Trump looms large in Al Gore’s new climate change doc

TORONTO Shortly after the U.S. election, Al Gore paid a visit to Donald Trump hoping to find common ground on a subject in which their views could not differ more: Climate change.

“That was not the only conversation — I’ve continued the dialogue since he went into the White House,” Gore said in a recent interview for his new climate-change documentary “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.”

“I thought there was a chance that he might come to his senses and stay in the Paris Agreement but I was wrong, and I haven’t talked to him since.”

In “An Inconvenient Sequel,” the former U.S. vice-president is seen walking into Trump Tower for the off-camera, postelection meeting with Trump. The U.S. president’s presence looms large in the followup to 2007 Oscar winner “An Inconvenient Truth,” with the inclusion of his skeptical statements on climate change featured in the film.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climatechange accord is among a series of moves made by Trump to undo the environmental legacy of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Changes include rescinding the plan looking to curb carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants, and reversing a moratorium on leasing federal lands for coal mining. Trump has also proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

“He’s trying to do a lot of damage, and he’s surrounded himself with a rogues’ gallery of climate deniers for sure, but we have some resilience in the U.S. system,” said Gore, pointing to lawsuits filed by environmental groups and moves by the courts to curtail Trump’s environmental agenda.

“I was concerned that other countries might pull out (of the Paris Agreement) and use him as an excuse. But I was immediately gratified when the entire rest of the world redoubled its commitment to solving the climate crisis, staying in the Paris Agreement, almost as if the world was saying: ‘Well, we’ll show you, Donald Trump,’” he added.

“Right after that, so many of the governors and mayors and business leaders in the U.S. said they’ll fill the gap, they’re still in the Paris Agreement. And now we’re going to meet the commitments of the U.S. in spite of Donald Trump.”

The new documentary picks up a decade after “An Inconvenient Truth,” which saw Gore preaching the gospel of climate change with a sciencebased travelling slideshow.