Gore Labels Global Warming as Top Peril : Environment: The vice president marks the 24th Earth Day anniversary by comparing those skeptical of the climate change to tobacco industry leaders.

Vice President Al Gore, marking the 24th anniversary of Earth Day, Thursday called the threat of global warming “the most serious problem our civilization faces” and likened skeptics to leaders of the embattled tobacco industry.

“On one side there’s a vast preponderance of serious scientists who have studied the evidence, and on the other hand we have a tiny minority of the self-interested who say, ‘We just don’t know,’ ” Gore said.

Gore’s comments were aimed at a vocal community of those who challenge scientists’ assertions that the buildup of carbon gases in the atmosphere will lead to a warming of Earth’s surface, with dramatic disruptions in weather conditions, agricultural production and sea levels.

Like tobacco industry executives who have said there is no conclusive evidence that smoking can cause lung cancer, he said that many U.S. industrialists are warning that science has not proved that the accumulation of carbon gases will lead to the feared “global warming” effects. With many such industrialists in his audience, Gore scoffed that “there was a time earlier in (the tobacco) debate when some people actually believed” the tobacco industry’s denials.

The vice president’s speech underscored the White House’s challenge as it seeks to carry out President Clinton’s promise to reduce the nation’s emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition to skeptics resistant to making those reductions, the pace and urgency of the Administration’s proposed solutions are frustrating environmentalists.

While Gore slammed the skeptics Thursday, the President gently chided environmentalists, telling an Earth Day gathering in the capital that “government should encourage people to work together, not pit business and workers and environmentalists against each other.”

The Administration’s comments came a day after the Energy Department signed an accord with more than 600 members of the Electric Utility Industry to reduce greenhouse gases. Under the memorandum of understanding, utilities voluntarily would adopt a variety of measures designed to reduce their release of carbon gases.

Environmentalists have attacked the agreement--and the Administration’s efforts to draw industries into “partnerships” with government to achieve its environmental goals.

The Sierra Club, for instance, charged Thursday that the Administration’s proposal for reducing greenhouse gases--announced last fall--will fail to stabilize those emissions at the 1990 level, as Clinton promised. The United States would have to cut 139 million metric tons of carbon emissions to meet its goals, but the plan Clinton has laid out will reduce those emissions by only about half of that, a Sierra Club analysis warned.

“This plan bows to polluters but merely doffs its hat to the global warming problem,” Sierra Club analyst Daniel Becker said. “It’s good for polluter public relations but doesn’t do much for the planet.”

In response to such charges, Gore held out an olive branch to environmental groups, declaring that they are playing a crucial role in holding the Administration to its promises.

“We need you; we need you,” Gore said. “Keep it up.”

On Thursday, Gore cited not only scientists, but also a study from the Travelers Corp. insurance company that said even a modest 0.9-degree Fahrenheit increase in average global temperature by 2010 could extend the hurricane season by 20 days, cause a 33% jump in hurricane landfalls in the United States, increase storms’ severity and cause a 30% annual rise in catastrophic U.S. losses from storms.