Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Former US Vice President Al Gore

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Former US Vice President Al Gore · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: At the Bloomberg House in Davos.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I recently had a chance to sit down with Al Gore,
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: former Vice President of the United States, had a chance
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: to ask him what it was like to come so
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: close to being president but not actually becoming president. I
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: also asked him why are spending so much time on
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: clean energy and cleaning up the environment? So today you're
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: spending a fair amount of your time on your investment operation.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: You make a lot of speeches. You're also involved on
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: the board of the World Economic Forum where we are
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: today in Davos.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: What propelled you to go on the board of the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: World Economic Forum.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Klaus Schwab, the former chairman and the founder of with
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: the World Economic Forum, called me and asked me to
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: join after I wrote a book called The Future, Six
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Drivers of Global Change. It turned out that Klaus Schwab
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: was the target demographic for that book, and he liked
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: it a lot and called me and asked me to
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: join the board.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: You are an advocate for climate change and that people
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: should take more attention to it. What do you think
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: people can realistically do to do more about climate change
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: than we're doing, And if you might talk about the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Paris Accords because under the Paris Accords, So I understand
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: it when it was set up that with the goal
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: was to get the temperature, the celsius temperature not to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: go up by the year twenty one hundred by more
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: than let's say one point four degrees and now we're
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: on track to go to two or two and a
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: half time or two and a half degrees celsius. So,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: in other words, by twenty one hundred, if we did nothing,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the theory was you go to four degrees higher, four
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: degrees celsius higher, and that would be catastrophic. How close
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: are we going to get to the original goal of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: let's say one point two, one point three, one point four.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: We can overshoot and then come back down. If we
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: stop adding more heat trapping pollution to the atmosphere and
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: stabilize at what they call in that zero, the temperature
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: will stop going up immediately. It's a thermostatic system, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: the thermostat is not a round knob on the wall.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: It's a set of policies that currently include massive subsidies
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: for fossil fuels. If we didn't subsidize fossil fuels and
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: force the taxpayers to subsidize them, they would be gone
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: pretty quickly.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: If fossil fuels had not been discovered on the face
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: of the earth, there had been no oil and gas.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Do you think civilization would be further ahead of where
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: it is or we be behind because fossil.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Fuels have been able us to do many things we
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: otherwise couldn't do.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no question about it. And we owe the men
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: and women in the fossil fuel industry for helping create
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: this civilization that we enjoy today. And they did not
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: know until fifty years ago at least, that the byproduct
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: this heat trapping pollution was going to cause such problems.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: And you know, just to pause on this for a moment, David.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Yesterday three hundred thousand people were forced from their homes
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: in Mozambique. Fifty thousand people two days ago were forced
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: from their homes by these massive downpours in South Africa,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: three days ago in Chile, massive fires contributed connected to
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: the climate crisis. Last year in the US we had
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: twelve once in a thousand year downpours in the space
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: of three days. We had the Los Angeles fires in
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: my home state of Tennessee, and even more so in
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: neighboring North Carolina the downpour associated with that massive Hurricane Helen.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: We got more rain in four days than falls over
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: the largest waterfall in the world in two and a
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: half years, and it's getting steadily worse. Beyond that, there
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: are very tiny areas in the world today that are
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: physiologically unlivable. In the Sahara Desert, a few places around
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the Persian Gulf, the combination of heat and humidity makes
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: it impossible for people to live for more than four
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: or five hours outdoors. Those areas are now beginning to
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: expand dramatically, and the World Health Organization's Climate Committee says
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that by twenty fifty we could have one to two
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: billion climate migrants crossing international borders, a few million coming
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: from the Eastern Mediterranean. With the climate drought there led
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: to Victor Orbonn and Brexit and authoritarian friendly governments that
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: have emerged. It's hard to imagine what a billion climate
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: migrants would do to our capacity for self governance. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: we're in danger of crossing some so called negative tipping points,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: like the shutting down of the Gulf String sounds like
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: a science fiction movie and it was, but it's now
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: a very real threat, and there are others. We are
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: now trapping as much heat with this pollution every day
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: as would be released by seven hundred and fifty thousand
