Karenna Gore, daughter of former US Vice President Al Gore, discusses how the climate crisis reveals a clash between laws and moral conscience, akin to that in slavery. In an interview, she emphasizes the Global Ethical Balance's role at COP30 in fostering an ethical pact against climate change. Her career blends ethics, faith, and environmental justice through interfaith dialogues.
Karenna Gore, 52, founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, has dedicated herself to the intersection of ethics, faith, and environmental justice. A Harvard graduate with a law doctorate from Columbia University, she is part of the UN's Harmony with Nature expert network.
In March, COP30 president Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago announced the Global Ethical Balance (BEG), inspired by the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake. Quoting humanist François Rabelais, he stated: "Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul." The project gathers thinkers, scientists, religious leaders, and traditional communities to discuss ethical commitments amid the climate crisis.
Gore was invited to co-lead the North America Dialogue in the BEG after offering contributions, inspired by Minister Marina Silva. Events spanned all continents, advocating an ethical pact for ecological transformation. She praises Robert Bullard's involvement, the "father of environmental justice," who recalled 1991 principles from the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit and their reception at Rio's Eco-92.
"It was extraordinary to hear Bullard recall and teach about these principles," Gore said. In 2016, she was arrested in a peaceful protest against a Boston pipeline, referencing Pakistan's heatwave that killed over a thousand: "We lay in the pipeline trench in reference to the mass graves in Pakistan."
Raised in a Protestant Christian tradition, Gore explores religious convergences like humility and interdependence to counter US evangelical skepticism. She references Pope Francis's Laudato Si' encyclical, which shaped the Paris Agreement, and the Islamic Al-Mizan pact. For her, earth ethics expands the moral circle to include the poor, future generations, and non-human life, diagnosing root causes, as in Dom Helder Câmara's words: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint; when I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."
At COP30 in Belém, the BEG featured a blue zone pavilion and the TED Countdown House as collaborative spaces. Gore views the initiative as a "movement of movements," a catalyst for changes beyond the conference, acknowledging fossil fuel lobbying obstacles and suggesting human-centered narratives for communication.