Albert Arnold “Al” Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is currently an author, businessperson, and American environmental activist who starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award in 2007. Gore also wrote the book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, which won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in February 2009.^[2]

He was involved in American politics for 24 years, serving first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U.S. Senate (1985–93) (representing Tennessee) before becoming vice president. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president in the 2000 presidential election. He won the popular vote by approximately 500,000 votes, but ultimately lost the electoral college to Republican candidate George W. Bush when the legal controversy over the Florida election recount was eventually settled in the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5–4 margin in favor of Bush^[3]—the only time in history the Court may have determined the outcome of a presidential election.^[4]

Gore is the recipient of a number of awards. He and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In addition, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV in 2007, a Webby Award in 2005, and was named as a runner-up for Time’s 2007 Person of the Year.^[5]

He is currently the founder and chair of Alliance for Climate Protection, the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management, the co-founder and chair of Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior advisor to Google.^[6] Gore is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm’s climate change solutions group.^[7][8] In addition, he is on the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University as a visiting professor, and was a visiting professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.^{[6][9][10][11]}