Al Gore on Climate Change: ‘We Can Solve This And We Will Solve This’
Former Vice President Al Gore stopped by The Late Show to discuss An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. The new doc follows his 2006 Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which laid out the dangers of global warming.
Gore has been a staunch advocate for climate change policy for more than a decade, and he told Colbert that he initially hoped President Trump would recognize the severity of the issue. “I went to Trump Tower after the election,” Gore said. “I thought there was a chance he would come to his senses. But I was wrong.”
Trump subsequently pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. Yet Gore said despite that setback, he was encouraged by the global response to the President’s actions. “Immediately after that, all the other countries in the world doubled down and said, ‘we’re going to do even more,'” Gore explained. “And here in the U.S., a lot of our most important governors and majors and business leaders said, ‘we’re still in the Paris agreement, and we’re going to meet the commitments of the country regardless of what Donald Trump tweets.'”
Since Colbert has dubbed this week “Russia Week” on The Late Show, Gore also spoke obliquely about Donald Trump Jr.’s recent admission that he met last year with a Russian lawyer offering damaging information on the Hillary Clinton campaign.
The former Vice President did not directly reference the incident, but he remembered that a member of his team received a stolen copy of opponent George W. Bush’s debate-prep materials during the 2000 campaign. “We immediately turned it over to the FBI,” Gore recalled, modeling good behavior. “And Tom [who received the materials] recused himself from the whole debate process.”
Gore ultimately returned to the territory where he was most comfortable – the battle against global warming – and he finished his interview with a call to action. “Use your vote, Use your voice. Win the conversations on climate.” Of course, he also asked viewers to watch his movie. An Inconvenient Sequel comes out on August 4th.