In Rolling Stone’s new issue, Jose Antonio Vargas speaks to Al Gore about the 2000 election, his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, and how digital democracy can save the planet. Read the full story here:

• Citizen Gore

Um. Wow. OK. I’m nearly speechless.

The candidate who previously talked up clean coal and ethanol and said only that we need to “begin to try” to do something about global warming has put out an Energy and Climate Plan that looks like Al Gore wrote it.

I’m still poring over the .PDF, but at first glance this looks like the Full Monty: 55 mpg fuel efficiency by 2030, 80% greenhouse reduction from 1990 levels by 2050, a cap-and-trade emissions system kickstarted by a carbon auction with no grandfathering for dirty industries, a Connie Mae-styled energy efficiency lending program for lower income homeowners, Green Bonds, emissions-free federal buildings, climate risk filings with the SEC…

This is heady stuff. And incredibly more ambitious than the plan Hillary laid out in a “chat” just a few months ago…

Raising the question: What was Hillary’s come-to-Jesus climate moment?

Al Gore (and the IPCC) have won the Nobel Peace prize.

It’s pretty clear that Gore’s not going to mount a run at this late date. The real question is: Will he endorse?

If he blesses the Hillary campaign, I really would think the race is over. Given their combative past and Hillary’s as-yet flaccid global warming policies, however, I have a very hard time imagining Gore going there.

Edwards staked himself out early as the most serious global warming candidate. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, however, that Obama unveiled an aggressive cap-and-trade emissions policy just this week.

My best guess? Gore holds his tongue.

He’s now got the Nobel imprimatur, which should help him build a truly post-partisan consensus about global warming. Why risk that — and a future post as environment czar in any Democratic administration — by trying to tip the scales against Hillary?

From the Magazine: Run, Al, Run

Al Gore may not officially be running for president (yet) but between his Oscar-nominated documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, his current book Assault on Reason, and his promotion of Live Earth (which takes place worldwide on July 7th) the man has already established himself as our nation’s undisputed leader when it comes to the environment.

In “Al Gore’s Fight Against the Climate Crisis,” which appears in our issue on stands now, the former vice president talks about the threat posed by catastrophic climate change and explains why he believes it is not too late to stop it. Listen here to three audio snippets from the interview, conducted in Gore’s office in Washington, D.C., in late May of this year.

• On why purchasing our way to a greener planet won’t solve our environmental problems but is still a good start: “We’re not going to solve this problem by buying Priuses and changing our light bulbs. But that’s not to say that buying hybrids and choosing better technology isn’t important.”

• On why caring for the environment is becoming an increasingly bi-partisan issue:
  “More and more people have been connecting these dots and I think there will be no shortage of statements from Mother Nature, if you will. April was the hottest April in the history of Europe. The hottest winter in the world’s
  history was December, January, February. Hottest year in America’s history was 2006.”

• On the sacrifices that need to be made, and explains why they aren’t really sacrifices:
  “Most, not all but most of the changes we need to make have to do with eliminating these absurdly wasteful practices that continue not because they make good sense or good economics but because of inertia. Is this important enough for us to make sacrifices? Yes, of course it’s that important. It’s the survival of human civilization.”

Without a doubt, the highlight of Gore’s Senate performance this afternoon was his righteous smackdown of bible-thumper and leader of all things global warming denying, Sen. James Inhofe:

I say to Senator Inhofe, I don’t prostelytize my own beliefs, but all religious traditions hold to the same teachings: That the Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. That the purpose of life is to glorify God, and you cannot do it while heaping contempt on God’s creation

(Min 1:55:50 of the broadcast for you CSPAN junkies out there.)

Catch me talking about a potential Gore 2008 run on MSNBC’s “Tucker” — online at MSNBC.com.

The Independent is reporting that President Bush is preparing an about face on his position on global warming. As Ahnold has shown, confronting global warming now makes for good centrist politics. I won’t prejudge Bush’s proposal, but something tells me it falls well short of Al Gore’s carbon freeze policy.
(Incidentally, Gore’s habit of telling tall tales seems to be resurfacing. In a speech yesterday he said:

“For the last fourteen years. I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes — including those for social security and unemployment compensation — and the replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes, principally on CO2.”

The last 14 years? Really!? Somehow I missed that in the 2000 presidential debates. Maybe the proposal was squirrelled away in Gore’s lockbox…)

In the July 13-27, 2006 issue of ROLLING STONE, Will Dana talks with Al Gore about Bush, big oil and what’s next. Take a look at the story, see images of planetwide damage caused by global warming and share your thoughts below.