People of all ages filed into the Mini-Dome as soon as the doors opened Friday night for Al Gore’s lecture, “Health Threats and the Climate Crisis.” The former vice president and winner of two Academy Awards received loud applause from the growing crowd as he walked onto stage.
“As a history major, I thought it was important to be here,” said Kelli Nelson, 21. “I learned a lot more about the idea of what a climate crisis is and what it truly entails.”
Gore described the climate crisis as “the most serious challenge human civilization has ever confronted.” He said this challenge has not yet been met by the world’s political systems.
“I do think that a full awareness of how serious this is, is essential in order to get them to cross that tipping point so that the leaders of the world – and the peoples of the world – will support a bold and transformable action that is now clearly necessary,” he said.
Gore explained that the relationship between humankind and the earth’s ecosystem has greatly changed over the past 100 years.
“The population of our planet has quadrupled in just 100 years,” said Gore, before explaining that our population has now reached 6.7 billion. “If I reached the demographic expectation of my generation, then I’ll see it go to 9 billion or above.”
This increase in population growth has made the “overall impact of the human species on the planet much larger than it used to be.”
There are four factors that he attributed to a shift in population. These factors, he said, were developed by demographers over the last several years.
The education of girls was his first factor and is “by far the most important” factor.
Other factors were the empowerment of women, the availability of culturally acceptable methods of fertility control and higher child survival rates.
He said the high child survival rates occur when parents no longer fear that their children might not reach adulthood, making them less inclined to have large families.
Another factor that changes the relationship between humankind and the ecosystem is the scientific and technology revolution, he said. “The technologically enhanced power in the hands of the average person on earth has now been magnified a lot compared to what it used to be,” he said.
Modern technology, such as vehicles, emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating one of the largest causes for the climate crisis.
“CO2 (carbon dioxide) is the exhaling breathe of industrial civilization, so it’s not an easy matter to confront, but we have to confront it,” said Gore.
The third factor that affects our relationship with the world around us is our way of thinking. “We’ve gotten so focused on short-term results,” he said before explaining that we have neglected our long-term responsibility to this and future generations.
Gore then discussed the increase in diseases around the world that are caused by insects ( i.e. malaria, West Nile Virus). Some factors contributing to this are the decrease in colder winters and colder nights, the lack of a stable climate and the decrease in the world’s biodiversity.
All of these factors provide mosquitoes and other insects with enough reason to permeate through the populated parts of the world in order to survive.
Other diseases he said could be caused by global warming are as follows: dengue fever, viral encephalitis, lyme disease, kidney stones and cholera. An increase in heat waves, such as the European heat wave of 2003, have caused many deaths as well, he said.
“We have to deal with global warming, and we can,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time to put together a global response.”
Gore said that if the United States begins to do something about global warming, the rest of the world will follow.
“We hold the key to the success of the fight against the climate crisis,” he said. “And the reason is very simple – the rest of the world still looks to the United States of America as the leader of the world.”
Some people are “philosophically determined not to let the government do anything,” he said.
Part of the reason for this is that it has no monetary value. “We need to put a price tag on carbon.”
Gore mentioned methods to reduce the world’s carbon overflow, such as using solar power and wind power, finding a new way to eliminate waste and planting trees around the world instead of cutting down rainforests.
“Your generation is the one that needs to apply the pressure and give the ingenuity and the can-do spirit that our country needs to take this on and solve it,” he said in closing. “We can solve it – it is a public health threat – it is a threat to the future of human civilization.”
“It’s hitting us at home now,” said ETSU professor Travis Graves. “I think it’s a very opportune time for Al Gore to come to ETSU.”
“Years from now, the next generation will look back on what we did or did not do in these first years of the 21st century, and they’ll look around them at a world transformed for good or ill,” said Gore.

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