Al Gore hails from Tennessee, but when he comes to California next week, he'll be coming back to his spiritual home. In 2000, Californians gave him a double-digit lead — 1.3 million votes — over George W. Bush for president. His documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Oscar. California's GOP governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed the nation's most groundbreaking greenhouse-gases law. Californians buy the Prius; the rest of the country buys Ford trucks. Gore arrives amid the hoo-hah over the half-billion-dollar sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, and touting a hefty new book magisterially titled "The Future." He must think that California, of all places, is ready for it.

What went through your mind when you heard President Obama say in his inaugural speech that the U.S. must lead the response to climate change?

I was very encouraged and happy he gave it emphasis and pride of place. I think it implies that he will do a great deal to follow up.

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