MNN - Mother Nature Network

The Al Gore book tour is once again rolling, with the former vice president hitting the media circuit to promote his new tome, "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change".

 

As indicated, the book addresses six critical forces that will shape our world over the next several decades; economic globalization, unsustainable population and consumption growth, the "global mind" of the Internet, advances in life sciences, shifts in power and global warming.

 

"We find ourselves in a period of rapid, simultaneous and exponential change, unlike anything the world has ever seen before," writes Gore in a piece on HuffPo. "Trying to make sense of our new reality is a daunting challenge. The future holds both great opportunities to be taken advantage of and profound challenges to address. More so than ever before, humanity needs to unite around the principles of sustainability and democracy. We all have an important role to play in reclaiming control of our destiny."

 

A book trailer for "The Future" is below. 

 

 

Early reviews for "The Future," his third major release since the groundbreaking "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2006, have been mixed. A NY Times review was particularly scathing, calling the book a "snoozy think-tank book" that "bites off way more than it can plausibly digest."

 

Over on Bloomberg, Craig Seligman praises "The Future" as illuminating and a testament to Gore's passion for the subject, but ultimately a dry read.

 

"I’m feeling like a girl who went out with the class brain, wished he would tell a joke or put his hand on my knee, then realized as he droned on that he would make a loving husband and responsible father and ended the evening ready to say “I do,” he quips in his review. 

 

With it's release today (Jan. 29), we'll have to wait a few weeks to see how the public reacts to Gore's new vision for our world. You can see him chat about the new book on the "Today" show below.