The so-called climate realism propaganda is yet another form of climate denial. All of the emissions from all of the AI data centers in the world are only a fraction of the emissions from uncovered landfills.
Mr. Gore, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us. Now, it's been 20 years since your documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. I wonder what's the inconvenient truth now?
Well, unfortunately, the scientists whose predictions I channeled in that movie have turned out to be exactly accurate. And the fact that they accurately predicted these horrific consequences we're experiencing right now should give us reason to pay more attention to what they're warning about if we don't change. I think we are beginning to change, but we need to stop using the sky as an open sewer. You know, the very thin blue shell of oxygen surrounding the earth, it's only 5 to 7 km thick. That's what we're using as an open sewer. And we're now filling it with another 175 million tons today of heat-trapping pollution and every day. And it lingers there and mounts up and the cumulative amount now traps as much extra heat every day as would be released by 800,000 first-generation atomic bombs exploding every 24 hours on the earth. That's why the last 10 years have been the hottest years ever measured. The hottest three have been the last three. And this year is predicted by the scientists to be the hottest of all. Next year may eclipse that. We're seeing this so-called super El Niño in the Pacific bump the temperatures up even higher, and the climate crisis is itself making these El Niños much stronger. And the cooler La Niña years, you know it alternates between El Niño and La Niña. The La Niña years are now hotter than the El Niño years they used to be.
So, the predictions of the scientists unfortunately have come true. But, the other thing that's happened in the last 20 years is that we have seen a nearly miraculous decline in the cost of solar energy and wind energy, and batteries, and the emergence of electric vehicles. Now, one in every four cars sold around the world is an EV. In China, 65% of the new cars are EVs on the way to 82% in the next few years. And these are the most prominent examples of the larger sustainability transition, which is beginning to take hold. This transition is unstoppable, but the remaining question is whether we will solve the climate crisis in time to avoid truly catastrophic consequences. We got a taste of this tragically in Nepal just last week with this horrendous glacial collapse and outburst that killed so many thousands of people. It's so heartening to see some continuing rescues. We're all praying that they will find more. But, 80% of all the ice in the Himalayas is due to collapse and disappear within the balance of this century unless we stop using the sky as an open sewer.
In Greenland, we are losing 30 million tons of ice every hour, every hour. Antarctica is awakening to the melting process and will soon overtake Greenland. And the combination of sea level rise and stronger storm surges poses threats to places like Singapore and to river delta regions around the world, all low-lying areas like many of the Pacific islands. And one of the most concerning predictions is that the combination of higher temperatures and higher humidity because the oceans are evaporating more water vapor into the sky and the warmer skies hold much more water vapor now. That's what's leading to these downpours that the scientists call rain bombs. We see them all over the world, not least in Asia. And it's punctuated by periods of much deeper and longer droughts threatening agriculture. So, we have to recognize the unprecedented danger that this climate crisis presents to us even as we also recognize the fantastic opportunity to stop digging and drilling dead things out of the ground to burn them as fossil fuels and shift over to the cleaner, safer, much cheaper, more job-producing technologies in the renewable energy sector.
Absolutely. I mean, as you said, economics are increasingly making sense. We've got the science, we've got the technology as well as the capital. But as you said, the progress of the global transition is moving too slowly. So, what is stopping us?
Well, there are a number of factors. I would put first in that list the incredible political power of the fossil fuel companies combined with the petro states, which have achieved almost a hegemonic control over the policies that govern how much fossil fuel we burn to put these emissions into the air. For example, taxpayers around the world are still being forced by their governments to subsidize the burning of fossil fuels. Coal, for example, would not be economic except for the fact that taxpayers are forced to subsidize it. And if you look at the international conferences of the parties, the COPs as they're called, the fossil fuel delegation is by far the largest. They have achieved unprecedented control over the global policies that are considered. But there are other factors, as well. We have to acknowledge that it is difficult for us as human beings, given our evolutionary development, to deal with challenges that are global in their dimension and play out over time. We are hard-wired to react immediately to the kinds of threats that our ancient ancestors survived. It is how we've developed. We also have the capacity to perceive and respond to threats that require us to use our reasoning capacities. But that takes more time, and it requires communication of the truth about our circumstances and the deeply immoral and unethical practice of the fossil fuel industry in flooding global communications with falsehoods about this crisis.
