Al Gore: How to make radical climate action the new normal | TED Countdown

The Climate Crisis

Al Gore discusses the climate crisis and its impact on human civilization.

Collision between Human Civilization and Earth's Ecological Systems

• The climate crisis is a manifestation of a collision between human civilization and Earth's ecological systems.

• The atmosphere surrounding our planet is in jeopardy due to 162 million tons of human-caused global warming pollution being spewed into it every day.

• Greenhouse gases are accumulating, trapping heat equivalent to 600,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every day.

Impact of Climate Crisis

• Temperatures are increasing at almost record levels every year. Last year was the hottest year in recorded history.

• Climate refugees and migrants are four times more from the climate crisis than from all the wars and conflicts going on right now.

• Areas that are uninhabitable due to temperature and humidity are predicted to expand, potentially affecting billions of people.

Extreme Weather Events

• Populist authoritarianism is on the rise due to extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis.

• Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf Coast as a category four, disproportionately victimizing communities of color and poor people.

• Rain bombs are becoming much more frequent and extreme, causing flooding in areas like New York City.

Sea Level Rise

• Sea level rise is contributing to extreme weather events like hurricanes and typhoons becoming stronger.

• Atmospheric rivers containing as much moisture as 25 Mississippi Rivers are creating "atmospheric tsunamis" in some areas.

Impact on Insurance Industry

• The insurance industry is seeing record recoveries due to extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis.

Climate Crisis and Solutions

The speaker discusses the climate crisis and its impact on the world. He also talks about solutions to the crisis.

Impact of Climate Crisis

• Brazil, Eastern Europe, and Southern Africa are experiencing droughts.

• Increase in temperature leads to worse fires in California, Siberia, Australia, and Southern Europe.

• Lightning strikes are becoming more common due to the climate crisis.

• Species are threatened with extinction due to dead plants and animals leaving their residue in the atmosphere.

• Poor and marginalized populations are most affected by the climate crisis.

Questions Raised by Climate Crisis

• Should we listen to leading scientists who warn us about the climate crisis?

• Can our global civilization be turned upside down suddenly?

• Are poor populations most affected by the climate crisis?

• Can science provide solutions to the climate crisis?

• Will we deploy those solutions in time?

Solutions to Climate Crisis

• Renewable energy is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels worldwide.

• Wind energy is cheaper than coal, gas, and nuclear power.

• Electric vehicles will soon be cheaper than internal combustion engine cars.

• Clean energy companies are becoming more profitable than oil and gas companies.

The Value Spectrum

In this section, the speaker presents an analogy of the electromagnetic spectrum to explain how we need to change our focus in order to see how capitalism needs to be changed.

Analogy of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

• The portion of visible light that we can see with our eyes makes up only 0.1 percent of the total.

• The value spectrum is something we too frequently look at through the very narrow aperture of short-term profits for one stakeholder, the shareholders.

• We need to take account of negative and positive externalities and realize that hyper inequality is a threat to both capitalism and democracy.

Multistakeholder Capitalism

In this section, the speaker talks about multistakeholder capitalism and how it is driving new decisions.

Multistakeholder Capitalism

• Almost half of all assets in the world under management are now in portfolios committed to net-zero.

• More than half of all greenhouse gas emissions and two-thirds of global GDP are coming from countries that have set net-zero targets.

• Once we reach net-zero within as little as 25 to 30 years, half of the human-caused CO2 will fall out of the atmosphere. It is as if we have a switch that we can flip in order to stop the climate crisis.

Political Will

In this section, the speaker talks about political will being a renewable resource.

Political Will

• Political will is itself a renewable resource. We can do this. This is the biggest emergent social movement in all history.

• We can stop the temperatures from going up and start the healing process. But we all have to flip this switch known as reaching net-zero.