00:37:19,555
When it does,
it'll be off that chart.

553
00:37:19,556 --> 00:37:24,092
Europe has just had a year very
similar to the one we've had

554
00:37:24,093 --> 00:37:27,462
where they say
nature's been going crazy.

555
00:37:27,463 --> 00:37:30,131
All kinds of unusual
catastrophes,

556
00:37:30,132 --> 00:37:32,869
like a nature hike through
the Book of Revelations.

557
00:37:34,303 --> 00:37:35,904
Flooding in Asia.

558
00:37:35,905 --> 00:37:38,974
Mumbai, India this past July.

559
00:37:38,975 --> 00:37:42,678
Thirty-seven inches
of rain in 24 hours.

560
00:37:42,679 --> 00:37:45,814
By far, the largest downpour

561
00:37:45,815 --> 00:37:49,585
that any city in India
has ever received.

562
00:37:49,586 --> 00:37:52,120
Lot of flooding in China, also.

563
00:37:52,121 --> 00:37:57,225
Global warming, paradoxically,
causes not only more flooding,

564
00:37:57,226 --> 00:37:59,094
but also more drought.

565
00:37:59,095 --> 00:38:02,898
This neighboring province
right next door

566
00:38:02,899 --> 00:38:08,036
had a severe drought at the same
time these areas were flooding.

567
00:38:08,037 --> 00:38:10,772
One of the reasons for this
has to do with the fact

568
00:38:10,773 --> 00:38:15,944
that global warming not only
increases precipitation worldwide,

569
00:38:15,945 --> 00:38:19,247
but it also relocates
the precipitation.

570
00:38:19,248 --> 00:38:23,218
And focus most of all
on this part of Africa

571
00:38:23,219 --> 00:38:26,154
just on the edge of the Sahara.

572
00:38:26,155 --> 00:38:29,224
Unbelievable tragedies
have been unfolding there,

573
00:38:29,225 --> 00:38:32,293
and there are a lot
of reasons for it.

574
00:38:32,294 --> 00:38:37,799
But Darfur and Niger are
among those tragedies.

575
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,302
And one of the factors
that has been compounding them

576
00:38:41,303 --> 00:38:44,740
is the lack of rainfall
and the increasing drought.

577
00:38:44,741 --> 00:38:50,278
This is Lake Chad, once one of
the largest lakes in the world.

578
00:38:50,279 --> 00:38:55,183
It has dried up over the last
few decades to almost nothing,

579
00:38:55,184 --> 00:38:59,655
vastly complicating the other
problems that they also have.

580
00:38:59,656 --> 00:39:01,623
The second reason

581
00:39:01,624 --> 00:39:05,026
why this is a paradox.

582
00:39:05,027 --> 00:39:08,730
Global warming creates more
evaporation off the oceans

583
00:39:08,731 --> 00:39:10,231
to seed the clouds,

584
00:39:10,232 --> 00:39:14,169
but it sucks moisture
out of the soil.

585
00:39:14,170 --> 00:39:18,073
Soil evaporation
increases dramatically

586
00:39:18,074 --> 00:39:20,175
with higher temperatures.

587
00:39:20,176 --> 00:39:24,847
And that has consequences for us
in the United States, as well.

588
00:39:25,748 --> 00:39:29,184
So this is the Carthage exit.

589
00:39:29,185 --> 00:39:32,889
When I was 14 years old,
I totaled the family car

590
00:39:34,456 --> 00:39:36,692
right there.

591
00:39:36,693 --> 00:39:40,696
Went off that shoulder,
turned it over.

592
00:39:40,697 --> 00:39:44,365
And see this Black Angus bull?

593
00:39:44,366 --> 00:39:46,769
We raised Black Angus.

594
00:39:50,172 --> 00:39:53,374
My father was named
Breeder of the Month.

595
00:39:55,277 --> 00:39:57,313
He grew up on a farm.

596
00:39:59,048 --> 00:40:01,983
All through his career
in the Senate,

597
00:40:01,984 --> 00:40:05,887
he continued to come back here
and raise cattle.

598
00:40:05,888 --> 00:40:09,892
Learning it from your dad
on the land,

599
00:40:12,194 --> 00:40:15,964
that's really something special.

600
00:40:15,965 --> 00:40:21,602
My, uh, childhood upbringing was a
little unusual in the sense that

601
00:40:21,603 --> 00:40:26,041
I spent eight months of
each year in Washington DC

602
00:40:26,042 --> 00:40:29,978
in a--a small little
hotel apartment.

603
00:40:29,979 --> 00:40:34,817
And then the other four months were
spent here on this big, beautiful farm.

604
00:40:36,685 --> 00:40:38,320
I had a dog here.

605
00:40:39,455 --> 00:40:41,857
I had a pony here.

606
00:40:41,858 --> 00:40:43,992
I could, uh,
shoot my rifle here.

607
00:40:43,993 --> 00:40:48,063
I could-- I could go swimming
in the river here.

608
00:40:48,064 --> 00:40:51,734
Go out and lay down
in the grass.

609
00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:01,542
As a kid, it took me a while

610
00:41:01,543 --> 00:41:04,847
to learn the difference
between fun and work.

611
00:41:11,053 --> 00:41:14,489
The places where people live
were chosen

612
00:41:14,490 --> 00:41:16,724
because of the climate pattern

613
00:41:16,725 --> 00:41:20,862
that has been pretty much
the same on Earth

614
00:41:20,863 --> 00:41:24,934
since the end of the last
ice age 11,000 years ago.

615
00:41:26,468 --> 00:41:30,738
Here, on this farm,
the patterns are changing.

616
00:41:30,739 --> 00:41:34,209
And it seems gradual in the
course of a human lifetime

617
00:41:34,210 --> 00:41:39,180
but in the course of time,
as defined by this river,

618
00:41:39,181 --> 00:41:43,185
it's happening
very, very quickly.

619
00:41:45,654 --> 00:41:48,056
Two canaries in the coal mine.

620
00:41:48,057 --> 00:41:50,158
First one is in the Arctic.

621
00:41:50,159 --> 00:41:53,761
This, of course, is the Arctic
Ocean, the floating ice cap.

622
00:41:53,762 --> 00:41:56,597
Greenland, on its side there.

623
00:41:56,598 --> 00:41:58,133
I say canary in the coal mine

624
00:41:58,134 --> 00:42:01,336
because the Arctic is one of
the two regions of the world

625
00:42:01,337 --> 00:42:05,406
that, uh, is experiencing
faster impacts

626
00:42:05,407 --> 00:42:06,875
from global warming.

627
00:42:06,876 --> 00:42:10,078
This is the largest ice shelf
in the Arctic,

628
00:42:10,079 --> 00:42:12,113
the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf.

629
00:42:12,114 --> 00:42:14,082
It just cracked in half
three years ago.

630
00:42:14,083 --> 00:42:16,651
The scientists were astonished.

631
00:42:16,652 --> 00:42:20,321
These are called drunken trees
just going every which way.

632
00:42:20,322 --> 00:42:23,724
This is not caused by wind
damage or alcohol consumption.

633
00:42:23,725 --> 00:42:29,064
These trees put their roots
down in the permafrost,

634
00:42:29,065 --> 00:42:31,066
and the permafrost is thawing.

635
00:42:31,067 --> 00:42:34,335
And so they just go
every which way now.

636
00:42:34,336 --> 00:42:37,338
This building was built
on the, uh, permafrost

637
00:42:37,339 --> 00:42:40,241
and has collapsed
as the permafrost thaws.

638
00:42:40,242 --> 00:42:43,879
This woman's house, uh,
has had to be abandoned.

639
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:48,416
The pipeline is suffering a great
deal of structural damage.

640
00:42:48,417 --> 00:42:53,254
And incidentally, the oil that they
want to produce in that protected area

641
00:42:53,255 --> 00:42:55,756
in Northern Alaska,
which I hope they don't,

642
00:42:55,757 --> 00:42:59,527
they have to depend on trucks
to go in and out of there.

643
00:42:59,528 --> 00:43:03,198
And the trucks go over
the frozen ground.

644
00:43:03,199 --> 00:43:07,735
This shows the number of days
that the tundra in Alaska is

645
00:43:07,736 --> 00:43:09,504
frozen enough to drive on it.

646
00:43:09,505 --> 00:43:14,809
Thirty-five years ago,
225 days a year.

647
00:43:14,810 --> 00:43:18,313
Now it's below 75 days a year

648
00:43:18,314 --> 00:43:22,450
because the spring comes earlier
and the fall comes later

649
00:43:22,451 --> 00:43:25,987
and the temperatures
just keep on going up.

650
00:43:25,988 --> 00:43:27,722
I went up to the North Pole.

651
00:43:27,723 --> 00:43:31,292
I went under that ice cap
in a nuclear submarine

652
00:43:31,293 --> 00:43:34,495
that surfaced through the ice
like this.

653
00:43:34,496 --> 00:43:37,999
Since they started
patrolling in 1957,

654
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:40,401
they have gone under the ice

655
00:43:40,402 --> 00:43:43,804
and measured with their
radar looking upwards

656
00:43:43,805 --> 00:43:45,173
to measure how thick it is

657
00:43:45,174 --> 00:43:47,342
because they can
only surface in areas

658
00:43:47,343 --> 00:43:50,445
where it's three and a half
feet thick or less.

