Former U.S. Vice-President and defeated presidential candidate Al Gore has spoken of how he sees civil disobedience as both honorable and understandable, asserting also that it has a part to play in the fight against fossil-fuel polluters.
Speaking to the
Guardian Mr Gore, for eight years the Vice-President to Bill Clinton and the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, said that when "the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold" then civil disobedience, which has "an honorable history", is understandable.
And, as fossil-fuel industries and airports around the world find themselves targeted by climate change protesters, Mr Gore fully expects such non-violent lawbreaking to increase.
Mr Gore's interview with the
Guardian coincided with the publication of his new book
Our Choice, a follow-up to
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It , a book published in 2006 at the same time as the film
An Inconvenient Truth was released.
Both books and the film are concerned with climate change and/or global warming, the issue on which Mr Gore now spends his time campaigning.
In addition to expressing his support for the use of civil disobedience in the fight to make fossil-fuel polluters change the ways in which they operate, Mr Gore spoke of his confidence that the U.S. Senate will pass a bill to address climate change before the United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in December.
Furthermore the man who represented Tennessee in the Senate and the House for 16 years stated that he feels certain U.S. President Barack Obama will be in Copenhagen in person to help emphasize the seriousness with which the U.S. views the reduction of the emissions it is believed by a considerable number of people are contributing to a dramatic change in the earth's climate.
The
Guardian notes that Senate majority leader Harry Reid has reportedly supported Republican demands for the full costs of passing climate change legislation to be known before debate of any potential bill takes place. If such a cost analysis is carried out it may not be completed until after the Copenhagen conference.
According to the
Houston Chronicle Sen. Reid did speak with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, and indicate that he wanted the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a further five-week cost analysis before he introduces a bill to the floor. Sen. Boxer believes that a further analysis is unnecessary and suggested that the request from Sen. Reid was a delaying tactic.
Yet Mr Gore did hint that discussions between Senate Democrats and Republicans behind closed doors may yield some surprising results when it comes to climate change legislation.
