Bin Laden wanted US to work against climate change

Osama bin Laden had hoped Americans would work with President Obama to fight climate change and “save humanity,” according to a series of documents released on Tuesday. 

In a letter addressed “to the American people,” which officials told Reuters came from bin Laden, the late al Qaeda leader hoped Americans would undertake “a great revolution” to free the U.S. president from the influences of lobbyists. 

{mosads}That would allow the commander in chief, bin Laden wrote, to make “a rational decision to save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny,” Reuters reported.

The message was undated, but it likely came after Obama was elected president because it alluded to the 2007-08 financial crisis.

In another letter, bin Laden told an aide to use a media campaign marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to make the case for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. That cause, he said, was bigger than the dispute between the world’s religions. 

“…The world should put its efforts into attempting to reduce the release of gases,” the letter, which was also undated, said.

“This is a struggle between two of the largest cultures on Earth, and it is in the shadow of catastrophic climate conditions.”

The messages came from a host of documents discovered during the 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and released by U.S. officials on Tuesday, Reuters reported. 

Bin Laden had long been worried about climate change. In another branch of documents from his compound, released last May, bin Laden raised concerns about global warming, and he used a 2010 speech to discuss climate change and what he considered to be poor international relief efforts following severe flooding in Pakistan.