659
00:43:50,446 --> 00:43:53,114
So they have kept
a meticulous record

660
00:43:53,115 --> 00:43:55,984
and they wouldn't release it
because it was national security.

661
00:43:55,985 --> 00:43:59,787
I went up there in order to persuade
them to release it, and they did.

662
00:43:59,788 --> 00:44:02,357
And here's what
that record shows.

663
00:44:02,358 --> 00:44:06,761
Starting in 1970, there was
a precipitous drop-off

664
00:44:06,762 --> 00:44:11,299
in the amount and extent and
thickness of the Arctic ice cap.

665
00:44:11,300 --> 00:44:15,570
It has diminished
by 40 percent in 40 years.

666
00:44:15,571 --> 00:44:18,206
And there are now
two major studies showing

667
00:44:18,207 --> 00:44:20,641
that within the next
50 to 70 years,

668
00:44:20,642 --> 00:44:24,079
in summertime
it will be completely gone.

669
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,714
Now, you might say,
"Why is that a problem?"

670
00:44:26,715 --> 00:44:32,253
And "How could the Arctic ice
cap actually melt so quickly?"

671
00:44:32,254 --> 00:44:34,755
When the sun's rays hit the ice,

672
00:44:34,756 --> 00:44:39,094
more than 90 percent of it bounces off
right back into space like a mirror.

673
00:44:39,095 --> 00:44:43,464
But when it hits the open ocean, more
than 90 percent of it is absorbed.

674
00:44:43,465 --> 00:44:46,501
And so, as the surrounding
water gets warmer,

675
00:44:46,502 --> 00:44:50,238
it speeds up
the melting of the ice.

676
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,841
Right now, the Arctic ice cap
acts like a giant mirror.

677
00:44:53,842 --> 00:44:57,212
All the sun's rays bounce off,
more than 90 percent.

678
00:44:57,213 --> 00:44:59,547
It keeps the earth cooler.

679
00:44:59,548 --> 00:45:01,016
But as it melts

680
00:45:01,017 --> 00:45:04,652
and the open ocean receives
that sun's energy instead,

681
00:45:04,653 --> 00:45:07,088
more than 90 percent
is absorbed.

682
00:45:07,089 --> 00:45:11,026
So there is a faster
buildup of heat here,

683
00:45:11,027 --> 00:45:13,628
at the North Pole,
in the Arctic Ocean,

684
00:45:13,629 --> 00:45:18,599
and the Arctic generally than
anywhere else on the planet.

685
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:23,472
That's not good for creatures like
polar bears who depend on the ice.

686
00:45:24,573 --> 00:45:27,075
A new scientific study
shows that

687
00:45:27,076 --> 00:45:33,014
for the first time they're finding polar
bears that have actually drowned,

688
00:45:33,015 --> 00:45:37,718
swimming long distances, up
to 60 miles, to find the ice.

689
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:40,521
And they didn't
find that before.

690
00:45:40,522 --> 00:45:42,623
But what does it mean to us?

691
00:45:42,624 --> 00:45:45,960
To look at a vast expanse
of open water

692
00:45:45,961 --> 00:45:50,631
at the top of our world that
used to be covered by ice.

693
00:45:50,632 --> 00:45:52,367
We ought to care a lot

694
00:45:52,368 --> 00:45:55,303
because it has
planetary effects.

695
00:45:55,304 --> 00:46:00,241
The earth's climate is like a big
engine for redistributing heat

696
00:46:00,242 --> 00:46:02,143
from the equator to the poles.

697
00:46:02,144 --> 00:46:06,481
And it does that by means of ocean
currents and wind currents.

698
00:46:06,482 --> 00:46:08,649
They tell us, the scientists do,

699
00:46:08,650 --> 00:46:11,052
that the earth's climate
is a nonlinear system.

700
00:46:11,053 --> 00:46:14,255
Just a fancy way
they have of saying

701
00:46:14,256 --> 00:46:17,692
that the changes are not
all just gradual.

702
00:46:17,693 --> 00:46:20,795
Some of them come suddenly,
in big jumps.

703
00:46:20,796 --> 00:46:24,499
On a worldwide basis, the
annual average temperature is

704
00:46:24,500 --> 00:46:27,502
about 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

705
00:46:27,503 --> 00:46:31,339
If we have an increase
of five degrees,

706
00:46:31,340 --> 00:46:34,442
which is on the low end
of the projections,

707
00:46:34,443 --> 00:46:36,511
look at how that translates
globally.

708
00:46:36,512 --> 00:46:40,248
That means an increase of only
one degree at the equator,

709
00:46:40,249 --> 00:46:43,384
but more than 12 degrees
at the pole.

710
00:46:43,385 --> 00:46:46,554
And so all those wind
and ocean current patterns

711
00:46:46,555 --> 00:46:51,392
that have formed since the last ice
age and have been relatively stable,

712
00:46:51,393 --> 00:46:54,862
they're all up in the air
and they change.

713
00:46:54,863 --> 00:46:56,931
And one of the ones
they're most worried about,

714
00:46:56,932 --> 00:47:01,136
where they've spent a lot of
time, uh, studying the problem,

715
00:47:01,137 --> 00:47:03,271
is in the North Atlantic

716
00:47:03,272 --> 00:47:06,341
where the Gulf Stream comes up
and meets the cold winds

717
00:47:06,342 --> 00:47:08,609
coming off the Arctic
over Greenland.

718
00:47:08,610 --> 00:47:12,380
And that evaporates so that the
heat out of the Gulf Stream

719
00:47:12,381 --> 00:47:14,515
and the steam is carried over
to Western Europe

720
00:47:14,516 --> 00:47:17,152
by the prevailing winds
and the earth's rotation.

721
00:47:17,153 --> 00:47:20,255
But isn't it interesting that
the whole ocean current system

722
00:47:20,256 --> 00:47:22,757
is all linked together
in this loop?

723
00:47:22,758 --> 00:47:25,493
They call it the ocean conveyor.

724
00:47:25,494 --> 00:47:28,829
And the red are
the warm surface currents.

725
00:47:28,830 --> 00:47:31,266
The Gulf Stream is
the best known of them.

726
00:47:31,267 --> 00:47:34,569
But the blue represent
the cold currents

727
00:47:34,570 --> 00:47:36,704
running in the opposite
direction,

728
00:47:36,705 --> 00:47:41,409
and we don't see them at all because
they run along the bottom of the ocean.

729
00:47:41,410 --> 00:47:46,314
Up in the North Atlantic,
after that heat is pulled out,

730
00:47:46,315 --> 00:47:50,050
what's left behind is
colder water and saltier water

731
00:47:50,051 --> 00:47:52,187
because the salt
doesn't go anywhere.

732
00:47:52,188 --> 00:47:55,122
And so that makes it
denser and heavier.

733
00:47:55,123 --> 00:47:58,393
And so that cold, dense,
heavy water sinks

734
00:47:58,394 --> 00:48:03,264
at the rate of five billion
gallons per second.

735
00:48:03,265 --> 00:48:07,268
And then that pulls
that current back south.

736
00:48:07,269 --> 00:48:09,637
At the end of the last ice age,

737
00:48:09,638 --> 00:48:13,741
as the last glacier was
receding from North America,

738
00:48:13,742 --> 00:48:17,912
the ice melted and a giant
pool of fresh water

739
00:48:17,913 --> 00:48:19,614
formed in North America.

740
00:48:19,615 --> 00:48:23,818
And the Great Lakes are the
remnants of that huge lake.

741
00:48:23,819 --> 00:48:29,257
An ice dam on the eastern border
formed and one day it broke.

742
00:48:29,258 --> 00:48:32,460
And all that fresh water
came rushing out,

743
00:48:32,461 --> 00:48:35,062
ripping open
the St. Lawrence there,

744
00:48:35,063 --> 00:48:38,766
and it diluted the salty,
dense, cold water,

745
00:48:38,767 --> 00:48:43,170
made it fresher and lighter,
so it stopped sinking.

746
00:48:43,171 --> 00:48:44,405
And that pump

747
00:48:44,406 --> 00:48:46,407
<b>shut off.

748
00:48:46,408 --> 00:48:48,609
And the heat transfer stopped.

749
00:48:48,610 --> 00:48:53,080
And Europe went back into an ice age
for another 900 to 1,000 years.

750
00:48:53,081 --> 00:48:58,052
And the change from conditions
like we have here today

751
00:48:58,053 --> 00:48:59,687
to an ice age

752
00:48:59,688 --> 00:49:04,225
took place in perhaps
as little as 10 years' time.

753
00:49:04,226 --> 00:49:06,561
So that's a sudden jump.

754
00:49:06,562 --> 00:49:09,530
Now, of course that's
not gonna, uh, happen again

755
00:49:09,531 --> 00:49:12,800
because the glaciers of North
America are not there, and...

756
00:49:12,801 --> 00:49:17,638
Is there any other big chunk
of ice anywhere near there?

757
00:49:17,639 --> 00:49:19,674
Oh, yeah.

758
00:49:19,675 --> 00:49:21,910
We'll come back to that one.

759
00:49:42,063 --> 00:49:47,502
It's extremely frustrating to me

760
00:49:47,503 --> 00:49:52,508
to--to communicate over and over
again, as clearly as I can.

761
00:49:57,112 --> 00:49:59,847
And we are still, by far,

762
00:49:59,848 --> 00:50:02,718
the worst contributor
to the problem.

