| Visitors Now: | |
| Total Visits: | |
| Total Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Al Gore Says Obama’s Nuts To Allow Shell Arctic Drilling [Video]
With Shell planning to begin drilling in the Chukchi Sea within days, Gore said that Obama was wrong to ever allow drilling in the Arctic
he former US vice-president and climate champion Al Gore has made a rare criticism of Barack Obama as Royal Dutch Shell prepares to drill an exploratory well in the Arctic Ocean, denouncing the venture as “insane” and calling for a ban on all oil and gas activity in the polar region.
With Shell planning to begin drilling in the oil-rich Chukchi Sea within days, Gore said in an interview with the Guardian that Obama was wrong to ever allow drilling in the Arctic.
It was the only real point of criticism from Gore of Obama’s efforts to fight climate change, at home and through a global deal to be negotiated in Paris at the end of the year.
“I think Arctic drilling is insane. I think that countries around the world would be very well advised to put restrictions on drilling for oil in the Arctic ocean,” Gore told the Guardian in Toronto, where he was passing on his techniques for talking about the climate crisis to 500 new recruits from his Climate Reality Project.
As conventional fields decline, the Arctic is the last frontier of the oil era, containing more than 20% of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and gas. But after the BP oil disaster five years ago, the risks of offshore oil drilling are all too clear – and Arctic drilling should not go ahead, Gore said.
“I think the Deepwater Horizon spill was warning enough. The conditions are so hostile for human activity there. I think it’s a mistake to drill for oil in the Arctic. I think that ought to be banned,” Gore said.
It’s now nearly 10 years since Gore turned his old slideshow on climate change into the Oscar-winning Inconvenient Truth, nearly 15 years since he won the popular vote in the 2000 election only to lose the White House to George Bush.
What was once a somewhat lonely cause – at least among leaders of Gore’s stature – has been taken up by the current US president and, more recently, the pope.
Obama elevated climate change to the top of his second term agenda, and has announced a new event or initiative every week since January. Gore, who has tried very hard to stay out of Obama’s way, now gives him top marks – although he still says the White House has bent over too far to accommodate the oil and gas industry.SOURCE