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Hirotima class atomic bombs exploding every twenty four hours.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: You've been Vice President United States. You've won the Nobel
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Peace Prize without.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Lobbying for it. Who would do that?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: You won the Academy Award for your picture on the environment.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: You've been a senator, vice president, member of Congress. Why
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: are you so driven at this point to worry about
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: climate change? You've done so many things in your life.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, climate change is an important thing, but let
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: some other people do Why are you so driven on
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: this subject?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: First of all, minor detail. I always give Davis Guggenheim
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: credit for the Academy Award. He was the director. I
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: have visiting rights to the Academy Award. But why am
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I so driven? Well, when I was very young, when
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I was a college student. First of all, I had
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: no idea that climate was going to be take over
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: my life to the extent that it has. But I
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: had in my last year in college a course under
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: a man now recognized as one of the greatest climate
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: signed as of all time, Roger Ravel and he opened
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: my eyes to the issue and educated me, and it
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: was like a window opening onto the future. And everything
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: that he said at the time has come true. Unfortunately,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: he designed the first experiment to measure CO two in
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the Earth's atmosphere, and David Keeling, a scientist who created
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: what's called the Keeling curve. That's the bedrock of modern
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: climate science. Anyway, I was first introduced to the issue
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: back when I was very young, twenty years old, and
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: later when I got to the Congress well, I kept
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: in touch with Professor Ravel and stayed close to him.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: When I was elected to Congress, I started asking what
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: are we doing about what we call global warming then?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: And the answer was crickets or you know, nobody had
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: really heard of it to any extent. I finally got
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: permission to hold the first Congressional hearing in the House
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: on climate, and I invited my professor to be the
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: leadoff witness, and I naively thought that his statement would
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: create the same epiphany for my colleagues on the dayas
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that a full college coorus had created for me, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: that did not happen at all. And in the aftermath
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: of that hearing, I first asked myself the question, how
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: can I recreate the aha moment that I had and
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: explain this in a way that takes this great scientist
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: message to others, because it's so critical, David, and it's
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: the kind of challenge where once you pick it up,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: you really can't put it down because it's such a threat.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: It has to be dealt with.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: So when you were a young man, you decided to
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: go to Harvard College, and your father was a United
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Center from Tennessee.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: You went to Harvard and your.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Roommate was Tommy Lee Jones, and he was more famous
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: at the time. I guess, well, he was a great
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: football player at the time and a great student actor,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and we remain great friends to this day.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: So if you graduated, most people in your generation, which
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: was my generation, figured out, how can I not go
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: into the Vietnam War and how can I not go
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: into the military. Obviously some people did, and they deserve
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: credit for it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: But you enlisted.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: You volunteered, You wouldn't wait to be drafted.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Why did you enlist?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And didn't that cause a lot of concern on your family's.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Part, certainly on my mother's part. Yes, I was raised
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: in two places. My father was in the Congress, House
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: and Senate. So I spent a lot of time in
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: DC as a child, but every summer in Christmas and
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: my spiritual home was in Carthage, Tennessee, and that's where
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: my draft board was. And I couldn't imagine walking down
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: the street and seeing a family whose son had died
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: in Vietnam and them knowing that I had used some
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: connections to get out of it. There was another factor
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: I have to add that helped to clarify the issue
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: for me, and that is my father was a leading
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: opponent of the Vietnam War, and I was immensely proud
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: of him. His reelection was coming up, and getting out
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: of Vietnam did not seem like the most honorable thing
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: for me to do, and it didn't seem like the
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: most beneficial thing for my dad either. So I decided
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: that the right thing to do was to go ahead
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: and volunteer. I went in as a private and went
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: to Vietnam.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: After you got out of military service, you went to
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Divinity school. Were you thinking of being a preacher or something?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I was not.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: I was raised in a church going family, but at
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: the age of twenty one, I felt very strongly the
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: moral dilemma of being opposed to the Vietnam War, marching
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: in opposition to the Vietnam War, and then how could you.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: Go and be a part of it.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: I had my reasons, and I thought they were sound