763
00:50:07,323 --> 00:50:08,923
And I look around

764
00:50:08,924 --> 00:50:12,760
and look for really
meaningful signs

765
00:50:12,761 --> 00:50:15,931
that we're about
to really change.

766
00:50:18,166 --> 00:50:20,435
I don't see it right now.

767
00:50:20,436 --> 00:50:23,103
A number of very
reputable scientists have said

768
00:50:23,104 --> 00:50:25,105
that one factor of air pollution

769
00:50:25,106 --> 00:50:28,643
is oxides of nitrogen
from decaying vegetation.

770
00:50:28,644 --> 00:50:33,581
This is what causes the haze that gave
the big Smoky Mountains their name.

771
00:50:33,582 --> 00:50:35,950
Thank you very much, okay.

772
00:50:35,951 --> 00:50:39,587
This guy is so far off
in the environmental extreme,

773
00:50:39,588 --> 00:50:44,325
we'll be up to our neck in owls and
out of work for every American.

774
00:50:44,326 --> 00:50:46,394
This guy is crazy.

775
00:50:46,395 --> 00:50:50,965
Even if humans were causing global
warming, and--and we are not,

776
00:50:50,966 --> 00:50:54,134
this could be maybe the
greatest hoax ever perpetrated

777
00:50:54,135 --> 00:50:56,103
on the American people.

778
00:50:56,104 --> 00:50:59,475
We're dealing with
something that's highly emotional.

779
00:51:00,442 --> 00:51:04,144
If an issue is not

780
00:51:04,145 --> 00:51:09,083
on the tips of their
constituents' tongues,

781
00:51:09,084 --> 00:51:11,887
it's easy for them to ignore it.

782
00:51:17,693 --> 00:51:21,963
To say, "Well, we'll deal
with that tomorrow."

783
00:51:26,968 --> 00:51:30,538
So the same phenomena
of changing all these patterns

784
00:51:30,539 --> 00:51:33,408
is also affecting the seasons.

785
00:51:33,409 --> 00:51:35,810
Here is a study
from the Netherlands.

786
00:51:35,811 --> 00:51:39,480
The peak arrival date
for migratory birds

787
00:51:39,481 --> 00:51:42,450
25 years ago was April 25th,

788
00:51:42,451 --> 00:51:45,185
and their chicks hatched
on June the 3rd.

789
00:51:45,186 --> 00:51:49,223
Just at the time when the
caterpillars were coming out.

790
00:51:49,224 --> 00:51:52,059
Nature's, uh, plan.

791
00:51:52,060 --> 00:51:54,962
But 20 years of warming later,

792
00:51:54,963 --> 00:51:57,432
the caterpillars peaked
two weeks earlier,

793
00:51:57,433 --> 00:52:02,503
and the chicks tried to catch
up with it, but they couldn't.

794
00:52:02,504 --> 00:52:04,104
And so, they're in trouble.

795
00:52:04,105 --> 00:52:07,408
And there are millions
of ecological niches

796
00:52:07,409 --> 00:52:11,111
that are affected by global
warming in just this way.

797
00:52:11,112 --> 00:52:15,516
This is the number of days with
frost in Southern Switzerland

798
00:52:15,517 --> 00:52:17,051
over the last 100 years.

799
00:52:17,052 --> 00:52:19,620
It has gone down rapidly.
But now watch this.

800
00:52:19,621 --> 00:52:23,724
This is the number
of invasive exotic species

801
00:52:23,725 --> 00:52:28,996
that have rushed in to fill the new
ecological niches that are opening up.

802
00:52:28,997 --> 00:52:31,666
That's happening here
in the United States, too.

803
00:52:31,667 --> 00:52:34,234
You've heard
of the pine beetle problem?

804
00:52:34,235 --> 00:52:38,305
Those pine beetles used to be
killed by the cold winters,

805
00:52:38,306 --> 00:52:40,541
but there are fewer days
of frost,

806
00:52:40,542 --> 00:52:43,310
and so the pine trees
are being devastated.

807
00:52:43,311 --> 00:52:48,649
This is part of 14 million acres
of spruce trees in Alaska

808
00:52:48,650 --> 00:52:52,820
that have been killed by bark beetles.
The exact same phenomenon.

809
00:52:52,821 --> 00:52:55,289
There are cities
that were founded

810
00:52:55,290 --> 00:52:58,158
because they were just above
the mosquito line.

811
00:52:58,159 --> 00:53:02,129
Nairobi is one, Harare is another.
There are plenty of others.

812
00:53:02,130 --> 00:53:06,433
Now the mosquitoes, with warming,
are climbing to higher altitudes.

813
00:53:06,434 --> 00:53:11,005
There are a lot of vectors for infectious
diseases that are worrisome to us

814
00:53:11,006 --> 00:53:13,140
that are also
expanding their range.

815
00:53:13,141 --> 00:53:16,176
Not only mosquitoes, but all
of these others as well.

816
00:53:16,177 --> 00:53:19,146
And we've had 30 so-called
new diseases

817
00:53:19,147 --> 00:53:22,650
that have emerged just
in the last quarter century.

818
00:53:22,651 --> 00:53:26,887
And a lot of them, like SARS,
have caused tremendous problems.

819
00:53:26,888 --> 00:53:29,590
The resistant forms of tuberculosis.
There are others.

820
00:53:29,591 --> 00:53:32,392
And there's been a
re-emergence of some diseases

821
00:53:32,393 --> 00:53:34,394
that were once under control.

822
00:53:34,395 --> 00:53:40,034
The avian flu, of course, quite
a serious matter, as you know.

823
00:53:40,035 --> 00:53:41,301
West Nile Virus.

824
00:53:41,302 --> 00:53:44,805
It came to the eastern shore
of Maryland in 1999.

825
00:53:44,806 --> 00:53:47,141
Two years later,
it was across the Mississippi.

826
00:53:47,142 --> 00:53:51,345
And two years after that, it had
spread across the continent.

827
00:53:51,346 --> 00:53:53,748
But these are
very troubling signs.

828
00:53:53,749 --> 00:53:56,083
Coral reefs all over the world,

829
00:53:56,084 --> 00:53:58,653
because of global warming
and other factors,

830
00:53:58,654 --> 00:54:01,922
are bleaching
and they end up like this.

831
00:54:01,923 --> 00:54:04,959
And all the fish species
that depend on the coral reefs

832
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,695
are also in jeopardy
as a result.

833
00:54:07,696 --> 00:54:10,731
Overall, species loss
is now occurring

834
00:54:10,732 --> 00:54:15,202
at a rate 1,000 times greater
than the natural background rate.

835
00:54:15,203 --> 00:54:18,573
This brings me to the second
canary in the coal mine.

836
00:54:18,574 --> 00:54:19,874
Antarctica.

837
00:54:19,875 --> 00:54:23,343
The largest mass of ice
on the planet by far.

838
00:54:23,344 --> 00:54:26,146
A friend of mine said in 1978,

839
00:54:26,147 --> 00:54:30,084
"If you see the breakup of ice shelves
along the Antarctic peninsula,

840
00:54:30,085 --> 00:54:31,552
"watch out,

841
00:54:31,553 --> 00:54:35,856
"because that should be seen as an
alarm bell for global warming."

842
00:54:35,857 --> 00:54:39,126
And actually, if you look
at the peninsula up close,

843
00:54:39,127 --> 00:54:43,864
every place where you see one
of these green blotches here

844
00:54:43,865 --> 00:54:47,301
is an ice shelf larger
than the state of Rhode Island

845
00:54:47,302 --> 00:54:51,138
that has broken up just
in the last 15 to 20 years.

846
00:54:51,139 --> 00:54:53,473
I want to focus
on just one of them.

847
00:54:53,474 --> 00:54:54,975
It's called Larsen B.

848
00:54:54,976 --> 00:54:58,879
I want you to look
at these black pools here.

849
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,549
It makes it seem almost as if
we're looking through the ice

850
00:55:02,550 --> 00:55:05,820
to the ocean beneath.
But that's an illusion.

851
00:55:05,821 --> 00:55:09,624
This is melting water
that forms in pools,

852
00:55:09,625 --> 00:55:12,126
and if you were flying over it
in a helicopter,

853
00:55:12,127 --> 00:55:14,829
you'd see it's 700 feet tall.

854
00:55:14,830 --> 00:55:19,166
They are so majestic,
so massive.

855
00:55:19,167 --> 00:55:22,336
In the distance are the mountains
and just before the mountains

856
00:55:22,337 --> 00:55:25,741
is the shelf
of the continent, there.

857
00:55:26,642 --> 00:55:28,575
This is floating ice,

858
00:55:28,576 --> 00:55:33,313
and there's land-based ice on the
down slope of those mountains.

859
00:55:33,314 --> 00:55:38,518
From here to the mountains
is about 20 to 25 miles.

860
00:55:38,519 --> 00:55:41,889
Now they thought this would be
stable for at least 100 years,

861
00:55:41,890 --> 00:55:43,891
even with global warming.

862
00:55:43,892 --> 00:55:47,028
The scientists who study
these ice shelves

863
00:55:47,996 --> 00:55:50,064
were absolutely astonished

864
00:55:50,065 --> 00:55:52,432
when they were looking
at these images.

865
00:55:52,433 --> 00:55:55,235
Starting on January 31, 2002

866
00:55:55,236 --> 00:55:57,905
in a period of 35 days,

867
00:55:57,906 --> 00:56:01,441
this ice shelf
completely disappeared.

