He declared a state of "planetary emergency". In return, Al Gore was yesterday awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he will share with the world's leading climate scientists.
The former US vice-president and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the prize for galvanising action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
Mr Gore last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, to warn of the dangers of man-made climate change.
Mr Gore, 59, said he was deeply honoured and that he would try to use it to speed up the change in awareness about global warming. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said: "We wish to put climate on the agenda in connection with peace. Al Gore is probably the individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that must be adopted."
The scientific accuracy of his film has been challenged but yesterday leading climate scientists were quick to rally around him.
Professor Bill McGuire, Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, said: "Mr Gore is not a scientist, and his film is far from perfect, but the two have played a critical role in dragging climate change to the top of the agenda."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article