My own president tragically keeps calling this crisis a hoax, which is patently ridiculous to any reasonable person. But, many of those who've achieved power parrot the views of the fossil fuel polluters. We are beginning to overcome this. We're seeing an incredible surge of investment in solar and wind and batteries and EVs. And now, the global investments in renewables and the sustainability transition has overtaken the investments in fossil fuels. But, it's still not happening nearly quickly enough. And we are at risk of crossing certain dangerous negative tipping points. The disruption of the ocean currents, the disruption of the jet streams and other wind currents. The threat that conditions in some parts of the world that make it unlivable. For example, the combination of higher temperatures and higher humidity is now making much larger areas physiologically unsurvivable. The World Health Organization's climate experts have warned us that within the next 25 years, we could see more than 1 billion climate refugees crossing international borders to escape unlivable conditions in the places they've always called home.
And we've seen in the world how when refugees come in very large numbers in a short period of time, rather than being welcomed as all of our faith traditions encourage us to do, in my previous lifetime in the political world, I learned that too many in a short period of time can trigger the hatred of foreigners and give demagogues the ability to gain power by focusing hatred on foreigners and on refugees. This is a threat to governance systems throughout the world. So we have our work to do and the reason I'm here in Singapore conducting this training for 800 new climate advocates is to give them the latest and best scientific evidence on the causes of the climate crisis, the solutions to the climate crisis, to give them new skills to communicate clearly about the kinds of policies that will enable us to save ourselves.
Sure. We will definitely get to that program later on in our conversation, but I want to pick up on the political challenge that you earlier mentioned. It gets harder when it collides with energy security and we are at the moment of war in the Middle East which has exposed the vulnerability of fossil fuel dependence, but at the same time there are calls for climate realism that fossil fuels are here to stay for decades to come and the transition needs to accommodate that reality. How do you respond to that argument?
Well, it's nonsense. The so-called climate realism propaganda is yet another form of climate denial. Actually what we're seeing is an unstoppable transition away from fossil fuels. They're dirty, they're polluting not only with the heat trapping pollution, but also the particulate pollution that kills almost 9 million people a year just from the soot that comes from the burning of fossil fuels. And meanwhile, we have seen solar electricity become by far the cheapest energy in the history of the world, but the fuel for solar and wind is free. They can't charge for the sun. They can't charge for the wind. And so naturally, this most powerful industry in history, which sells the dirty fossil fuels, is going all out to oppose this transition. And unfortunately, in some nations, including my own, the politicians are under the thumb of these powerful fossil fuel companies. And that is what we have to overcome. And the truth is our principal ally because I have great confidence in human nature. My faith tradition, as other traditions teach, says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And I'm optimistic, but it is a race between the accelerating danger and the accelerating availability of the solutions.
I mean, there's an interesting paradox in the US at the moment where President Trump is trying to put the brakes on green transition. At the same time, US is seeing a boom in clean energies investment and deployment. What's driving that resilience and how durable is it really?
Well, you know, in Europe, there's an old story about an ancient king of Denmark, a King Canute, who was drunk on his power and he laughably believed that he could command the tides of the ocean to stop and he could not. That story applies to President Trump's repeated declarations in the US that the climate crisis is a hoax and so ridiculous. But last year, if you look at all of the new power generation installed in the US, 92% was renewable because there is an unmistakable commitment to realism by investors who look at the options and they see that renewable energy is much cheaper, much cleaner. It creates three times as many jobs per dollar spent. And so, they're not listening to him. He has had an impact in slowing this transition slightly, but reality is on our side and our ability to accurately perceive the reality of our circumstances and take appropriate actions, that is why I place my faith in human nature.
Okay. And internationally, Mr. Trump pulled the US out of all the climate initiatives as well as funds, but you say that 195 minus one doesn't necessarily equal zero.
Ah, you've done research. Thank you very much.
But how consequential is that one and who should fill that gap? Should it be China?
Well, yes. And you know, Xi Jinping has recently sent a signal that China is now reversing its long reluctance to exercise its diplomatic leadership in the world. There are now indications that China wants to be the host of COP 33. That's the conference of the parties that will come after the one this year in Turkey and the one next year in Ethiopia. And if Beijing hosts that next conference, it can become as influential as the Paris conference was 10 years ago. In the past, China has been willing, in my view, to mobilize its diplomatic influence only when they could join with the US as a kind of G2. That's one of the reasons for the success in Paris. And of course, now we have Trump and such things are not possible. But, he is, according to the polls and the predictions, going to lose in the election this November the control of the Congress. And then we will have a new president in the election of 2028 by the time China hosts this COP 33.
China has still continued to build new coal plants, but their emissions from fossil fuels are now beginning for the first time to decline. Last summer in the month of July, they installed as much solar energy as would have been produced from the electrical output of 93 new 1 gigawatt nuclear reactors in 1 month. It's fantastic. They have chosen wisely to invest heavily in solar and wind and electric vehicles and batteries and fast trains and efficient buildings. The US has been hampered by the distortion of our political communication by the fossil fuel polluters. But, that can change and I'm hopeful that it will change starting this November.