868
00:56:01,442 --> 00:56:07,114
They could not figure out how in the
world this happened so rapidly.

869
00:56:07,115 --> 00:56:11,819
And they went back to try to figure
out where they'd gone wrong.

870
00:56:11,820 --> 00:56:16,691
And that's when they focused on
those pools of melting water.

871
00:56:16,692 --> 00:56:19,960
But even before they could figure
out what had happened there,

872
00:56:19,961 --> 00:56:22,429
something else
started going wrong.

873
00:56:22,430 --> 00:56:25,065
When the floating
sea-based ice cracked up,

874
00:56:25,066 --> 00:56:28,035
it no longer held back
the ice on the land,

875
00:56:28,036 --> 00:56:31,538
and the land-based ice then
started falling into the ocean.

876
00:56:31,539 --> 00:56:33,774
It was like letting the cork
out of a bottle.

877
00:56:33,775 --> 00:56:37,611
And there's a difference between
floating ice and land-based ice.

878
00:56:37,612 --> 00:56:41,515
That's like the difference between an
ice cube floating in a glass of water,

879
00:56:41,516 --> 00:56:45,285
which when it melts doesn't raise
the level of water in the glass,

880
00:56:45,286 --> 00:56:48,255
and a cube that's sitting atop
a stack of ice cubes

881
00:56:48,256 --> 00:56:51,258
which melts and flows
over the edge.

882
00:56:51,259 --> 00:56:54,895
That's why the citizens
of these Pacific nations

883
00:56:54,896 --> 00:56:58,699
have all had to evacuate
to New Zealand.

884
00:56:58,700 --> 00:57:01,001
But I want to focus
on West Antarctica

885
00:57:01,002 --> 00:57:06,173
because it illustrates two factors about
land-based ice and sea-based ice.

886
00:57:06,174 --> 00:57:09,910
It's a little of both. It's
propped up on tops of islands,

887
00:57:09,911 --> 00:57:13,147
but the ocean comes up
underneath it.

888
00:57:13,148 --> 00:57:16,784
So as the ocean gets warmer,
it has an impact on it.

889
00:57:16,785 --> 00:57:19,119
If this were to--to go,

890
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:22,522
sea level worldwide
would go up 20 feet.

891
00:57:22,523 --> 00:57:27,027
They've measured disturbing changes
on the underside of this ice sheet.

892
00:57:27,028 --> 00:57:31,031
It's considered relatively
more stable, however,

893
00:57:31,032 --> 00:57:35,269
than another big body of ice
that's roughly the same size.

894
00:57:35,270 --> 00:57:39,874
Greenland would also raise
sea level almost 20 feet

895
00:57:39,875 --> 00:57:41,341
if it went.

896
00:57:41,342 --> 00:57:44,044
A friend of mine just
brought back some pictures

897
00:57:44,045 --> 00:57:46,847
of what's going on
on Greenland right now.

898
00:57:46,848 --> 00:57:51,318
Dramatic changes. These are
the same kinds of pools

899
00:57:51,319 --> 00:57:55,455
that formed here, on this
ice shelf in Antarctica.

900
00:57:55,456 --> 00:57:57,424
And the scientists thought

901
00:57:57,425 --> 00:58:02,262
that when that water seeped back into
the ice, it would just refreeze.

902
00:58:02,263 --> 00:58:05,365
But they found out
that actually what happens

903
00:58:05,366 --> 00:58:09,103
is that it just keeps on going.
It tunnels to the bottom

904
00:58:09,104 --> 00:58:11,772
and makes the ice
like Swiss cheese,

905
00:58:11,773 --> 00:58:13,573
sort of like termites.

906
00:58:13,574 --> 00:58:16,343
This shows what happens
to the crevasses,

907
00:58:16,344 --> 00:58:21,248
and when lakes form, they
create what are called moulins.

908
00:58:21,249 --> 00:58:23,117
The water goes down
to the bottom

909
00:58:23,118 --> 00:58:26,987
and it lubricates where the
ice meets the bedrock.

910
00:58:26,988 --> 00:58:29,389
See these people here for scale.

911
00:58:29,390 --> 00:58:31,358
This is not on the edge
of Greenland,

912
00:58:31,359 --> 00:58:33,794
this is in the middle
of the ice mass.

913
00:58:33,795 --> 00:58:37,397
This is a massive
rushing torrent

914
00:58:37,398 --> 00:58:39,333
of fresh melt water

915
00:58:39,334 --> 00:58:42,937
tunneling straight down
through the Greenland ice

916
00:58:42,938 --> 00:58:44,771
to the bedrock below.

917
00:58:44,772 --> 00:58:50,077
Now, to some extent, there has
always been seasonal melting

918
00:58:50,078 --> 00:58:54,481
and moulins have formed
in the past, but not like now.

919
00:58:54,482 --> 00:58:59,086
In 1992, they measured this
amount of melting in Greenland.

920
00:58:59,087 --> 00:59:01,989
Ten years later,
this is what happened.

921
00:59:01,990 --> 00:59:05,792
And here is the melting
from 2005.

922
00:59:05,793 --> 00:59:09,129
Tony Blair's scientific
advisor has said that

923
00:59:09,130 --> 00:59:12,132
because of what's happening
in Greenland right now,

924
00:59:12,133 --> 00:59:15,335
the maps of the world
will have to be redrawn.

925
00:59:15,336 --> 00:59:18,572
If Greenland broke up
and melted,

926
00:59:18,573 --> 00:59:22,843
or if half of Greenland
and half of West Antarctica

927
00:59:22,844 --> 00:59:24,344
broke up and melted,

928
00:59:24,345 --> 00:59:27,983
this is what would happen
to the sea level in Florida.

929
00:59:33,088 --> 00:59:35,991
This is what would happen
to San Francisco Bay.

930
00:59:37,859 --> 00:59:41,061
A lot of people
live in these areas.

931
00:59:41,062 --> 00:59:44,299
The Netherlands,
one of the low countries.

932
00:59:46,034 --> 00:59:48,035
Absolutely devastating.

933
00:59:48,036 --> 00:59:52,373
The area around Beijing that's home
to tens of millions of people.

934
00:59:54,242 --> 00:59:57,777
Even worse, in the area
around Shanghai,

935
00:59:57,778 --> 01:00:00,081
there are 40 million people.

936
01:00:01,782 --> 01:00:06,386
Worse still, Calcutta,
and to the east, Bangladesh,

937
01:00:06,387 --> 01:00:10,357
the area covered includes
60 million people.

938
01:00:10,358 --> 01:00:15,529
Think of the impact of a couple
hundred thousand refugees

939
01:00:15,530 --> 01:00:18,598
when they're displaced
by an environmental event.

940
01:00:18,599 --> 01:00:23,238
And then imagine the impact
of a hundred million or more.

941
01:00:24,539 --> 01:00:26,974
Here's Manhattan.

942
01:00:26,975 --> 01:00:29,911
This is the World Trade Center
memorial site.

943
01:00:30,946 --> 01:00:34,382
And after the horrible
events of 9/11,

944
01:00:36,084 --> 01:00:38,986
we said, "Never again."

945
01:00:38,987 --> 01:00:41,656
But this is what would happen
to Manhattan.

946
01:00:47,028 --> 01:00:49,196
They can measure this precisely,

947
01:00:49,197 --> 01:00:52,232
just as the scientists could
predict precisely

948
01:00:52,233 --> 01:00:56,203
how much water would breach
the levees in New Orleans.

949
01:00:56,204 --> 01:01:01,608
The area where the World Trade
Center Memorial is to be located

950
01:01:01,609 --> 01:01:04,278
would be underwater.

951
01:01:04,279 --> 01:01:09,916
Is it possible that we should prepare
against other threats besides terrorists?

952
01:01:09,917 --> 01:01:14,022
Maybe we should be concerned
about other problems as well.

953
01:01:21,196 --> 01:01:23,564
1.3 billion people.

954
01:01:25,500 --> 01:01:27,969
An economy that's surging.

955
01:01:30,005 --> 01:01:32,706
More and more energy needs.

956
01:01:32,707 --> 01:01:36,076
Massive coal reserves.

957
01:01:36,077 --> 01:01:39,813
The coal belt in Northern China,

958
01:01:39,814 --> 01:01:42,582
er, Inner Mongolia.
Right.

959
01:01:42,583 --> 01:01:45,585
Then there's Shaanxi province.
Uh-huh.

960
01:01:45,586 --> 01:01:49,556
And also biggest coal mine here.
Up here.

961
01:01:49,557 --> 01:01:51,958
Yeah. Now, is that
an open pit mine?

962
01:01:51,959 --> 01:01:53,560
Yes.
Yes.

963
01:01:53,561 --> 01:01:56,230
Every time I've visited China,

964
01:01:56,231 --> 01:02:00,467
I've learned from their scientists.
They're right on the cutting edge.

965
01:02:00,468 --> 01:02:03,303
Give me some sense
of the numbers of

966
01:02:03,304 --> 01:02:06,373
new coal fire generating plants.

967
01:02:06,374 --> 01:02:09,176
Well, I have to say
that the number is enormous

968
01:02:09,177 --> 01:02:11,245
because it's so profitable.

969
01:02:11,246 --> 01:02:17,217
This issue is really the same
for China as it is for the US.

970
01:02:17,218 --> 01:02:22,056
We are both using old technologies
that are dirty and polluting.

