Gore, Al(bert) Arnold Jr (1948– )

US Democratic politician and environmentalist, vice-president 1993–2001. A member of the House of Representatives 1977–85 and senator for Tennessee 1985–93, he was on the conservative wing of the party, but held liberal views on such matters as women's rights, environmental issues, and abortion. As vice-president to president Bill Clinton he was unusually active in foreign affairs, and also advocated reforms in government through cutting red tape and improving efficiency. He narrowly failed to win the 2000 presidential election, winning 500,000 more votes but four fewer electoral-college seats than his Republican opponent, George W Bush. Since 2001 he has been an influential campaigner on environmental issues. His 2006 book and documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth (Academy Award), which warned of the dangers of increased global warming if human behaviour did not change, were best-sellers. In recognition of his crusading work for climate change awareness, he was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He has held strong views on arms control, the military, and foreign policy, and was a critic of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which he viewed as a diversion from the fight against al-Qaeda and terrorism. He unsuccessfully contested the Democrats' presidential nomination in 1988, but easily won it in 2000.

In 2007 he published The Attack on Reason, criticizing the Bush administration and television for propagating misinformation, and making a plea for the active restoration of democracy. He was the driving force behind the international Live Earth benefit concert on 7 July 2007.

Born in Washington, DC, Gore was raised in Tennessee, where his father was a senator, and worked as a journalist, property developer, and farmer before going into politics. In 2001 he became vice-chair of Metropolitan West Financial, a financial services holding company in Los Angeles, California.

His half of the $1.5 million Nobel prize money was to be donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a group seeking to change public opinion in the USA and globally on the urgency of dealing with climate change.