Al Gore admits US poverty 'shocking' – but warns climate crisis will make things worse

Al Gore continued an environmental justice tour with a visit to poor areas of Alabama – and warned that already dire conditions are set to worsen because of climate change.

The former vice-president met people in Hayneville, near Montgomery, and heard them describe dire sanitary conditions as open pools of sewage pockmarked their lawns after a night of heavy rain.

Later Gore told a town hall gathering that he found the conditions “shocking and tragic”. It’s all connected to the climate crisis, he told the 100-plus crowd crowd, referencing “rain bombs” from the ever-growing number of annual hurricanes hitting the south-east.

Gore visited with civil rights campaigner the Rev William Barber, and Catherine Flowers, the director and founder of Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise. Gore drew connections between poverty, ecological devastation and systemic social inequality.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/22/al-gore-alabama-environmental-justice-climate-worse

Climate crisis: Al Gore says global economy needs major upgrade, fast

Ex-US vice-president says only big solutions can offset impact of systemic shifts and avert disaster


Al Gore has said the global economy requires a fundamental upgrade to become more sustainable in order for the world to survive an environmental crisis and widening social divides.

The environmentalist and former US vice-president said the world was in the early stages of a “sustainability revolution” that had “the magnitude of the Industrial Revolution and the speed of the digital revolution”.

The urgent need to address the world’s sustainability crisis is laid bare in the latest annual report from Generation Investment Management, which was co-founded by Gore and David Blood, a veteran Goldman Sachs investor, in 2004.

The fund has more than $22bn worth of assets under its management, which it invests in technologies that can improve food production, healthcare and energy provision.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/25/climate-crisis-al-gore-global-economy-needs-major-upgrade-fast