971
01:02:22,057 --> 01:02:23,523
...more flooding
and more drought

972
01:02:23,524 --> 01:02:26,026
and stronger storms is going up,

973
01:02:26,027 --> 01:02:28,762
and global warming
is implicated in the pattern.

974
01:02:28,763 --> 01:02:32,766
And if you were to give some
suggestions to everybody here

975
01:02:32,767 --> 01:02:37,137
about, like, what we can do
for the, um, situation now.

976
01:02:37,138 --> 01:02:41,007
Separating the truth
from the fiction

977
01:02:41,008 --> 01:02:45,779
and the accurate connections
from the misunderstandings

978
01:02:45,780 --> 01:02:48,982
is part of what you learn here.

979
01:02:48,983 --> 01:02:54,621
But when the warnings are accurate
and based on sound science,

980
01:02:54,622 --> 01:02:58,358
then we as human beings,
whatever country we live in,

981
01:02:58,359 --> 01:03:00,660
have to find a way to make sure

982
01:03:00,661 --> 01:03:04,665
that the warnings are heard
and responded to.

983
01:03:11,906 --> 01:03:16,676
We both have a hard time shaking
loose the familiar patterns

984
01:03:16,677 --> 01:03:18,945
that we've relied on
in the past.

985
01:03:18,946 --> 01:03:24,318
We both face completely
unacceptable consequences.

986
01:03:34,962 --> 01:03:38,298
And there are three factors that
are causing this collision,

987
01:03:38,299 --> 01:03:40,334
and the first is population.

988
01:03:40,335 --> 01:03:44,904
When my generation, the baby boom
generation, was born after World War II,

989
01:03:44,905 --> 01:03:48,109
the population had just
crossed the two billion mark.

990
01:03:49,510 --> 01:03:51,911
Now, I'm in my 50s,

991
01:03:51,912 --> 01:03:56,250
and it's already gone to
almost six and a half billion.

992
01:03:56,251 --> 01:04:01,621
And if I reach the demographic
expectation for the baby boomers,

993
01:04:01,622 --> 01:04:03,957
it'll go over nine billion.

994
01:04:03,958 --> 01:04:09,028
So if it takes 10,000 generations
to reach two billion

995
01:04:09,029 --> 01:04:12,199
and then in one
human lifetime, ours,

996
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:15,435
it goes from two billion
to nine billion,

997
01:04:15,436 --> 01:04:18,705
something profoundly different's
going on right now.

998
01:04:18,706 --> 01:04:21,475
We're putting more pressure
on the earth.

999
01:04:21,476 --> 01:04:24,578
Most of it's in the poorer
nations of the world.

1000
01:04:24,579 --> 01:04:27,414
This puts pressure
on food demand.

1001
01:04:27,415 --> 01:04:29,716
It puts pressure
on water demand.

1002
01:04:29,717 --> 01:04:32,952
It puts pressure on vulnerable
natural resources,

1003
01:04:32,953 --> 01:04:34,788
and this pressure's
one of the reasons

1004
01:04:34,789 --> 01:04:38,091
why we have seen all the
devastation of the forest,

1005
01:04:38,092 --> 01:04:40,260
not only tropical,
but elsewhere.

1006
01:04:40,261 --> 01:04:42,128
It is a political issue.

1007
01:04:42,129 --> 01:04:46,800
This is the border between Haiti
and the Dominican Republic.

1008
01:04:46,801 --> 01:04:51,205
One set of policies here,
another set of policies here.

1009
01:04:51,206 --> 01:04:55,475
Much of it comes not only because
of cutting, but--but also burning.

1010
01:04:55,476 --> 01:04:59,379
Almost 30 percent of all the CO2 that
goes up each year into the atmosphere

1011
01:04:59,380 --> 01:05:01,981
comes from forest burning.

1012
01:05:01,982 --> 01:05:06,353
This is a time-lapse picture of the
earth at night over a six-month period

1013
01:05:06,354 --> 01:05:08,655
showing the lights
of the cities in white

1014
01:05:08,656 --> 01:05:11,157
and the burning forests
and brush fires in red.

1015
01:05:11,158 --> 01:05:15,195
The yellow areas are the gas
flares, like these in Siberia.

1016
01:05:15,196 --> 01:05:16,830
And that brings me
to the second factor

1017
01:05:16,831 --> 01:05:19,733
that has transformed
our relationship to the earth.

1018
01:05:19,734 --> 01:05:24,371
The scientific and technological
revolution is a great blessing,

1019
01:05:24,372 --> 01:05:27,173
in that it has given us
tremendous benefits

1020
01:05:27,174 --> 01:05:30,210
in areas like medicine
and communications.

1021
01:05:30,211 --> 01:05:34,481
But this new power that we have
also brings a responsibility

1022
01:05:34,482 --> 01:05:36,250
to think about its consequences.

1023
01:05:36,251 --> 01:05:37,751
Here's a formula to think about.

1024
01:05:37,752 --> 01:05:41,988
Old habits plus old technology
have predictable consequences.

1025
01:05:41,989 --> 01:05:46,526
Old habits that are hard to
change plus new technology

1026
01:05:46,527 --> 01:05:49,529
can have dramatically
altered consequences.

1027
01:05:49,530 --> 01:05:52,799
Warfare with spears
and bows and arrows

1028
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:57,271
and rifles and machine guns,
that's one thing.

1029
01:05:57,272 --> 01:05:59,539
But then a new technology came.

1030
01:06:07,315 --> 01:06:10,750
We have to think
differently about war

1031
01:06:10,751 --> 01:06:14,821
because the new technologies
so completely transformed

1032
01:06:14,822 --> 01:06:17,457
the consequences
of that old habit

1033
01:06:17,458 --> 01:06:22,996
that we can't just mindlessly
continue the patterns of the past.

1034
01:06:22,997 --> 01:06:28,001
In the same way, we have always
exploited the earth for sustenance.

1035
01:06:28,002 --> 01:06:32,272
For most of our existence, we
used relatively simple tools.

1036
01:06:32,273 --> 01:06:35,141
The plow, the tractor.

1037
01:06:35,142 --> 01:06:38,845
But even tools like shovels
are different now.

1038
01:06:38,846 --> 01:06:40,947
Shovel used to be this.

1039
01:06:40,948 --> 01:06:42,816
Shovels have gotten bigger.

1040
01:06:42,817 --> 01:06:45,585
And every year,
they get more powerful.

1041
01:06:45,586 --> 01:06:50,557
So our ability to have an effect, in
this case on the surface of the earth,

1042
01:06:50,558 --> 01:06:52,559
is utterly transformed.

1043
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:57,096
You can say, uh, the same thing about
irrigation, which is a great thing.

1044
01:06:57,097 --> 01:07:01,635
But when we divert rivers without
considering the consequences,

1045
01:07:01,636 --> 01:07:05,672
then sometimes rivers no
longer reach the sea.

1046
01:07:05,673 --> 01:07:07,607
There were two rivers
in Central Asia

1047
01:07:07,608 --> 01:07:13,146
that were used by the former Soviet Union
for irrigating cotton fields unwisely.

1048
01:07:13,147 --> 01:07:15,315
The Aral Sea was fed by them.

1049
01:07:15,316 --> 01:07:18,418
It used to be the fourth largest
inland sea in the world.

1050
01:07:18,419 --> 01:07:21,621
When I went there,
I saw this strange sight

1051
01:07:21,622 --> 01:07:26,192
of an enormous fishing fleet
resting in the sand.

1052
01:07:26,193 --> 01:07:31,297
This is the canal that the fishing
industry desperately tried to build

1053
01:07:31,298 --> 01:07:33,567
to get to the receding
shoreline.

1054
01:07:33,568 --> 01:07:36,536
Making mistakes in our
dealings with nature can have

1055
01:07:36,537 --> 01:07:38,372
bigger consequences now

1056
01:07:38,373 --> 01:07:42,342
because our technologies are often
bigger than the human scale.

1057
01:07:42,343 --> 01:07:46,580
When you put them all together,
they've made us a force of nature.

1058
01:07:46,581 --> 01:07:49,383
And this is also
a political issue.

1059
01:07:49,384 --> 01:07:51,618
This is a computer map
of the world

1060
01:07:51,619 --> 01:07:56,623
that distorts to show the relative
contributions to global warming.

1061
01:07:56,624 --> 01:08:00,727
In our country, we are responsible
for more than all of South America,

1062
01:08:00,728 --> 01:08:03,430
all of Africa,
all of the Middle East,

1063
01:08:03,431 --> 01:08:06,566
all of Asia, all combined.

1064
01:08:06,567 --> 01:08:11,705
The per capita average in Africa,
India, China, Japan, EU, Russia.

1065
01:08:11,706 --> 01:08:14,774
There's where we are.
Way, way above everyone else.

1066
01:08:14,775 --> 01:08:18,978
If you take population into account,
it's a little bit different.

1067
01:08:18,979 --> 01:08:22,048
China's playing a bigger role,
so is Europe.

1068
01:08:22,049 --> 01:08:26,085
But we are still by all odds
the largest contributor.

1069
01:08:26,086 --> 01:08:29,789
And so it is up to us to look
at how we think about it,

1070
01:08:29,790 --> 01:08:32,592
because our way of thinking
is the third and final factor

1071
01:08:32,593 --> 01:08:35,228
that transforms
our relationship to the earth.

