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Al Gore receives standing ovation at UiO

Al Gore at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

Al Gore receives a standing ovation in University’s Aula

Former US vice president and Nobel laureate, Al Gore drew a gloomy picture of the situation for the world’s climate, but not everything is hopeless.

 

Gore (70) received a standing ovation in the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at the University’s Aula Tuesday. A crowded hall had come to hear him talk about the theme of the year, “How to solve the climate crisis?”.

“The world is in an early phase of a sustainable revolution. These changes sweep over the world economy. The economies must be circular so that the supply chain can recycle waste. Here, investors are showing the way,’’ said Al Gore, among others.

Together with some of the world’s leading researchers and climate experts, the Forum wants to involve the public in combating one of the biggest threats to peace and development in the world today, the climate crisis.

Climate caravan

The former Democratic Vice President drew up a comparison with the so-called caravan that left Honduras in mid-October.

Mostly escaping from violence and poverty in the hope of a better life in the United States, President Donald Trump has determined that they will not enter the country.

Gore linked the refugee flow to drought and climate issues.

“In the United States, Trump has made a big point about the caravan. Central America is perhaps the most vulnerable area in terms of the climate crisis,’’ said Gore, pointing to Honduras and Guatemala as very hard-hit countries.

“This is where these refugees come from. Many of them have not been able to harvest in a year or two. Millions will be driven away due to drought. This is not often put on the agenda when it comes to the climate crisis, but it poses a threat to global security,” he said.

A shame

Gore thought it a pity the way in which the world receives this message and said that history’s judgment will be very harsh.

“But we can not wait for that judgment because we all have a job to do – and quickly. We can not wait. We lose a football pitch sized area of trees with every second that passes. But we have solutions today that can be put into practice, and are being put into practice. Things get cheaper and better quickly. It has happened with renewable energy. That’s good news,’’ said the former peace prize winner.

On the climate panel, Director-General José Graziano da Silva sat in from the UN Nutrition and Agriculture Organization, Director

Johan Rockström, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Senior Advisor, Thina Margrethe Saltvedt from Sustainable
Finance in Nordea, and Professor Katharine Hayhoe from the Political Science department of Texas Tech University.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today