10 Questions for Al Gore

Al Gore's reinvention keeps rolling. His interactive cable network for young people, Current TV, is available in 30 million homes in the U.S. An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's global-warming slide show turned hit film, is the third highest grossing documentary of all time and debuted on DVD last week. Gore, 58, talked with TIME's Carolina A. Miranda about his Hollywood role models, the steps he has taken to be carbon neutral and whether he'll run for President in 2008.

Given your star turns at Cannes and Sundance and the success of your documentary, should Brad Pitt worry?

Nah! I'm trying to follow in the tradition of Rin Tin Tin. I would like to have my paw print in front of [Grauman's] Chinese Theater. But I'll have to hold a lot more slide shows before that's possible.

Can audiences expect more show-business credits in the future?

My previous work, as you may know, was as a disembodied head in Futurama. I played opposite Richard Nixon. They're making a movie version where I will reprise my role. There are a number of people clustered in a certain age group who are quite taken with the fact that I once uttered the immortal line "I have ridden the mighty moon worm!"

How did a lecture on climate change become such a hit?

I've had a powerful ally in reality. Global warming is now clearly the overriding challenge of our time. Nations around the world are waking up to it and putting in place new policies. Of course, much more is needed, but the good news is that much more change is on the way.

There are many people who still doubt the science. Senator James Inhofe, head of the Senate's environmental committee, has condemned global-warming science as "hoax."

There's some good news here. Senator Inhofe will soon be replaced by Senator Barbara Boxer, an advocate of solving the crisis, as chairwoman of that committee. As to why there are still skeptics--there are people who believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona. Another reason is that some of the largest polluters are still putting millions of dollars a year to hire pseudo scientists to confuse people into thinking that this crisis isn't real.

In proposing a solution to this problem, you are asking people to change their lifestyles. How feasible is that?

The grass-roots response has been impressive. There are 330 U.S. cities that have independently embraced the Kyoto treaty. And millions of Americans are deciding to become carbon neutral.

Your critics on the right say that with all your jet-setting, you don't live as carbon neutral as you preach.

That's just not true. Two years ago we became a carbon-neutral family. I purchase Green Power [electricity from renewable sources], have installed new lightbulbs and clock thermostats, and I'm installing solar panels. We switched to a hybrid car. I am not recommending actions that I haven't already taken myself.

Soon there will be a new Democratic Congress in town. Do you think it will seriously tackle this issue?

Yes, I do. It remains to be seen, of course--in deeds, not only words. It will be difficult. But I think that the odds of meaningful change in U.S. policy have improved quite dramatically since the election.

Should ratifying the Kyoto Protocol be a priority?