Al Gore's Nobel Prize acceptance speech and call to action

I have written many times about how the environment, particularly global warming, is a human rights issue. People's lives, livelihoods, land, and lifestyles hang in the balance.

So I was delighted when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Yesterday, December 10 (which, appropriately, was International Human Rights Day), Gore accepted the award in Oslo, Norway, with a very moving and inspiring speech.

An excerpt:

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We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency - a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst - though not all - of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively, and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent."

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.

We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.

Last September 21, as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is "falling off a cliff." One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years. Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as 7 years.

Seven years from now.

In the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter. Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water due to massive droughts and melting glaciers. Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods. Peoples in the frozen Arctic and on low-lying Pacific islands are planning evacuations of places they have long called home. Unprecedented wildfires have forced a half million people from their homes in one country and caused a national emergency that almost brought down the government in another. Climate refugees have migrated into areas already inhabited by people with different cultures, religions, and traditions, increasing the potential for conflict. Stronger storms in the Pacific and Atlantic have threatened whole cities. Millions have been displaced by massive flooding in South Asia, Mexico, and 18 countries in Africa. As temperature extremes have increased, tens of thousands have lost their lives. We are recklessly burning and clearing our forests and driving more and more species into extinction. The very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed.

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>> Read the full text of Gore's speech.

>> Watch video of a portion of the speech.

Yes, we are confronting a planetary emergency.

And we must act today. There is no time to waste.

Meantime, this week, representatives from over 180 countries are in Bali for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As Gore noted in his speech, hopefully they will "adopt a treaty that establishes a universal global cap on emissions and uses the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reductions." Kyoto is expiring. Now they have a chance to put together something even better.

And we must find a way to get U.S. cooperation in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will be inconvenient for the White House's corporate bedpartners. But the alternative will be far beyond inconvenient for the world.