I am Al Gore, founder and chairman of the Climate Reality Project – AMA

Mr. Gore, Thanks for doing an AMA. I’m writing this because a little more than 12 years ago, I met you and it changed my life. I was 7 years old at the time and my father was a photojournalist traveling with you. He had been on the road with your team for weeks and I had not seen him in person in quite some time. I sent him a letter with a picture of a telephone, pager, and computer with a short note underneath reading “These are the only ways I can talk to you. I want to talk man to man!”

A few days later, my Dad received the letter while on Air Force II. Your daughter Karenna happened to see it and she told my Dad that she wanted you to see it. A bit later at a photo-op, you approached my Dad and asked to see the letter.

That night at an off-the-record party, you and my Dad were talking over a beer and the letter came up again. My Dad then asked “If I call him right now, would you get on the phone?” All of the sudden, my Dad calls the house and tells me Al Gore wants to talk to me. Being 7 years old, I was not nearly aware of the magnitude of the situation, and treated it much like any other phone conversation. I don’t remember most of the conversation, but I do remember you telling me that I was a "very bright young man" and had “great handwriting for a second grader.”

A few days later, when we went to greet my Dad at Andrew’s Air Force Base, you came up to me and said “Are you Mr. Man to Man?” You introduced yourself to the rest of my family and we chatted for a bit before you left. From that day on, my Dad said that every time you guys saw each other you would ask him “How’s Mr. Man?”

So while I do not have question for you Mr. Gore, I just wanted to take my first opportunity since then to say “thank you” for that. You didn’t go out of your way to talk to a 7 year old on the phone as a political act or to win over voters, you did it because you are a genuinely incredible person. To this day, whenever anyone tries to talk down or make fun of Al Gore, I tell them my story and they are blown away. So once again, Mr. Gore, thank you. You are the man.

Your comment means as much to me as our conversation years ago meant to you. BTW, how are you, Mr. Man?

If you made an music album, could you please name it Algorithms?

Well...since you asked, check this out from 24 Hours today: http://youtu.be/1iVDHiOEBvw

Some years ago you were asked if you thought the 2000 election was stolen. You said: "There may come a time when I speak on that, but it's not now; I need more time to frame it carefully if I do. In our system, there's no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution."

Are you ready to address that question now?

I'm excited to join everyone at Reddit today. I've been looking forward to it. I hope we can talk about the climate crisis and 24 Hours of Reality: the Dirty Weather Report. On the first question, I haven't ruled out addressing that at some point in my life, but no, I don't believe now is the time to do it, if that time ever comes.

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Our national information infrastructure is no longer competitive. We need to invest in more bandwidth, easier access, and the rapid transition of our democratic institutions to the internet. And we need to protect the freedom of the internet against corporate control by legacy businesses that see it as a threat, and against the obscene invasions of privacy and threats to security from government and corporations alike. Please think about this: almost everytime there has been a choice between privacy/security on the one hand and convenience on the other, the mass of folks have chosen convenience. I for one believe the "stalker economy" on the internet is undemocratic and anti- American. Are folks at the gag point on this yet? Thanks, btw, to the Reddit community for fighting off Sopa and PIPA. Keep your powder dry; more big struggles ahead.

For people that may be skeptical about global warming, what is the one undeniable scientific fact that you feel backs it up the most effectively?

There are at least 15 deeply researched separate lines of evidence that all confirm man-made global warming. They are all consistent, each with the others. Every National Academy of Science on the planet agrees with the consensus. The Academies describe the evidence as "indisputable". Every professional scientific society in every field related to climate science and earth science also agree. And 97-98% of climate scientists worldwide most actively publishing also agree. Animals and plants also agree -- in that they are moving their ranges by latitude and altitude to find climate niches similar to the ones in which they evolved. Even if you leave climate science completely out of it and just measure extreme temperatures, the statistical record of global temperatures shows that three-standard deviation events have increased from 0.25% of the time (from 1951-1980) to 10% of the time now. There is as strong a consensus as you will find in science, with the possible exception of the existence of gravity.

You're only one Tony award away from an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). What plans do you have in that regard?

I've got my eyes on the Heisman.

I understand you and Tommy Lee Jones were roomates in college. What was he like?

He is, first of all, a terrific friend. He really is an amazing guy. As good at directing as at acting, btw. Check out his performance in Spielberg's Lincoln. Incredible! I hope he gets another Oscar for it. I'm biased, but I sure think he deserves it.

Are you in favor of nuclear energy as a possible energy alternative for the future?

It will play a role, but probably a limited role. I think the waste issue can probably be solved, and Fukushima notwithstanding, the safety of operation issue an pobably be solved. But the cost is absurdly high and still rising. Moreover, if we model it as the path forward, and encourage developing countries to head down that road, we would create a massive security challenge. During the eight years I worked in the White House, every single nuclear proliferation threat we had to deal with was connected to a reactor program. The technologies are different, but if you are the dictator of a country that has a reactor program and a fuel cycle, you can secretly orde the same people to enrich the fuel to weapons-grade over time and build bombs. Bad outcome. New reactor designs hold promise but they are all at least 15 years away. Meanwhile, solar pv is riding a "Moore's Law Jr." costdown curve. Wind and efficiency too, though not as steep. We need to get to scale on renewables quickly and make the transition.

As someone who was in office during another time of obstructionism and fierce party-line divides, what advice would you give President Obama to accomplish his objectives during his second term? What advice would you give to us, the public, in dealing with the harsh realities of the partisan divide?

This question was asked by correctmeplease in the initial thread and has the most upvotes in it.

Stand on principle. As Mark Twain said, "Do the right thing! You'll ratify your friends and astonish your enemies." Start with climate.