Los Angeles - Former US vice-president Al Gore caused controversy on Monday by comparing global-warming sceptics to racists.
He recalled how society succeeded in marginalising racists in the civil rights era, and said climate change sceptics must be defeated in the same manner.
Mr Gore claimed those questioning the veracity of climate change science included in his film - An Inconvenient Truth - will be seen in the same negative light.
“There came a time when racist comments would come up in conversation and in years past they were just natural,” he said.
“Then there came a time when people would say ‘Why do you talk that way?’ and slowly the conversation was won. We have to win the conversation on climate.”
Mr Gore has been accused of exaggerating climate change risks for his own political gain and conservative critics have claimed scientific research is skewed to play on the fears of the public.
Last year climate scientists working for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came under fire for exaggerating the threat of global-warming.
And in 2009 leaked emails from the University of East Anglia revealed scientists were in breach of freedom of information laws by refusing to hand over raw temperature data to the public.
In an interview with the UStream website, Mr Gore took aim at Texas governor Rick Perry, the Republican US presidential candidate who has been a critic of global-warming alarmists.
“This is an organised effort to attack the reputation of the scientific community as a whole,” he added. - Daily Mail