Former Vice President Al Gore testified before Congress on Wednesday and warned that global warming is a crisis that threatens the survival of civilization and is the most dangerous crisis in American history.

Al Gore: “The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If your doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.’ If the crib’s on fire, you don’t speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action. The planet has a fever.”

Al Gore called for national freeze on new emissions of carbon dioxide, new taxes on polluters, a ban on incandescent light bulbs, an increase of fuel-efficiency standards for cars and a new global treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Al Gore: “There have been times in the past when our nation has been called upon to rise above partisanship, above political calculations, above the pressures which have always been present for two-and-a-quarter centuries from special interests of this, that or the other kind and reach across the aisle and do what history is calling upon all of us Americans to do. America is the natural leader of the world, and our world faces a true planetary emergency.”