it's been ten years since Al Gore won
the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy
on climate change an 11 years since an
inconvenient truth made its
oscar-winning box-office run now Gore's
back with a sequel and a lot more
ammunition Michael Moynihan sat down
with the former vice president in Los
Angeles what happened in those
intervening years we said you know I
have to do this again there have been
two very big and dramatic changes in the
last decade
one is the climate-related extreme
weather events have become far more
numerous far more destructive there are
hundred fires or so raging right now as
we're having this conversation in the
western United States
the second big change is that the
solutions are now available and soon
will be even more widely available and
affordable this is a technology
revolution business is helping to lead
it but so are individual citizens this
optimism is it kind of blunted by what's
happening in Washington right now I was
really concerned especially when Donald
Trump made his speech withdrawing the
u.s. from Paris I was fearful that some
other countries might use that as an
excuse to pull out of the Paris
agreement for themselves but immediately
afterwards the entire rest of the world
redouble their commitment to the Paris
agreement almost as if to say we'll show
you mr. Trump now that's not to say that
Donald Trump as president cannot do a
lot of damage
unfortunately he can and all of the
commitments put together in the Paris
agreement still are not enough but they
lay a an impressive foundation upon
which we can mount further efforts to
cut emissions that that's the
administration's argument right that
this isn't going to do very much anyway
I mean I talked to people many people I
was on the campaign trail and they say
actually it was
I'm saying is nonsense I like Donald
Trump because he calls it nonsense I go
back for months we start four months ago
and I find Vice President Al Gore in a
news story I see somebody that has an
incredible hope that Donald Trump will
from your perspective do the right thing
on Paris yeah you had hope
yeah I did I well I went to see him
immediately after the election and that
was not the only conversation I had the
dialogue continued after he went into
the White House I had reason to believe
that there was a real good chance that
he might come to his senses and stay in
the Paris agreement but I was wrong and
I suspect the reason I was wrong is that
this rogues gallery of climate deniers
that he surrounded himself with in the
White House got to him and locked him in
do you worry about your own party going
in a populist direction populist left
versus populist right I was criticized
when I last ran for president for saying
I wanted to represent the people not the
powerful some of the support for Donald
Trump in the last election came from a
feeling of anger and disappointment
middle-income wages have stagnated from
several decades now there is a feeling
on the part of many that the current
pattern of globalization has left a lot
of good people behind NAFTA becomes a
swearword yeah it has become an
incredibly negative things is that
something that when you look back on
1992 to 2000 that you regret I think in
the 90s Bill Clinton and I actually did
a really good job of creating many
millions of new jobs providing jump ring
providing pathways for people to
transition without losing the chance to
better their lives and I know nafta's
terribly unpopular I hear it criticized
all the time now but but I think that
you know you can't run the experiment
what it would have been like without a
NAFTA but I think it's had benefits that
far
way the difficulties and we give that a
long political career when you look back
on it what's the most prominent thing
that you changed your mind on you know
there's been a lot of things the three
strikes and you're out
legislation wasn't a mistake it wasn't a
cynical decision it was supported by
most African American leaders at the
time it was adopted but I think it's
obvious now that that was on the saying
when people see this film what is the
expectation what would you hope that
people come away from this some changing
their behavior writing their Congressman
doing what yeah I hope they'll become
active but people who see this movie
tell me they come away from it feeling
hopeful and sometimes they're surprised
to find really yeah I was the things are
breaking off ice shelves things are
disappearing well there's that evidence
too but most people say they come out of
the movie feeling I'm feeling hopeful I
urge people to learn about it and use
the knowledge to win the conversations
on Climate use your voice
use your vote if those who are elected
come into office not beholden to special
interests who finance their campaigns
but instead attuned to what the opinions
of their constituents really are that's
much more closely aligned with what
America's founders intended our system
to be like
you