Updated: Wed Nov. 25 2009 08:35:18

CTV.ca News Staff

Gasoline made from the yields of Alberta's tar sands is "the dirtiest possible alternative" for producing fuel, says former U.S. vice president-turned climate change crusader Al Gore, and only serves to increase the amount of pollution in the atmosphere at a time when the world is trying to control emissions and slow down global warming.

Gore, who is in Toronto for a speaking engagement and a series of media interviews, said Wednesday that continuing to develop the oilsands represents the choice of money over the health of the planet, ignoring the potential consequences for future generations.

"Gasoline made from the tar sands would give a Toyota Prius the carbon footprint of a General Motors Hummer. And to go for the dirtiest possible alternative, that vastly increases the amount of global warming pollution at a time when the world is desperately trying to reach an agreement to reduce that pollution, is obviously not the right way to go," Gore told CTV's Canada AM.

"I understand that a lot of money is at stake, but often the choice we have to make comes down to whether we're focused only on short-term profits at the expense of the health of the planet and the security for our children, (and) at the end of the day that's not really a difficult choice."

Gore had much the same message for a sold-out crowd of 1,300 in Toronto Tuesday night, where he called on politicians to act quickly to enact legislation that would replace dirty energy sources with cleaner alternatives.

His speech also served as a fundraiser for the David Suzuki Foundation, which has aligned itself with Gore's The Climate Project.

On Tuesday, the two climate change activists unveiled the new Canadian chapter of The Climate Project, which is comprised of 250 volunteers, trained by Gore, who will travel the country and give climate change speeches.

A new website, www.climateprojectcanada.org, also features information for Canadians about how to reduce their carbon footprint.

During his Canada AM appearance, Gore dismissed the suggestion that some scientists dispute the idea of man-made climate change, saying there will always be those looking for a reason to ignore the crisis.

"The scientific consensus is now unprecedented," Gore said. "The 3,000 scientists from around the world who've studied this for 20 years, the leading professionals in their fields, now say the evidence is unequivocal. And there are those who would like to pretend that it's okay to dump 90 million tons every day of global warming pollution into the atmosphere as if it's an open sewer, even though the science has long told us that it traps more heat, it's melting the North Polar ice cap and the glaciers of the world."

Gore also rejected as "madness" the idea some scientists have put forth to reverse global warming by releasing volcanic ash into the atmosphere for its natural cooling effect.

"Trying to counteract the impact of global warming by putting vast amounts of pollution to darken the sky, to try to block out the sun, is madness, really," he said. "The real solution is to stop putting the global warming pollution up there in such large quantities."

According to Gore, with a rapidly growing world population relying more and more heavily on oil and coal, which is pumping massive amounts of C02 and other pollutants into the atmosphere, is sending global temperatures skyrocketing.

The price of inaction to get such devastating change under control, Gore said, is staggering.

"The deeper droughts, stronger floods, diseases moving northward from the tropics into the temperate latitudes, the climate refugees that are already beginning to flow, it's a trickle but will become a flood if we don't act," Gore said.

"And if we in the present generation decided to just take advantage of all the sacrifices and work of those who came before us and use it for ourselves and give the back of our hand to all those who come after us, that would be an immoral act."