| | | Al Gore warns of planetary emergency
The Associated PressPublished: October 24, 2007
VIENNA, Austria: Former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace laureate Al Gore on Wednesday warned the North Polar ice cap could be gone in a generation.
Speaking at an event in the Austrian capital, Gore said at the current rate of melting it could be gone in as little as 23 years.
"The scientists who specialize in population and demography tell us that a single generation is 22 years, so that is the course of a single generation," he said.
"But it is true that what is going on right now as a result of the global warming pollution that we're putting into the Earth's atmosphere is creating a great threat to the future of human civilization."
Gore, the winner this month of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he was briefed a month ago by scientists who had just completed a fact-finding mission investigating the shrinking ice cap.
Gore said: "All over the world, on every continent, we are seeing an increased incidence of fire, we're seeing an increased incidence of drought."
Before he arrived in Austria, Gore was in Berlin Tuesday, where he applauded Chancellor Angela Merkel for her commitment to fighting global warming and for working to find a successor to the Kyoto treaty.
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