Al Gore tells Cork conference: This decade the most decisive for climate and biodiversity

The noted climate change campaigner told the Fair Seas World Ocean Day conference at Cork City Hall that Ireland is at the forefront of managing and protection marine life

Former US Vice President Al Gore during the Action on Forests and Land Use event during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow. Picture date: Tuesday November 2, 2021.

This decade is the most decisive in the twin climate and biodiversity crises facing humanity, according to former US vice president Al Gore.

The noted climate change campaigner, who served as Bill Clinton's vice president from 1992 to 2000 and narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W Bush, told the Fair Seas World Ocean Day conference at Cork City Hall that Ireland is at the forefront of managing and protection marine life.

"With 10 times more of your national territory at sea surrounding Ireland than the territory you actually have on the land itself, obviously Ireland has an outsize need to protect and steward the health of your surrounding waters.

"The commitment Ireland has made to protect 30% of its waters by 2030 mirrors Ireland's outstanding leadership on environmental protection, and in the efforts to solve the climate crisis, but now is the time to transform the words and pledges and promises into meaningful action.

"The seas surrounding Ireland helped to sustain the Irish people for thousands of years. But in order for them to continue supporting the Irish people, these seas need to not only be protected but also managed in a sustainable way," Mr Gore told the conference via video link.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

The inaugural Fair Seas conference heard how three quarters of Irish people believe the Government should prioritise fully protecting valuable marine ecosystems. The Fair Seas coalition is made up of groups such as the Irish Wildlife Trust, Birdwatch Ireland, Coastwatch, and Friends of the Irish Environment.

Mr Gore said that the world is at an inflection point.

"We are at an important inflection point in our fight against the twin crises, the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis. Indeed, both of these crises are inextricably linked to one another. 

We not only need to solve the climate crisis in order to protect nature, we have to protect nature in order to solve the climate crisis, as global temperatures continue to increase the impacts of those higher temperatures on the ocean itself. 

"Every day we're continuing to pump 162 million tons of global warming pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, into the atmosphere, as if the atmosphere was an open sewer," he said.

Extreme weather is the consequence of global warming, with biblical scenes like in the Book of Revelation now coming to pass, he added.

"Extra heat is disrupting the ocean patterns that we depend upon. It's causing massive coral bleaching events. It's fueling much stronger, deadly storms, filling up much larger atmospheric rivers with the extra evaporation of water vapour into the sky. And when those atmospheric rivers come over the land, we get these rain bombs, and the flooding and mudslides, and of course it's happening all over the world," he said.

We are in the midst of the most decisive decade ever facing humanity, Mr Gore said.

The actions we take now will determine whether or not we're going to leave our children and grandchildren with a livable future and whether we can preserve the lives of the millions of species that are at risk and that actually help support our planet's thriving.

"I encourage anyone who cares about the ocean, the climate crisis and the future of our planet, to speak out and make your voices heard — now is the time. 

"At times, political will on these issues can feel difficult to muster. Believe me, I know. But always remember this important truth. Political will is itself a renewable resource, and no people are better able to renew it than the people of Ireland," he said.