I – Chapter 20

0100 [00:57:58] "If this were to...to go, sea level worldwide would go up 20 feet. " (Al Gore)

0200 [00:58:04] "They've measured disturbing changes on the underside of this ice sheet. It's considered relatively more stable, however, than another big body of ice that's roughly the same size. Greenland would also raise sea level almost 20 feet if it went." (Al Gore)

0300 [00:58:21] "A friend of mine just brought back some pictures of what's going on on Greenland right now. Dramatic changes. These are the same kinds of pools that formed here on this ice shelf in Antarctica. " (Al Gore)

0400 [00:58:36] "And scientists thought that when that water seeped back into the ice, it would just refreeze. But they found out that actually what happens is that it just keeps on going. It tunnels to the bottom and makes the ice like Swiss cheese, sort of like termites. " (Al Gore)

0500 [00:58:56] "This shows what happens to crevasses, and when lakes form, they create what are called moulins. The water goes down to the bottom and it lubricates where the ice meets the bedrock. " (Al Gore)

0600 [00:59:09] "See these people here for scale. This is not on the edge of Greenland. This is in the middle of the ice mass. This is a massive rushing torrent of fresh melt water tunneling straight down through the Greenland ice to the bedrock below. " (Al Gore)

0700 [00:59:28] "Now, to some extent, there has always been seasonal melting and moulins have formed in the past, but not like now. " (Al Gore)

0800 [00:59:38] "In 1992, they measured this amount of melting in Greenland. Ten years later, this is what happened. And here is the melting from 2005. " (Al Gore)

0900 [00:59:49] "Tony Blair's scientific adviser has said that because of what's happening in Greenland right now, the maps of world will have to be redrawn. " (Al Gore)

1000 [00:59:58] "If Greenland broke up and melted, or if half of Greenland and half of West Antarctica broke up and melted, this is what would happen to the sea level in Florida. " (Al Gore)

1100 [01:00:15] "This is what would happen San Francisco Bat. A lot of people live in these areas. " (Al Gore)

1200 [01:00:25] "The Netherlands. one of the low countries. Absolutely devastating. " (Al Gore)

1300 [01:00:35] "The area around Beijing that's home to tens of millions of people. Even worse, in the area around Shanghai, there are 40 million people. Worse still, Calcutta, and to the east, Bangladesh, the area covered includes 60 million people." (Al Gore)

1400 [01:01:01] "Think of the impact of a couple hundred thousand refugees when they are displaced by an environmental event. And then imagine the impact of a hundred million or more. " (Al Gore)

1500 [01:01:15] "Here's Manhattan. This is the World Trade Center memorial site. And after the horrible events of 9.11, we said, "Never again." But this is what would happen to Manhattan. " (Al Gore)

1600 [01:01:40] "They can measure this precisely, just as the scientists could predict precisely. How much water would breach the levees in New Orleans. The area where the World Trade Center Memorial is to be located would be underwater. " (Al Gore)

1700 [01:02:00] "Is it possible that we should prepare against other threats besides terrorists? Maybe we should be concerned about other problems as well. " (Al Gore)