Portugal: Al Gore quotes Laudato Si' at climate conference

Al Gore addresses Porto climate conference

Former Vice President Al Gore addressed an international audience in Porto, Portugal last week to highlight the growing global impacts of the climate change crisis. At one point he quoted Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' saying, "Pope Francis said we are making the whole planet a giant garbage heap but if we don't change, this prophecy will be seen as correct."

one billion migrants fleeing uninhabited lands

In particular he highlighted the Syrian refugee crisis that Europe has faced, saying: "It was a civil war right? Well, before the civil war even began there was the most destructive drought. Climate related, proven beyond any shadow of doubt in the scientific literature."

He went on to highlight how the drought had destroyed 60% of the farms in Syria, it killed 80% of the livestock Syria. It killed 80% of the goats in the country, driving 1.5 m refugees from the farms into the cities, long before the war started.

Gore then put up a slide showing the Brexit Bus used in the campaign with the now famous picture of Middle Eastern and North African refugees and the slogan, "The EU has failed us all!" This is all against a backdrop of scientific research that shows that these regions are becoming uninhabitable because of the climate crisis.

We have a moral duty

The moral implications in this issue become much starker when we consider that 50% of global emissions that are driving these changes come from the wealthiest 10% of society. To make it starkly clear, it is us who are driving these changes and yet at the same time we are failing in taking responsibility for the impacts that our actions have.

What we are seeing now is the beginning of a mass migration of our own species from the mid latitudes, to escape the rising heat. It is important to look at how we are dealing with the beginning of this process and how in many cases humans have become savagery in trying to prevent people reaching safety.

Fear of "the other" and the rise of dark forces

There are elements of this in every society where the host country is absorbing the influx. Oddly, Greece, a country that has one of the smallest European economy's is dealing with the problem very well.

In Hungary, Viktor Orban has used the crisis to drive his own political agenda. In Italy, the rise of fascism with deep-rooted fear and hatred of "the-other" shows that there has been no lesson learned from the last time fascism prevailed in the country.

Al Gore continued to highlight the magnitude of the problem coming over the horizon saying, "By midcentury Africa is set to have a larger population that India and China combined. With large parts of the continent uninhabitable, where will they go?"

Overcoming fear

The obvious implication is if these people are ignored or abandoned, they will have no choice but to head northwards to get a foothold in Europe. This idea frightens many people, and in reality it should. It points towards a degenerated lifestyle as too many of us try to carve up what is left of the still-liveable planet.

We must approach this subject at least acknowledging that we European's, for centuries, have colonised and extracted resources and wealth from the lands and peoples of Africa and the Middle East. It could be that the route forward is to apply our gifts of scientific and technological know-how to helping these people restore their lands, their ecosystems and micro-climates.

Such actions have the potential to build security and stability in these regions, prevent further conflicts, and create an environment where people do not wish to leave. In fact, it may be the next generation of Europeans who take great pleasure in visiting these regions and seeing them thrive.

Road to redemption

Describing governments responses so far as "pathetic" regarding reducing emissions to avert climate catastrophe, Gore asked people of faith in the audience to pray for the future. He showed slide after slide of the ravages that climate change is having up on peoples lives in every region, including the UK and the United States. As he went from country to country he described everyday as being like "a trek through the Book of Revelation"!

It does seem that we are in a transition period. The climate is changing and how we respond to these changes will define humanity. It is our chance to step up from a state of reckless consumerism to being custodians of the Earth.

Twitter: @NickGBreeeze