Former Vice President Al Gore characterized change in the climate as a crisis akin to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the siege on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Gore, 71, kicked off a climate activism campaign called, "24 Hours of Reality," with harsh words for anyone pushing against proponents of climate alarmism. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Gore asserted that change in the climate was a crisis that should be compared to the al Qaeda attack of 9/11 and World War II battles such as Midway, Dunkirk, and the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. Gore said that climate change was "the life and death struggle of people alive today." The terrorist attacks and battles mentioned by Gore amounted to tens of thousands of violent deaths.

The one-time Democratic presidential candidate claimed that the 24 Hours of Reality campaign, and endeavor of Gore's Climate Reality Project, was not intended to be political. "Now, don’t you dare interpret that as a partisan gesture," Gore said at the event that launched the 24-hour climate rally. "I have freedom of speech and freedom of prayer." The project was meant to take place simultaneously at approximately 1,700 locations across the globe. The event in Nashville was attended by more than 1,000 people.

Despite vowing to stay away from partisan politics, Gore urged people to vote out lawmakers he considered to be unhelpful. "We need to really clean house," Gore said. "Change is not happening fast enough unless we change policy ... To change our policies, we’re going to have to change our policymakers." Gore also criticized the Trump-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency Andrew Wheeler. "They put a coal lobbyist in charge of the EPA, for God’s sake," Gore said. "The fact that there is not widespread outrage about that is a symptom of our weakened democracy."

Gore also praised the ideas expressed in the Green New Deal, a Democratic policy proposal sponsored by far-left Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "I think it’s a very effective and brilliant branding because it conveys the idea that the solutions to the climate crisis have to be on the scale of the New Deal," Gore said of the plan, which has been widely panned for its cost and seemingly socialist values. Gore characterized the plan's extreme measures in an effort to combat climate change as "an aspirational set of goals."