1072
01:08:35,229 --> 01:08:39,799
If a frog jumps into,
uh, a pot of boiling water,

1073
01:08:39,800 --> 01:08:43,403
it jumps right out again
because it senses the danger.

1074
01:08:43,404 --> 01:08:45,672
But the very same frog,

1075
01:08:45,673 --> 01:08:49,042
if it jumps into a pot
of lukewarm water

1076
01:08:49,043 --> 01:08:51,611
that is slowly
brought to a boil,

1077
01:08:51,612 --> 01:08:54,614
will just sit there
and it won't move.

1078
01:08:54,615 --> 01:08:59,218
It'll just sit there, even as the
temperature continues to go up and up.

1079
01:08:59,219 --> 01:09:04,958
It'll stay there, until...
Until it's rescued.

1080
01:09:04,959 --> 01:09:07,894
It's important
to rescue the frog.

1081
01:09:11,265 --> 01:09:13,266
But the point is this.

1082
01:09:13,267 --> 01:09:16,803
Our collective nervous system is
like that frog's nervous system.

1083
01:09:16,804 --> 01:09:21,407
It takes a sudden jolt sometimes
before we become aware of a danger.

1084
01:09:21,408 --> 01:09:24,644
If it seems gradual, even if it
really is happening quickly,

1085
01:09:24,645 --> 01:09:30,183
we're capable of just sitting
there and not responding.

1086
01:09:30,184 --> 01:09:31,786
And not reacting.

1087
01:09:36,256 --> 01:09:40,159
I don't remember a time
when I was a kid

1088
01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:44,363
when summertime didn't mean
working with tobacco.

1089
01:09:44,364 --> 01:09:47,967
It was just... I used to love it.
It was during that period

1090
01:09:47,968 --> 01:09:52,105
when working with
the guys on the farm

1091
01:09:52,106 --> 01:09:55,108
seemed like fun to me.

1092
01:09:55,109 --> 01:09:59,980
Starting in 1964, with the
Surgeon General's report,

1093
01:10:01,582 --> 01:10:03,950
the evidence was laid out
on the connection

1094
01:10:03,951 --> 01:10:08,222
between smoking cigarettes
and lung cancer.

1095
01:10:11,592 --> 01:10:13,694
We kept growing tobacco.

1096
01:10:17,331 --> 01:10:21,868
Nancy was, uh, almost 10 years
older than me,

1097
01:10:21,869 --> 01:10:24,739
and there were only
the two of us.

1098
01:10:26,574 --> 01:10:28,942
She was my protector

1099
01:10:28,943 --> 01:10:32,747
and my friend at the same time.

1100
01:10:34,915 --> 01:10:38,852
She started smoking
when she was a teenager

1101
01:10:38,853 --> 01:10:42,256
and, uh, never stopped.

1102
01:10:43,991 --> 01:10:46,126
She died of lung cancer.

1103
01:10:50,097 --> 01:10:52,933
That's one of the ways
you don't want to die.

1104
01:10:55,970 --> 01:10:59,540
The idea that, uh, we had been

1105
01:11:01,008 --> 01:11:03,610
part of that economic pattern

1106
01:11:03,611 --> 01:11:06,580
that produced the cigarettes,

1107
01:11:06,581 --> 01:11:09,783
that produced the cancer,

1108
01:11:09,784 --> 01:11:12,686
it was so...

1109
01:11:12,687 --> 01:11:17,356
It was so painful
on so many levels.

1110
01:11:17,357 --> 01:11:22,563
My father, he had grown tobacco
all his life. He stopped.

1111
01:11:24,865 --> 01:11:28,668
Whatever explanation

1112
01:11:28,669 --> 01:11:32,773
had seemed to make sense in the
past, just didn't cut it anymore.

1113
01:11:34,374 --> 01:11:35,976
He stopped it.

1114
01:11:43,083 --> 01:11:48,888
It's just human nature to take time
to connect the dots. I know that.

1115
01:11:48,889 --> 01:11:54,594
But I also know that there
can be a day of reckoning

1116
01:11:54,595 --> 01:11:59,299
when you wish you had connected
the dots more quickly.

1117
01:12:07,474 --> 01:12:11,110
There are three misconceptions in
particular that bedevil our thinking.

1118
01:12:11,111 --> 01:12:13,046
First, isn't there a
disagreement among scientists

1119
01:12:13,047 --> 01:12:15,715
about whether the problem
is real or not?

1120
01:12:15,716 --> 01:12:18,217
Actually, not really.

1121
01:12:18,218 --> 01:12:21,821
There was a massive study
of every scientific article

1122
01:12:21,822 --> 01:12:27,026
in a peer-reviewed journal written on
global warming for the last 10 years.

1123
01:12:27,027 --> 01:12:31,731
And they took a big sample
of 10 percent, 928 articles.

1124
01:12:31,732 --> 01:12:35,902
And you know the number of those that
disagreed with the scientific consensus

1125
01:12:35,903 --> 01:12:39,806
that we're causing global warming
and that it's a serious problem?

1126
01:12:39,807 --> 01:12:43,242
Out of the 928, zero.

1127
01:12:43,243 --> 01:12:46,780
The misconception that there's
disagreement about the science

1128
01:12:46,781 --> 01:12:51,384
has been deliberately created by a
relatively small group of people.

1129
01:12:51,385 --> 01:12:54,153
One of their internal memos
leaked.

1130
01:12:54,154 --> 01:12:57,223
And here's, uh, what it said,
according to the press.

1131
01:12:57,224 --> 01:13:01,360
Their objective is to
reposition global warming

1132
01:13:01,361 --> 01:13:03,297
as theory rather than fact.

1133
01:13:04,464 --> 01:13:06,165
This has happened before.

1134
01:13:08,635 --> 01:13:12,405
After the Surgeon General's
report.

1135
01:13:12,406 --> 01:13:15,508
One of their memos leaked 40 years ago.
Here's what they said.

1136
01:13:15,509 --> 01:13:17,643
"Doubt is our product,

1137
01:13:17,644 --> 01:13:23,349
"since it is the best means of creating
a controversy in the public's mind."

1138
01:13:23,350 --> 01:13:24,818
But have they succeeded?

1139
01:13:24,819 --> 01:13:29,055
You'll remember that there were
928 peer-reviewed articles.

1140
01:13:29,056 --> 01:13:31,925
Zero percent disagreed
with the consensus.

1141
01:13:31,926 --> 01:13:35,661
There was another study of all the
articles in the popular press.

1142
01:13:35,662 --> 01:13:39,733
Over the last 14 years, they
looked at a sample of 636.

1143
01:13:39,734 --> 01:13:41,768
More than half of them said,

1144
01:13:41,769 --> 01:13:46,305
"Well, we're not sure. It could be
a problem, may not be a problem."

1145
01:13:46,306 --> 01:13:49,043
So no wonder
people are confused.

1146
01:13:58,485 --> 01:14:00,586
Hey.

1147
01:14:00,587 --> 01:14:02,056
What did you find out?

1148
01:14:04,491 --> 01:14:06,160
Working for who?

1149
01:14:09,229 --> 01:14:10,529
Chief of Staff?

1150
01:14:10,530 --> 01:14:11,865
I'm gonna...

1151
01:14:11,866 --> 01:14:14,033
That's the White House
environment office.

1152
01:14:14,034 --> 01:14:17,603
American Petroleum Institute.
It's fair to say that's oil and--

1153
01:14:17,604 --> 01:14:19,273
and the oil and gas lobby.

1154
01:14:20,507 --> 01:14:22,375
Is that fair?

1155
01:14:22,376 --> 01:14:24,811
Totally fair.

1156
01:14:24,812 --> 01:14:29,983
Do a little bit more and see,
uh, who his clients were?

1157
01:14:29,984 --> 01:14:33,252
So he was defending
the Exxon Valdez thing.

1158
01:14:33,253 --> 01:14:34,353
Mmm-hmm.

1159
01:14:34,354 --> 01:14:36,156
Uh, very. Thank you.

1160
01:14:38,525 --> 01:14:43,329
Scientists have
an independent obligation

1161
01:14:43,330 --> 01:14:46,967
to respect and present
the truth as they see it.

1162
01:14:49,236 --> 01:14:54,607
Why do you directly
contradict yourself

1163
01:14:54,608 --> 01:14:58,744
in the testimony you're giving
about this scientific question?

1164
01:14:58,745 --> 01:15:02,816
The last paragraph in that section
was not a paragraph which I wrote.

1165
01:15:02,817 --> 01:15:04,583
That was added to my testimony.

1166
01:15:04,584 --> 01:15:08,321
If they force you to change
a scientific conclusion,

1167
01:15:08,322 --> 01:15:11,490
it's a form of science fraud
by them.

1168
01:15:11,491 --> 01:15:14,727
You know, in the Soviet Union,
ordering scientists

1169
01:15:14,728 --> 01:15:18,966
to change their studies to
conform with the ideology...

1170
01:15:23,237 --> 01:15:25,872
I've seen scientists

1171
01:15:25,873 --> 01:15:28,976
who were persecuted,

1172
01:15:29,877 --> 01:15:32,145
ridiculed,

1173
01:15:32,146 --> 01:15:37,251
deprived of, uh, jobs, income,

1174
01:15:38,652 --> 01:15:42,521
simply because the facts
they discovered

1175
01:15:42,522 --> 01:15:46,026
led them to
an inconvenient truth

1176
01:15:49,329 --> 01:15:52,032
that they insisted on telling.

