Al Gore's New Campaign

Tells 60 Minutes That Doubting Global Warming Is Man-Made Is Akin To Believing Earth Is Flat

(CBS)  His friends said they were worried about him and his state of mind, especially after he gained a lot of weight and grew a beard.

"You know, I don’t think it’s all that mysterious," Gore told Stahl. "You have shattering, disappointing setbacks. And you have a basic decision to make. Do you pick yourself up and go on or not? And it's not, ultimately, that's not a difficult choice," Gore says.

"You know, your lawyer, one of your lawyers in the Supreme Court case, said publicly of you: 'Al Gore thought the court’s ruling was wrong and obviously political,'" Stahl said.

"Well, I strongly disagreed with the decision," Gore said. "But to ascribe low and petty partisan motivations to the five justices who were in the majority, it doesn’t feel right for me to do that."

Asked how her husband has changed, Tipper Gore told Stahl, "For the better. Not that he needed to change for the better at all. But I have to say that I'm so proud of him. I mean, I think that if you look at anyone who kind of went through what, what he went through and see what he’s been able to do. I'm just really proud of the way that he has not given up. That he lifted himself and our family, you know, back up as well."

He lifted himself up by turning his old slides that were gathering dust in the basement into that mega-hit documentary; it's been translated into 27 languages, and was good enough to win an Oscar.

He not only made a comeback, he made a fortune. It started when he invested in Google early on. Worth less than $2 million in 2000, the Gores are worth so much now they’ve been able to invest $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.

They bought an 18-room mansion in Nashville. After they moved in, they were criticized because the house "Mr. Global Warming" lived in used 20 times more energy than the average American household. Since then, they have retrofitted everything, including installing 33 solar panels on the roof.

He’s also making his parents' farm eco-friendly, by installing windmills to generate electricity, with plans to turn it into a training center for people from all over the world.

For now he takes his slideshow on the road. 60 Minutes went with Gore to India.

"It's going to be so hard, so gigantically difficult to solve this problem. And expensive, no?" Stahl asked.

"It's much more expensive not to solve it," Gore said.

India is the world's fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and in New Delhi Gore was teaching 100 people how to give his slideshow and spread the word.

"You're giving talks to a hundred people. There are over a billion people in India. I mean, how do you expect to really have any kind of impact?" Stahl asked.

"This is the beginning. And then they will train others. And I will be training others," Gore said.