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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

My next guest really needs almost no introduction. He's former vice president of the United States. He's one of the most well-known communicators of the risks of climate change. He shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for those efforts. I'm guessing a lot of you have read his book, "An Inconvenient Truth," or you've seen the movie.

His latest book, "The Future," is, as the title suggests, a lot broader than that, a look at how everything from ultra-fast stock trading and genetic engineering, food shortages and Internet freedom, all these things, how will they shape the future. It's quite a tome. And don't worry. There's a chapter in there on climate change too.

Mr. Gore is also chairman of the Climate Reality Project, and he joins us here in our New York studios. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Mr. Vice President.

VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: Oh, thank you for having me.

FLATOW: You're welcome. We have an excerpt from your book, from the book, "The Future," at sciencefriday.com/algore, if you'd like to read it. This is a huge project that you tackle, "Six Drivers of the Global Change." And I read the drivers, and one of the things that strikes me is who is in the driver's seat on all of these things. How do we get the public to face these issues? Because it doesn't seem like we are in the mood to face anything big these days.

GORE: It does seem that way. And if you look at our situation, the situation of humanity on planet Earth, we have two large, powerful tools with which to shape the future: one is democracy, the other is capitalism. But both are in need of serious reforms. And here in the United States - the only country, in my view and in the view of many others, that is capable of providing the needed leadership in the world - we have a particular challenge because our democracy has been hacked. In order to put ourselves back in the driver's seat so that humankind can reclaim some control over our destiny, we really do have to remedy these problems with democracy and capitalism.

FLATOW: What do you mean democracy has been hacked? What do you mean by that?

GORE: Well, of course, it's a computer term that describes how a computer's operating system can be taken over and the computer forced to do things its owner doesn't want. Our operating system in the U.S. is our Constitution, and it's been hacked by big money, corporate influence, special interests, lobbying. Money plays an extremely unhealthy role in our democracy today. Its role has been growing ever since television replaced newsprint as the primary medium through which the conversation of democracy occurs.

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Al Gore Envisions 'The Future'

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