Climate security

Al Gore on why climate change is a national security threat

Gore said the Pentagon has "for a long time through several administrations" warned climate change was a national security issue, in part because it affects scarce resources and refugee flows in places like the Middle East. He gave the example of the turmoil in Syria.

"Some regions are in danger of becoming literally unlivable with increasing temperatures and humidity. Humidity worldwide has gone up 5 percent just in the last 30 years because of all the evaporation off the oceans. And the desertification and extended drought in the eastern Mediterranean is linked by the scientists to the multi-sided civil war in Syria," Gore said. "Other causes as well, but long before that civil war started, this climate-related drought destroyed 60 percent of their farms, killed 80 percent of their livestock, drove 1.5 million refugees into the cities. And the Syrian ministers were saying on WikiLeaks, 'This is going to cause an explosion. We can't handle this.' And that was before the gates of hell opened in Syria."