With the economic crisis in focus over the past couple of months, many people probably forgot about the process of global warming, almost the main subject debated before the first banks started to collapse.

However, this was not the case of former Vice President Al Gore, who underlined before lawmakers the “inconvenient truth” that the action to fight global warming can not wait until the economy recovers from this terrible recession.

In his three-hour address to Congress lawmakers, Mr. Gore urged them to pass the economic stimulus measure proposed by President Barack Obama as a first step in the endeavor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

During his address, which resembled the Oscar-winning documentary based on his book "An Inconvenient Truth,” Mr. Al Gore showed the lawmakers dozens of slides featuring melting ice caps, western wildfires and other causes or effects of the global warming, which he described as an “urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization.”

Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Gore tried to prove that President Obama’s economic recovery plan has what it takes to show America the way out of this economic crisis and from the climate crisis as well. Mr. Gore said Obama’s plan is strong through its “unprecedented and critical investments” in four important areas:

•    energy efficiency,
•    renewables,
•    a unified national energy smart grid, and
•    the move to clean cars.

This would be the first step in beginning to solve the global warming problem, but it would be an important and decisive one, the former Vice President added.

This was Mr. Gore’s first appearance before the Congress since March 2007. The last time he urged the nation’s leaders and lawmakers to start making steps to counter the climate crisis was six months ago when he was pushing for measures so the United States would produce all of its electricity from carbon-free sources within the next 10 years. But since then, the economic crisis deepened, banks collapsed and the nation is trying to save financial institutions by pumping money into them.

Mr. Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change, said the recession shouldn’t stop or delay the U.S. from passing legislation to counter global warming. He added that America should participate at a new climate treaty, a policy very different from the Bush administration which pulled of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The next pact might take place in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Until that pact, the legislation to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions will most likely pass. A few days ago, president Obama issued orders to enhance fuel efficiency in cars and trucks and to allow California and a number of about 16 other states to impose their own limits on greenhouse emissions.