Al Gore: Public Conditioned to Accept Atmosphere as 'Open Sewer'

COPING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE -- January 31, 2013 at 6:15 PM EDT

Al Gore: Public Conditioned to Accept Atmosphere as 'Open Sewer'

Former Vice President Al Gore talks to NewsHour about climate change and how U.S. policy needs to evolve to confront the crisis.

In his new book, "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change," former Vice President Al Gore examines the forces he believes will shape our global society in the future. Some of these include digital communications, increased economic globalization and the breakdown of democracy, to name a few.

"The Future" also deals with the impact of climate change, an issue that Gore has made a top priority since his first term in Congress in the 1970s. Since his terms as vice president, Gore's role as an advocate for climate change action has earned accolades and criticism. We asked Gore a few questions about how he views U.S. policy on climate change and the Obama administration's approach to related issues including the Keystone pipeline.

The public is lulled into an acceptance of going along with this policy of using the atmosphere as an open sewer.
-- AL GORE.

Gore has written three books on climate change: "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," and "An Inconvenient Truth," which was released alongside the documentary of the same name. "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award in 2007 for Best Documentary, and Gore, alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that year for his work on global warming issues.

But the film was heavily criticized by some as being too alarmist, while others claimed that the scientific evidence in the documentary was inconclusive at the time.

Gore is the co-founder and CEO of Generation Investment Management, and the chairman of the Climate Reality Project, an outreach organization focused on increasing public awareness of global climate change and promote action.

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