Speaking to The Sun tabloid, the former US vice-president said that the situation had instead gotten worse since his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" hit cinemas in 2006.

"I have to say the situation has not improved since I made the movie in 2006," Gore told the paper.

"Sure, awareness has grown and more people are concerned since scientists said we had just 10 years to take action to halt rising sea levels. But the situation has got worse. The entire North Polar ice cap is melting and could be gone in some areas in as little as five years.

"You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic.

"If you had told me a few years ago that we would be facing a situation where the entire North Polar ice cap was going to imminently disappear, I might have thought we'd certainly get people's attention, and yet only to a limited degree."

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