Al Gore: US Has 'Excellent Chance' to Meet Climate Goals Despite Trump

Former vice president and climate activist Al Gore said the United States has an "excellent chance" to meet climate goals despite being pulled out of the Paris agreement by President Donald Trump.

"Even though Donald Trump announced that he was going to pull out of the Paris agreement, the very next day, the entire rest of the world doubled down on their commitment," Gore said on "CBS This Morning."

"It now looks as if the U.S. has an excellent chance to meet our commitments under the Paris agreement regardless of President Trump," Gore said.

But, of course, it's not enough, according to Gore, who threw out his standard scare one-liners:

• "The president has surrounded himself by a rogue's gallery of climate deniers coming out of close ties with the carbon polluters."
• "Our Democracy's been hacked, long before [Russian President Vladimir] Putin did it, by big money."
• "Carbon polluters have taken control of some part of our Democracy."

"Even with all the commitments put together in Paris it's still not enough, but it lays a very strong foundation on which to build stronger action," Gore said.

"The world would benefit from U.S. leadership, but President Trump is on the other side of that, unfortunately. I really thought there was a chance he would come to his senses on it, but I was wrong about that."

“The reaction to what Donald Trump is doing has been very strong, there’s a huge upsurge in activism...this is for real.”-- @AlGore pic.twitter.com/iRFxdtJwvF

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 2, 2017

Gore said that there's been an uptick in activism around the world since the U.S. pulled out of the Paris accord.

"All around the world we're seeing an illustration of the old maxim, 'for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.' The reaction to what Donald Trump is doing has been very strong," said Gore, whose climate sequel "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" is in movie theaters.

"There's a huge upturn in activism to try and solve the climate crisis. We've got to get over this phony kind of discussion, 'Is it real?' Of course, it's real. The scientists have been nearly unanimous for a long time, but now Mother Nature is weighing in, turns out she's way more persuasive than any of us."

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