Al Gore to Obama: Drilling in the Artic is 'Insane'

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore criticized President Barack Obama Thursday for allowing Royal Dutch Shell to start drilling in a few days an exploratory well in the Arctic Ocean.

“I think Arctic drilling is insane,” said Gore in an interview to the Guardian. “I think that countries around the world would be very well advised to put restrictions on drilling for oil in the Arctic ocean,” later recommending a complete “ban” of such activities.

On May 11, the U.S. government gave approval to European oil giant Shell to start drilling in the Chukchi Sea, in the Arctic. It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable gas and 13 percent of undiscovered, recoverable oil supplies are located in the Arctic. As climate change melts Arctic ice, countries are in a race to extract the fossil fuels which caused the melting in the first place.

RELATED: Going Backwards: Calling Obama Out on Climate Change

Gore argued that “the conditions are so hostile for human activity there” that drilling should be totally “banned,” recalling the Deepwater Horizon spill caused by British Petroleum (BP) five years ago, saying that “was warning enough.” 

Howeve,r Gore's criticism of the U.S. leader ended there, as he otherwise praised the rest of his action in the environmental realm.

“I think he is doing essentially a very good job but on the fossil fuel side I would certainly be happier if he was not allowing so much activity like the Arctic drilling permit and the large amounts of coal extracted from public lands,” Gore said.

Gore also rejected the idea that climate change could only be addressed by a radically different economic model than capitalism.

“I think that some form of market capitalism is at the base of every successful economy in the world today,” he said. “I think that reforms including putting a price on pollution to discourage more pollution is definitely a part of the solution.”

Obama has been rather active on the climate agenda since the beginning of the year, in a bid to avoid criticism in case the climate change talks scheduled in Paris in December fail – although other measures have been harshly criticized by environmental organizations. 

RELATED: End of the Line for Obama's Meek Climate Legacy

About the Paris negotiations, Gore expressed optimism, claiming that it did not really matter weather world leaders agreed to limit global warming to 2 degrees celsius – what mattered was the transition “away from carbon based energy and towards renewables efficiency, battery storage and sustainable agriculture and forestry.” In his opinion, such transition was already visible “in the marketplace.”

On the same day, a report from U.S. state agency warned than the warming of the ocean was unstoppable, based on studies of 413 scientists from 58 countries. According to the investigation, 2014 was the hottest year on record, and reducing greenhouse gases would not have much impact on detaining this trend, according to the scientists.

“The sea would actually continue to warm for centuries and millennia, and as they continue to warm and expand the sea levels will continue to rise,” said Greg Johnson, an oceanographer at Noaa’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, during a conference call with reporters.