Broadcast April 10, 2020 – Real Time with Bill Maher
Al Gore Says Humans Encroaching on Wildlife, Sees Link to Virus
Former Vice President Al Gore says the coronavirus pandemic is another example of politicians ignoring scientific warnings.
“The scientists have warned us about the coronavirus and they’ve warned us about the climate crisis, and we’ve seen the dangers of waiting too late to heed the warnings of the doctors and scientists on this virus,” Gore told “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“We should not wait any longer to heed their warnings about what we’re doing to radically destabilize the earth’s climate. And perhaps that connection is obvious, but some things you think are obvious take some time to become obvious to governmental officials.”
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Partial Transcript:
Bill Maher question to Gore: “The air in Los Angeles has not been this good since it belonged to Mexico. But people will do it [lockdowns] for the virus — they won’t do it for carbon.”
Al Gore: “Yeah, it’s interesting. By the way, there is a brand new study out this week that shows that burning fossil fuels and polluting the air with exhaust emissions is in effect a pre-existing condition that raises the death rate from COVID-19.”
Later Gore emphasized, “Fossil fuels are a pre-existing condition for COVID-19.”
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Bill Maher: “The Pope, who I don’t usually quote, said today that this is nature’s response — the virus — to climate change he quoted something from he said in Spanish we say “God always forgives but nature never forgives.” You see it that this way? That this is sort of nature’s way of saying you know you can go on killing the earth for just so long before you kill yourself?
Al Gore: “Well we’ve been encroaching into these wild areas and reducing the overall extent of them so that the number of times when human beings come into contact with wild creatures that harbor viruses like the coronavirus — those occasions are increasing so there is that connection.”
