Former U.S. VP links climate crisis to regional conflict

DUBAI—Former U.S. Vice President Albert Gore said here on Wednesday that climate crisis is very different from any crisis the world has ever confronted before, and the crisis was also one of a cause for the civil war in Syria.

Gore, Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001, made the remarks at the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying that “the will to change in itself is a renewable resource.”

However, as technologies continue to become more powerful, “the prevailing pattern of short-term thinking does not provide an impetus to make the investments in long-term infrastructure changes needed to achieve sustainable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

Gore also linked global warming, which caused drought in the Eastern Mediterranean from 2006 to 2010, to the Syrian war, saying that the extreme draught caused an economic crisis in the Arabic country which eventually led to the uprising by parts of the population against the Syrian regime.

He said that people’s growing awareness of climate issue is a silver lining to emerge from the current climate crisis.

Still, hurdles exist, he added, as convincing the public to change to help reduce global warming and prevent worse consequences is yet another challenge.

The world cannot afford to allow science and reason to be undermined, he said.