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: and valid, but I worried about it. You know, when
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: you're that young, you can build these things up in
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: your mind, and I thought that coming back to the
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: UA after the war, it would be healthy and good
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: for me to have a structured environment where I could
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: explore the ethical questions that I had focused on.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: So you didn't complete Divinity school, You went to journalism
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: school for a while. No, No, I thought you went
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: to journalism school I went to When I came back
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: from Vietnam, I got a job ninety five dollars a
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: week working as a cub reporter for the Nashville Tennessee.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: And you may have known John Sigenthal's, a great editor
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: who was my mentor. And then I went to Divinity
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: school at the same time, and as a journalist I
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: benefited a great deal from Sigenthaler's tutoring. I became an
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: investigative journalist and got into corruption and local and state government.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: There was a corruption in local in state government.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: It's hard to believe, I know, but even back then,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: it occasionally appeared two councilmen I got indicted. One of
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: them was convicted. The lawsuits I was in, I was
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: a witness in a couple of trials, and I saw, boy,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: this law thing. I need to know more about this.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: My parents were both lawyers, so there was that. But
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: I decided to go to law school, continued to work
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: at the newspaper, and I thought that I would maybe
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: be Fred Graham. Do you remember Fred Graham? He was
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: the BBS Supreme Court reporter, first for the New York
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Times NCBs. He was a kind of a role model
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: for me in those days. But you didn't complete law school, No,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: because at the end of my second year, the congressional
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: seat in my home district came open. There was a
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: surprise retirement, and I packed up and just started running
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: for Congress on the spur of the moment. I surprised
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: myself in some ways.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Was somebody who did finish law school. I can tell
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: you didn't miss anything.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: I always felt I always felt guilty about not finishing it.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Don't feel guilty about that.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: So you were a successful member of Congress. You then
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: ran for the Senate. You got elected to the Senate,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: and then in nineteen eighty eight you ran for president
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: and you didn't win.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: I was thirty eight years old.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: In some dictionaries, I'm told if you look up the
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: word hutz, but you'll see a picture.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Of my announcement speech.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, thirty eight years old. You didn't get elected.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Now, coming third place on the Democratic exite not.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Bad, but so you considered running again. The Ducaucus was
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: the nominee. He lost fairly decisively to George Herbert Walker Bush.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: In ninety two, you thought about running again and you
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: decided not to. Why did you not run again? You
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: were older and you had more experience. Why not run
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: in ninety two.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: In April of nineteen eighty nine, one of my children
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: had a very very serious accident, your son, my son,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: almost lost his life, and the recovery was quite lengthy,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: and the stress and strain on the family.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Of course, in a car had hit him.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: He was hit by a car.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: I went to your beloved Orioles in Baltimore, and after
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: the game, I hate to tell you, I was rooting
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: for the Red Socks in that game, But afterwards he
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: was hit by a car. It was a devastating experience
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: in so many ways. I was worried when I got
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: to him that he had died. Everything turned out great,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: He's fantastic. When the ninety two campaign approached, I was
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: still as a dad in the midst of taking care
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: of my family.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: So then Bill Clinton gets the nomination, Yeah, for president.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And then he's a Southerner, obviously, And did you ever
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: think he would pick another Southerner to be his vice
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: presidential candidate? And did you think twice about ever becoming
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: vice president?
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: When you ask you, I never expected that he would
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: pick me. No, because the tradition up until that time
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: had been in both parties to balance the ticket geographically, ideologically,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: and so forth. And Bill and I were from neighboring
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: states in the Upper South and the same part of
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the ideological spectrum. We had advocated for a intrism approach
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: at the Democratic Party. I never thought he would do it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: But I was at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: chairing the Senate Delegation on climate when I got the call,
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: and I still didn't think.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: It was very serious. But we had a terrific set.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Of conversations, and then did I think twice about accepting
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: that invitation? I did, actually, But my conversations with Bill
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: went so well that I'm glad that I did it
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: all right.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: She served as vice president for eight years. Then you
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: decided to run for president. But you got immersed in
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the private sector and you went on the board of Apple.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: What was your qualification to be on the board of Apple?