1177
01:15:55,502 --> 01:15:59,172
He worked for the
American Petroleum Institute.

1178
01:15:59,173 --> 01:16:00,907
And in January of 2001,

1179
01:16:00,908 --> 01:16:05,045
he was put by the president in
charge of environmental policy.

1180
01:16:06,680 --> 01:16:09,916
He received a memo from the EPA

1181
01:16:09,917 --> 01:16:13,352
that warned about global warming

1182
01:16:13,353 --> 01:16:17,490
and he edited. He has no
scientific training whatsoever.

1183
01:16:17,491 --> 01:16:20,459
But he took it upon himself
to overrule the scientist.

1184
01:16:20,460 --> 01:16:23,662
I said, "I want to see what this
guy's handwriting looks like."

1185
01:16:23,663 --> 01:16:27,867
This is the memo from the EPA.
These are his actual pen strokes.

1186
01:16:27,868 --> 01:16:31,938
He says, "No, you can't say this.
This is just speculation."

1187
01:16:31,939 --> 01:16:34,507
This was embarrassing
to the White House,

1188
01:16:34,508 --> 01:16:38,277
so this fellow resigned
a few days later.

1189
01:16:38,278 --> 01:16:43,616
And the day after he resigned,
he went to work for Exxon Mobil.

1190
01:16:43,617 --> 01:16:46,752
You know, more than 100 years
ago, Upton Sinclair wrote this.

1191
01:16:46,753 --> 01:16:50,323
That it's difficult to get a
man to understand something

1192
01:16:50,324 --> 01:16:54,394
if his salary depends upon
his not understanding it.

1193
01:17:01,635 --> 01:17:03,436
The second misconception.

1194
01:17:03,437 --> 01:17:06,072
Do we have to choose between the
economy and the environment?

1195
01:17:06,073 --> 01:17:07,773
This is a big one.

1196
01:17:07,774 --> 01:17:09,742
Lot of people say we do.

1197
01:17:09,743 --> 01:17:13,212
I was trying to convince, uh,
the previous administration,

1198
01:17:13,213 --> 01:17:16,282
the first Bush administration,
to go to the Earth Summit.

1199
01:17:16,283 --> 01:17:18,384
And they organized
a big White House conference

1200
01:17:18,385 --> 01:17:20,319
to say,
"Oh, we're on top of this."

1201
01:17:20,320 --> 01:17:22,288
And one of these view graphs
caught my attention.

1202
01:17:22,289 --> 01:17:24,257
And I want to talk to you
about it for a minute.

1203
01:17:24,258 --> 01:17:27,994
Now here is, uh, the choice
that we have to make

1204
01:17:27,995 --> 01:17:29,762
according to this group.

1205
01:17:29,763 --> 01:17:34,934
We have here a--a scale that
balances two different things.

1206
01:17:34,935 --> 01:17:38,537
On one side,
we have gold bars.

1207
01:17:38,538 --> 01:17:42,175
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

1208
01:17:42,176 --> 01:17:44,410
Don't they look good?

1209
01:17:44,411 --> 01:17:47,947
I'd just like to have
some of those gold bars.

1210
01:17:47,948 --> 01:17:50,116
Mmm. Mmm.

1211
01:17:50,117 --> 01:17:55,255
On--On the other side of the
scales, uh, the entire planet.

1212
01:17:59,793 --> 01:18:03,163
Hmm. Hmm.

1213
01:18:07,201 --> 01:18:08,202
Hmm.

1214
01:18:09,403 --> 01:18:13,106
I think this is a false choice
for two reasons.

1215
01:18:13,107 --> 01:18:16,942
Number one,
if we don't have a planet...

1216
01:18:20,280 --> 01:18:24,283
The other reason is that
if we do the right thing,

1217
01:18:24,284 --> 01:18:26,485
then we're gonna create
a lot of wealth

1218
01:18:26,486 --> 01:18:28,887
- and we're gonna create a lot of jobs.
- Yes.

1219
01:18:28,888 --> 01:18:32,492
Because doing the right thing
moves us forward.

1220
01:18:36,896 --> 01:18:41,501
I've probably given this
slide show 1,000 times.

1221
01:18:47,207 --> 01:18:50,743
I would say,
at least 1,000 times.

1222
01:18:50,744 --> 01:18:54,347
Nashville to Knoxville
to Aspen and Sundance.

1223
01:18:54,348 --> 01:18:59,018
Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Portland, Minneapolis.

1224
01:18:59,019 --> 01:19:04,223
Boston, New Haven, London,
Brussels, Stockholm, Helsinki,

1225
01:19:04,224 --> 01:19:07,493
Vienna, Munich,
Italy and Spain

1226
01:19:07,494 --> 01:19:10,564
and China, South Korea, Japan.

1227
01:19:12,599 --> 01:19:14,767
Thank you.

1228
01:19:14,768 --> 01:19:19,172
I guess the thing I've spent more time
on than anything else in this slide show

1229
01:19:19,173 --> 01:19:21,874
is trying to identify

1230
01:19:21,875 --> 01:19:25,111
all those things
in people's minds

1231
01:19:25,112 --> 01:19:30,350
that serve as obstacles
to them understanding this.

1232
01:19:32,086 --> 01:19:36,622
A-And whenever I feel like
I've identified an obstacle,

1233
01:19:36,623 --> 01:19:40,360
I try to take it apart,
roll it away. Move it.

1234
01:19:41,461 --> 01:19:43,663
Demolish it, blow it up.

1235
01:19:52,005 --> 01:19:54,274
I set myself a goal.

1236
01:19:56,543 --> 01:20:00,180
Communicate this real clearly.

1237
01:20:01,215 --> 01:20:04,917
The only way I know to do it

1238
01:20:04,918 --> 01:20:06,753
is city by city,

1239
01:20:12,292 --> 01:20:14,261
person by person,

1240
01:20:19,065 --> 01:20:21,201
family by family.

1241
01:20:24,838 --> 01:20:26,839
- Bye-bye. Thank you again.
- Bye.

1242
01:20:26,840 --> 01:20:29,975
And I have faith
that pretty soon

1243
01:20:29,976 --> 01:20:32,379
enough minds are changed

1244
01:20:33,380 --> 01:20:36,416
that we cross a--a threshold.

1245
01:20:38,185 --> 01:20:39,752
Let me give you an example

1246
01:20:39,753 --> 01:20:43,156
of the wrong way to balance the
economy and the environment.

1247
01:20:43,157 --> 01:20:45,524
One part of this issue
involves automobiles.

1248
01:20:45,525 --> 01:20:48,261
Japan has mileage
standards up here.

1249
01:20:48,262 --> 01:20:50,696
Europe plans to pass Japan.

1250
01:20:50,697 --> 01:20:55,834
Our allies in Australia and
Canada are leaving us behind.

1251
01:20:55,835 --> 01:20:57,637
Here is where we are.

1252
01:20:59,639 --> 01:21:01,374
Now there's a reason for it.

1253
01:21:01,375 --> 01:21:05,144
They say that we can't protect
the environment too much

1254
01:21:05,145 --> 01:21:08,381
without threatening the economy
and threatening the automakers.

1255
01:21:08,382 --> 01:21:12,985
Because automakers in China might come
in and just steal all our markets.

1256
01:21:12,986 --> 01:21:18,158
Well, here is where China's
auto mileage standards are now.

1257
01:21:19,193 --> 01:21:20,426
Way above ours.

1258
01:21:20,427 --> 01:21:23,362
We can't sell our cars
in China today

1259
01:21:23,363 --> 01:21:27,434
because we don't meet the Chinese
environmental standards.

1260
01:21:28,502 --> 01:21:31,537
California has, uh,
taken an initiative

1261
01:21:31,538 --> 01:21:35,874
to have higher-mileage cars
sold in California.

1262
01:21:35,875 --> 01:21:39,312
Now the auto companies
have sued California

1263
01:21:39,313 --> 01:21:41,780
to prevent this law
from taking effect

1264
01:21:41,781 --> 01:21:45,918
because, as they point out,
11 years from now

1265
01:21:45,919 --> 01:21:50,323
this would mean that California
would have to have cars for sale

1266
01:21:50,324 --> 01:21:53,259
that are as efficient
11 years from now

1267
01:21:53,260 --> 01:21:54,960
as China's are today.

1268
01:21:54,961 --> 01:21:59,198
Clearly too onerous
a provision to comply with.

1269
01:21:59,199 --> 01:22:01,734
And is this helping
our companies succeed?

1270
01:22:01,735 --> 01:22:05,070
Well, actually, if you look at
who's doing well in the world,

1271
01:22:05,071 --> 01:22:08,807
it's the companies that are
building more-efficient cars.

1272
01:22:08,808 --> 01:22:11,844
And our companies
are in deep trouble.

1273
01:22:11,845 --> 01:22:12,978
Final misconception.

1274
01:22:12,979 --> 01:22:15,881
If we accept that
this problem is real,

1275
01:22:15,882 --> 01:22:18,851
maybe it's just too big
to do anything about.

1276
01:22:18,852 --> 01:22:23,121
And, you know, there are a lot of
people who go straight from denial

1277
01:22:23,122 --> 01:22:24,690
to despair

1278
01:22:24,691 --> 01:22:27,793
without pausing
on the intermediate step

1279
01:22:27,794 --> 01:22:31,063
of actually doing something
about the problem.

