Gore: 'No Plans' for 2008

June 3, 2006 — -- In an exclusive appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing in full on ABC Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore said, "I can't imagine any circumstances in which case I would become a candidate again," declaring, "I've found other ways to serve [and] I'm enjoying them."

So far, the long-time politician -- whose crusade to educate Americans on the effects of global warming is the subject of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," released worldwide this weekend -- is content to spread his message at the theater and not on the campaign trail.

"I have no plans plans to be a candidate for president again," Gore told ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos. "I don't expect to ever be a candidate for president again. I haven't made a so-called Sherman statement, because it just seems unnecessary."

Then he joked, "I'm 58 years old; that's the new 57 now."

Giving his first Sunday morning interview in more than three years, Gore deflected assertions that some Democrats feel he has a "duty" to run in 2008, defended his efforts to combat global warming, and told ABC News, "I don't feel like I have to apologize for focusing my energies on creating a sufficient awareness and sense of urgency on the single biggest issue that humankind has ever faced.

"George, we have a planetary emergency," Gore told Stephanopoulos. "That phrase may sound shrill or alarmist but it's not. … We may have less than 10 years before we cross the point of no return."

An environmental activist since his days in the Senate, Gore wrote "Earth in the Balance" 14 years ago, shortly before joining then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in their successful run for the White House in 1992. Gore's documentary is an expanded version of the global warming presentation he's been delivering and updating throughout his career.

Gore, narrowly defeated by then-Gov. George W. Bush in a heated presidential election ultimately concluded by a Supreme Court ruling, criticized the Bush administration for failing to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, a worldwide effort led by the United Nations to commit signatory nations to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions.

But the former vice president contended it's about more than the White House.

"The country is not yet at a point where [combating global warming] is seen as a politically credible thing to do, that's what I want to change," Gore said.

Out of the political arena for nearly six years, Gore recently appeared the NBC program "Saturday Night Live" to kick off the press tour to accompany the release of "An Inconvenient Truth."

Gore, who twice tried and failed to get elected president over a 25-year political career, was frequently criticized for his seemingly stiff demeanor in the 2000 campaign.

"There's a lot about the political process I really don't like," he told Stephanopoulos. "It's a toxic process. [But] there are things I miss."

During the interview to air Sunday on "This Week," Stephanopolous also presses Gore for his views on the developments in Iraq, responsibility for the alleged massacre in Haditha, the NSA wiretapping program, and whether or not the presence of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 presidential contest would make him more or less likely to run.

George Stephanopoulos's entire, exclusive interview with Gore airs on "This Week" Sunday on ABC. Please check local listings or "This Week's" Web page at www.abcnews.com for additional information.