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Well, good question.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: But I had become friends with Steve Jobs when he
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: was at his first tour at Apple, and I was
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: a young congressman who one of the sponsors of legislation
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: to ease his donation of computers to schools. Became friends,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: and I had worked on networking issues and technology issues.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: When I became vice president, I got a commitment from
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: President Clinton that I would handle technology and the environment,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: and he kept his word on that. And I was
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: deeply involved with the computer industry.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: So you also started an investment company. Yeah, nothing could
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: be more important than it begin an.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: Investor, right, I learned from you.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Right, So you started an investment company, but it had
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: the concept that you would invest only companies that did
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: things that were good for society.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: It's a very novel concept and it actually worked out.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: So far as yeah, very much so. And I learned
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: my secret to success in businesses to get great partners
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: and David Blood, my co founder. The old joke is
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I've worn it out. Really, I wanted to name the
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: firm Blood and Gore, but the other partners would wouldn't
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: agree to it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: But when I first left the.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: White House in Gail Anuary of two thousand and one, involuntarily,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I got an offer from another investment firm. And it's
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: common you went through this transition from the White House
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: to the private sector yourself, and the salaries in the
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: private sector are a little bigger than you get in
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: public service. But I didn't really enjoy it. They were
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: great people, but it was just about making money. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I hope that doesn't sound weird, but it didn't get
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: my passions flowing. And I learned the business and decided
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: I'd like to find a way to set it up
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: in alignment with the principles I felt are so important.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: We don't invest in fossil fuels. I urge you not
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: to do it too, by the way, but everybody else does.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: You'll think about it.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: I hope you will, because I hope we can come
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: back to climate It's way more serious than people realize.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: But in any case, at the end of that first
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: gig in investing, I had been fortunate enough to go
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: to work for Google right out of the White House,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: and that was a good move as it turned out,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: and I went to try to set up my own
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: investment firm, and that's when I met David Blood. He
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: was retiring from Goldman Sachs, and we set up this
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: firm twenty one years ago.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: And now it's had a higher rate of return than
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: the S and P five hundred I gather.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: Over that period, we've had a lot of success. The
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: people who work with us are fantastic, and if you
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: set it up in the way you just we invest
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: everything through a sustainability lens that attracts the brightest and
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: best people to come knock on your door and want
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: to work with you.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: I have the terrific group that I work with.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: When you were I called and told you you and
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: a few others had won the Nobel Peace Prize, where
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: you thinking it was a mistake or a joke er
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: because you hadn't been campaigning for it, and it wasn't
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: climate change wasn't considered a peace Prize kind of thing
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: the time. So were you surprised or you kind of
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: knew maybe it might happen.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: A little both.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: I was surprised, but in the days leading up to it,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: there had been some buzz about that possibility. So when
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: the actual announcement came at two o'clock in the morning, I.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: Was waiting up to watch the news.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: But you haven't given your Nobel Peace Prize anybody else,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: right you?
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I just don't have I you know, I hadn't even
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: thought of doing that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Actually, you ran for president of the United States in
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: the year twenty twenty five years ago. You lost by
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: maybe some people would say five hundred and thirty some
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: votes in one in Florida, or you could say one
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: vote in the Supreme Court, depending on how you look
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: at it. Why did you not go complain about that
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: or say, hey, I've been in the election stolen. You
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: had pretty good grounds for protesting it. Why did you
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: ultimately just make a speech saying, look, the system goes forward,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: and I congratulate.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: The winner, and I'm going about my business. Wasn't that
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: hard to do?
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Well? Yes?