1280
01:22:31,064 --> 01:22:35,568
And that's what I'd like to finish with.
The fact that we already know

1281
01:22:35,569 --> 01:22:40,005
everything we need to know to
effectively address this problem.

1282
01:22:40,006 --> 01:22:43,041
We've got to do
a lot of things, not just one.

1283
01:22:43,042 --> 01:22:46,111
If we use more efficient

1284
01:22:46,112 --> 01:22:48,013
electricity appliances,

1285
01:22:48,014 --> 01:22:51,917
we can save this much off of
the global warming pollution

1286
01:22:51,918 --> 01:22:54,987
that would otherwise be
put into the atmosphere.

1287
01:22:54,988 --> 01:22:58,190
If we use other end-use
efficiency, this much.

1288
01:22:58,191 --> 01:23:00,893
If we have higher mileage
cars, this much.

1289
01:23:00,894 --> 01:23:04,263
And all these begin to add up.
Other transport efficiency,

1290
01:23:04,264 --> 01:23:06,299
renewable technology,

1291
01:23:06,300 --> 01:23:08,301
carbon capture and
sequestration.

1292
01:23:08,302 --> 01:23:12,137
A big solution that you're gonna
be hearing a lot more about.

1293
01:23:12,138 --> 01:23:13,672
They all add up,

1294
01:23:13,673 --> 01:23:18,412
and pretty soon we are below
our 1970 emissions.

1295
01:23:19,279 --> 01:23:21,914
We have everything we need,

1296
01:23:21,915 --> 01:23:25,083
save perhaps political will.

1297
01:23:25,084 --> 01:23:29,489
But you know what? In America, political
will is a renewable resource.

1298
01:23:34,361 --> 01:23:36,662
We have the ability to do this.

1299
01:23:36,663 --> 01:23:39,197
Each one of us is
a cause of global warming,

1300
01:23:39,198 --> 01:23:41,867
but each of us can make
choices to change that.

1301
01:23:41,868 --> 01:23:46,405
With the things we buy, the electricity
we use, the cars we drive,

1302
01:23:46,406 --> 01:23:50,876
we can make choices to bring our
individual carbon emissions to zero.

1303
01:23:50,877 --> 01:23:53,912
The solutions are in our hands.

1304
01:23:53,913 --> 01:23:57,249
We just have to have the
determination to make them happen.

1305
01:23:57,250 --> 01:24:01,354
Are we gonna be left behind as the
rest of the world moves forward?

1306
01:24:01,355 --> 01:24:04,690
All of these nations
have ratified Kyoto.

1307
01:24:04,691 --> 01:24:09,895
There are only two advanced nations in
the world that have not ratified Kyoto,

1308
01:24:09,896 --> 01:24:14,199
and we are one of them.
The other is Australia.

1309
01:24:14,200 --> 01:24:17,636
Luckily, several states
are taking the initiative.

1310
01:24:17,637 --> 01:24:20,906
The nine northeastern states
have banded together

1311
01:24:20,907 --> 01:24:23,509
on reducing CO2.

1312
01:24:23,510 --> 01:24:26,211
California and Oregon
are taking the initiative.

1313
01:24:26,212 --> 01:24:31,149
Pennsylvania's exercising leadership
on solar power and wind power.

1314
01:24:31,150 --> 01:24:35,354
And US cities are
stepping up to the plate.

1315
01:24:35,355 --> 01:24:39,558
One after the other,
we have seen

1316
01:24:39,559 --> 01:24:44,097
all of these cities pledge
to take on global warming.

1317
01:24:46,500 --> 01:24:49,968
So what about the rest of us?

1318
01:24:49,969 --> 01:24:55,007
Ultimately this question
comes down to this.

1319
01:24:55,008 --> 01:24:59,077
Are we, as Americans,

1320
01:24:59,078 --> 01:25:01,880
capable of doing great things

1321
01:25:01,881 --> 01:25:04,483
even though they are difficult?

1322
01:25:04,484 --> 01:25:06,018
Are we capable

1323
01:25:06,019 --> 01:25:09,922
of rising above ourselves
and above history?

1324
01:25:09,923 --> 01:25:14,560
Well, the record indicates
that we do have that capacity.

1325
01:25:14,561 --> 01:25:17,229
We formed a nation,
we fought a revolution

1326
01:25:17,230 --> 01:25:20,232
and brought something new
to this earth,

1327
01:25:20,233 --> 01:25:24,336
a free nation guaranteeing
individual liberty.

1328
01:25:24,337 --> 01:25:29,241
America made a moral decision.
Its slavery was wrong,

1329
01:25:29,242 --> 01:25:34,246
and that we could not be
half free and half slave.

1330
01:25:34,247 --> 01:25:36,081
We, as Americans, decided

1331
01:25:36,082 --> 01:25:38,951
that of course women should
have the right to vote.

1332
01:25:38,952 --> 01:25:41,687
We defeated totalitarianism
and won a war

1333
01:25:41,688 --> 01:25:45,458
in the Pacific and
the Atlantic simultaneously.

1334
01:25:45,459 --> 01:25:48,561
We desegregated our schools.

1335
01:25:48,562 --> 01:25:52,064
And we cured fearsome diseases
like polio.

1336
01:25:52,065 --> 01:25:53,899
We landed on the moon.

1337
01:25:53,900 --> 01:25:57,102
The very example of what's
possible when we are at our best.

1338
01:25:57,103 --> 01:26:00,606
We worked together
in a completely bipartisan way

1339
01:26:00,607 --> 01:26:02,441
to bring down communism.

1340
01:26:02,442 --> 01:26:06,579
We have even solved a global
environmental crisis before,

1341
01:26:06,580 --> 01:26:09,314
the hole in the stratospheric
ozone layer.

1342
01:26:09,315 --> 01:26:12,017
This was said to be
an impossible problem to solve

1343
01:26:12,018 --> 01:26:14,787
because it's a global
environmental challenge

1344
01:26:14,788 --> 01:26:19,091
requiring cooperation from
every nation in the world.

1345
01:26:19,092 --> 01:26:20,926
But we took it on.

1346
01:26:20,927 --> 01:26:24,463
And the United States took the
lead in phasing out the chemicals

1347
01:26:24,464 --> 01:26:26,231
that caused that problem.

1348
01:26:26,232 --> 01:26:31,136
So now we have to use our political
processes in our democracy,

1349
01:26:31,137 --> 01:26:34,507
and then decide to act together
to solve those problems.

1350
01:26:34,508 --> 01:26:38,176
But we have to have a different
perspective on this one.

1351
01:26:38,177 --> 01:26:41,781
It's different from any problem
we have ever faced before.

1352
01:26:43,650 --> 01:26:49,622
You remember that home movie of
the earth spinning in space?

1353
01:26:49,623 --> 01:26:54,693
One of those spacecraft continuing
on out into the universe,

1354
01:26:54,694 --> 01:26:58,230
when it got four billion miles
out in space,

1355
01:26:58,231 --> 01:27:02,235
Carl Sagan said, "Let's take
another picture of the earth."

1356
01:27:03,537 --> 01:27:05,705
You see that pale blue dot?

1357
01:27:06,673 --> 01:27:08,440
That's us.

1358
01:27:08,441 --> 01:27:12,377
Everything that has ever
happened in all of human history

1359
01:27:12,378 --> 01:27:15,380
has happened on that pixel.

1360
01:27:15,381 --> 01:27:18,450
All the triumphs
and all the tragedies.

1361
01:27:18,451 --> 01:27:21,353
All the wars, all the famines.

1362
01:27:21,354 --> 01:27:23,256
All the major advances.

1363
01:27:24,791 --> 01:27:26,693
It's our only home.

1364
01:27:27,827 --> 01:27:32,497
And that is what is at stake.

1365
01:27:32,498 --> 01:27:37,069
Our ability to live

1366
01:27:37,070 --> 01:27:39,638
on planet Earth,

1367
01:27:39,639 --> 01:27:42,041
to have a future
as a civilization.

1368
01:27:46,079 --> 01:27:49,882
I believe this is a moral issue.

1369
01:27:49,883 --> 01:27:52,985
It is your time
to seize this issue.

1370
01:27:52,986 --> 01:27:57,523
It is our time to rise again,
to secure our future.

1371
01:28:08,401 --> 01:28:14,406
There's nothing that unusual
about what I'm doing with this.

1372
01:28:14,407 --> 01:28:18,443
What is unusual is that I had
the privilege to be shown it

1373
01:28:18,444 --> 01:28:20,278
as a young man.

1374
01:28:21,715 --> 01:28:24,683
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Al Gore.

1375
01:28:24,684 --> 01:28:29,254
It's almost as if a
window was opened through which

1376
01:28:29,255 --> 01:28:33,292
the future was
very clearly visible.

1377
01:28:34,694 --> 01:28:38,664
"See that?" he said,
"See that?

1378
01:28:38,665 --> 01:28:42,702
"That's the future in which you
are going to live your life."

1379
01:29:05,825 --> 01:29:08,360
Future generations

1380
01:29:08,361 --> 01:29:12,030
may well have occasion
to ask themselves,

1381
01:29:12,031 --> 01:29:14,599
"What were our parents thinking?

1382
01:29:14,600 --> 01:29:19,272
"Why didn't they wake up
when they had a chance?"

1383
01:29:23,409 --> 01:29:25,278
We have to hear that question
from them, now.