Gore calls for greater public involvement to force politicians on environment
08 Jul 2009
According to former US vice president, Al Gore, the public is not yet fully aware of the catastrophic consequences of climate change and have therefore not yet pressured politicians into taking action. He was speaking at an environment forum in England on Tuesday.
He added that politicians would do more only if the people who elect them would force the issue. Gore had shared the Nobel Prize in 2007 for his contribution to the global environmental campaign.
He said that voters needed to goad leaders into action on environmental concerns if a new deal on global warming were to be struck at the UN climate talks in Denmark later this year.
"The only way we can get one is if politicians in each country act and the only way that can happen in turn is if awareness rises to the level to make them feel it is a necessity," Gore said.
He said that politicians needed to be told that they were not doing enough for the environment and that they were not being bold enough in addressing the existential threat of climate change to civilisation.
He ascribed the reason for politicians getting away without action to the level of awareness and concern among populations not being high enough so as to make them tell political leaders to address the issue.