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: But what I really did was what Winston Churchill said
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: about the American people, they generally do the right thing
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: after first exhausting every available alternative. And I did exhaust
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: every available alternative save one that the outcome of which
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: would have been certain. There is a very little known
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: provision in the constitution that if you get to a
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: complete deadlock in the electoral College, then it goes to
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: the House of Representatives, and it's a strange mechanism where
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: each state has one vote. The Republican Party completely dominated
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: that election. So if the country had been dragged through
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: that for six months or whatever without any outcome, and
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: then the outcome when it came was a foregone conclusion,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: it seemed to me that that was the right decision
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to make.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Is there anything that humans today can do, yes, that
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: will change the lives of the humans currently on the earth.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: In other words, yeah, things that you do now might
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: affect my great grandchildren.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Maybe ab'll help them.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: But today, why should I do something that I'm not
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: going to see the benefit of.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, first of all, people who switch over are
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: getting the benefit right away. But coming back to the
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: point about the fossil fuel industry and our debt to them,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: there's an old saying that came from the King of
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia years ago. The Stone Age didn't end because
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: of a shortage of stones. It ended because something better
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: came along. Something better has come along now to replace
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: fossil fuels, which are dirty and polluting and threatening humanity's future.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: The cheapest electricity in the history of the world is
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: solar energy. Second cheapest is wind energy, and now batteries
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: that the only things come down in price faster than
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: solar is utility scale batteries doubling every single.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Why are we ending the wind farms that are now
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: being built off the coast of the United States.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: We're ending them.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Because Trump is insane.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: On another subject, you don't you don't want to explore that, but.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: Let me, let me, let let her, let me.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Let me add one point on the solar If I
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: asked you, it's not a trick question. But if you
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: look at all of the new electricity generation installed worldwide
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: last year, I often asked people what percentage of it
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: was renewable, and people say, you know, they're looking for
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: a high number, say maybe thirty thirty five percent. Correct
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: answer is ninety three percent. Because it is taking over
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: the electricity generation industry EVS from a standing start to
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: two decades ago. One quarter of all the new car
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: cars sold last year were evs, sixty percent last month.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: You drive an EV I do?
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Yes? Okay?
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: What do you do?
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: You're a very serious person. You've done all these great
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: things in your life.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: What do you do to relax?
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, can't you just say, Look, I've been vice president,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I've won the Nobel Peace Prize, i won an Academy Award,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: I've done all these things. I'm just going to take
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: some time off and relax. Do you have a relax
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: or it takes chill out?
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: I'm relaxing right now.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Really okay, all right?
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: But you have great Yes, yes, I do enjoy.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: What do I do when you're relaxed? I see you
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: have cowboy boots on? Are you? You're not from Texas?
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: How come you have cowboy boots?
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: These came from my brother in law forty years ago,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: and they're so molded to my feet. They're the most
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: comfortable shoes I have.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: But don't take them off at night or just they're
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: just really.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought about sleeping in them, but probably don't.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: You asked about Grandchildren'm very proud to have ten grandchildren, Ken, Yeah.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Can you remember all their names?
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Of course? Of course?
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: And how do you remember their birthdays? You must have
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a I do pretty good on that, really.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Any of them want to run for office?
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think so. I think some of them
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: would be great candidates if they chose to. I don't
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: think they're really drawn to that, right.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: So, in this long and very impressive career, what would
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: you say you're most proud of having achieved in your life?
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: What would you say to your ten grand show that
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: this is what your grandfather did that you should be
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: proud of.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Well, helping raise my four kids and helping them raise
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: my ten grandchildren is what I would be most proud of.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: In terms of my professional.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Activities and political activities, I've devoted a lot of time
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: to trying to raise awareness of why we have to
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: solve the climate crisis, and we do have to do it.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: We really don't have any choice about this. I look
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: back on the work that I was privileged to be
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: able to do with President Reagan on nuclear arms control
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: when I was in the House and in the first
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: years in the Senate. I look back at the Reinventing
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Government program and the work on computer networking also very
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: impressive career.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for being here, and good luck
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: on everything or doing on climate change.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Thank you, David, thank you, thank you.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: wherever you listen.