Al Gore

I have always been fascinated with those who try to look over the horizon and see things that are coming at us. ”

I've learned the importance of changing people's minds at the grassroots level so that whoever does run will have a much better chance of encountering public opinion that reaches a critical mass and brings about a change not only in White House policies but in the Congress and in the state legislatures and all around the world. ”

The signs that the world is spinning out of kilter are increasingly difficult to misinterpret. The question is how to convince enough people to join a critical mass of urgent opinion, in the U.S. and the rest of the world. ”

CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization, literally... Changing that pattern requires a scope, a scale, a speed of change that is beyond what we have done in the past. ”

There is the natural tendency that all of us are vulnerable to, to deny unpleasant realities and to look for any excuse to push them away and resolve to think about them another day long in the future. ”

As I have said for many years throughout this land, we're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. Every bit of that has to change. ”

There's lots about politics I don't feel comfortable with. To talk about the politics of future ideas is impossible in soundbite form. ”

When people flirt with despair about the future, they are less likely to take the actions necessary to safeguard it, focusing instead on the short-term. ”

Consider what kind of car you get. Buy cars and other products that have the least impact environmentally. ”

For a free country to continue thriving, there have to be regular reforms, because any society, any economy that stays in place, you're going to see repeated attempts to exploit the openings for twisting policy to the advantage of those who already have wealth and power. ”