He discovered global warming; he created the Internet; and his wife shielded my young ears from curse words when I was growing up. Now Al Gore has decided it is time to single-handedly rescue the automotive world. Okay, not really, but Al Gore is a major backer of California-based Fisker Automotive, which has just secured a $529 million government loan to build a hybrid sports car in Finland.

Couple of problems here, but let's start with the idea of the car. I am so glad that Fisker is going to help the earth. I mean, who doesn't want to conserve fuel and reduce air pollution while cruising around in their four-door sports car? I mean, who doesn't have an extra $89,000 lying around to spend on transportation? Seriously, it is now at the point that only celebrities can afford a hybrid car that doesn't look like it was built of Lego.

With a lagging IPO market and a grinding global recession, it's been brutal for startup companies. Simply put, many VCs have been holding back.

But there is one area that remains hopeful: cleantech.

In fact, today, Hara, a new company in the space will launch. Funded with $6 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the firm will offer a sophisticated software system that measures, audits and provides advice on how to lower environmental waste.

"We've looked at several ways to play anticipated growth in wind energy; we've also considered titanium makers for that industry's ties to the production of lightweight, modern aircraft," notes Bill Martin.

In his BullMarket.com, he explains, "While the two trends might not appear to have much in common at first glance, Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL) offers a way to play both the aircraft and wind markets.

"The connection is the lightweight, composite materials Hexcel makes that are used by producers in both sectors. Hexcel develops and manufactures advanced structural materials.

"It is the largest U.S. producer of carbon fiber; the world's largest weaver of reinforcement fabrics; and the number-one producer of composite materials.

"Its product was initially developed for the aerospace industry, but is now used in a wide range of applications -- from golf clubs to satellite arrays, and from the rotor blades of wind turbines to life-saving monocoques for Formula 1 race cars.

"It's been a rollercoaster ride for Hexcel's stock in the past 12 months. The shares hit their one-year peak of $27.19 in December 2007; by January 22nd they had plummeted to $17.. The shares rebounded through May, only to fade again. Year to date, HXL is off about 15%.

With all the hysteria about global warming and the impact that it will have on the globe, I found it quite funny that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported yesterday that we just experienced the coldest winter since 2001. Hey Al Gore -- how can that be? I remember when I was growing up, in the mid- 1970's, Newsweek magazine had a cover story about the beginning of the ice age. Amazing what can happen in 25 years. We can go from an ice age, to global warming. Not bad.

According to the NOAA report:

"In the contiguous United States, the average winter temperature was 33.2°F (0.6°C), which was 0.2°F (0.1°C) above the 20th century average – yet still ranks as the coolest since 2001. It was the 54th coolest winter since national records began in 1895. "

Why not ask the Chinese about global warming? They just experience a horribly snowy winter which has been a major cause of inflation. Extreme cold temperatures were the norm this winter. Over the last 150 years or so the global mean temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This small amount of warming is not unusual, and falls well within the range of variation for both warming a cooling.

Former Vice President Al Gore is doing quite nicely staying out of the current political fray.

Generation Investment Management Ltd., which he co-founded with ex-Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) banker David Blood in 2004, attracted nearly $5 billion to its main Global Equity Fund and is probably restricting inflows into the fund next month, according to Bloomberg News.

The fund has some pretty high ideals according to its Web site: "We focus on the economic, environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities that can materially affect a company's ability to sustain profitability and deliver returns. Our research plays an important role in forming our views on the quality of the business, the quality of management, and valuation."

So how does that translate in the real world? Al Gore isn't providing performance details, according to the Bloomberg story. It's kind of weird for Gore to be so mum considering that its biggest holding Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is up more than 60% over the past year in U.S. trading.

Looks like Al Gore, the world's most prominent environmentalist, also is interested in the type of green that you put in your bank account. The former vice president and Nobel prize winner's company, Current Media, told the SEC today that it plans to raise as much as $100 million through an IPO.

His timing, though, couldn't have been worse. Bloomberg News reports that about 24 companies have canceled IPOs in the past month, the most in a decade. So what makes Al Gore, the company's executive chairman, and his partner Joel Hyatt, the CEO, think the time is right for Current Media? I have no idea.

For one thing, the parent of the Current TV cable channel, is almost $32 million in the red and neither Gore nor Joel Hyatt have any agreement to either remain employed by the company or maintain their stock ownership at particular levels, according to a filing with the SEC.

Interestingly, Current Media pays its executives pretty well. Gore and Hyatt both earned more than $1.04 million in compensation from the company in 2007. Both have also lent the San Francisco-based company $1 million each, the filing said.

Odds are pretty good that this IPO isn't going to happen. Current Media, though, would make an attractive acquisition target for a media conglomerate such as Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) or Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) because it attracts a young audience that advertisers covet. Rupert Murdoch probably would like the company as well, but I doubt that Gore would ever be able to show his face at Earth Day again if he sold out to News Corp (NYSE: NWS).

The Associated Press reports that 2000 president-elect and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore called for a universal global cap on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and the use of the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reduction.

In accepting his Nobel Prize in person, Gore missed a chance to attend the wedding of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) co-founder Larry Page to Lucy Southworth at Necker Island. But Gore's speech included some stirring calls to act: "Despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world's leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat: 'They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.'"

What action is Gore taking? This week, he plans to urge the delegates in Bali to ratify a U.N. treaty to reduce global warming and bring it into effect everywhere in the world by the beginning of 2010 -- two years ahead of schedule. He also calls for heads of state to meet every three months until the treaty is completed. He urges a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store CO₂. And he calls for a CO₂ tax that shifts the tax burden from employment to pollution.

Too bad Gore's not a head of state with the power to make this happen.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Google.

2007 Nobel Prize Winner and 2000 Presidential election winner Al Gore has another notch on his belt -- partner at Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm -- Kleiner Perkins. (Thanks to the Supreme Court, Gore -- who won the 2000 Presidential vote -- did not serve.)

But he handled the disappointment well. His work on the documentary An Inconvenient Truth -- easily the highest payoff PowerPoint presentation ever made -- has helped make the world aware of the threat it faces from global warming and what people can do about it. Gore insightfully points out that climate change is a matter of war and peace. It has created conflict -- the drying up of a lake in Sudan contributed to genocide there and the melting of the polar icecap has set off an international sea grab at the top of the world.

So what's the deal with Gore at Kleiner Perkins? According to the New York Times, President-elect Gore's part-time job at Kleiner will be to assess the potential of alternative energy companies and to opine on whether Kleiner Perkins should invest in them. Gore plans to donate his salary from the venture to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit policy foundation. But he was not clear about whether he'd get the partner's share of the 2% of assets under management and 20% of the profits from successful "exits."

He was clearer about his political aspirations -- noting "I don't expect to be a candidate again."

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

As someone who is very skeptical of the "global warming mania" that is sweeping the world, I found yesterday's announcement that none other than Nobel Prize winner and former VP Al Gore is joining the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as a partner quite amusing. There is no question that Gore can open doors and get meetings with anyone he wants but what does he know about building a private business? As a former senator, he never met an anti-business regulation that he didn't like. Now Gore is going to "assist both start-up companies and their investors with product strategies, helping them navigate through the political maze and regulatory battles that accompany new technologies." Isn't it ironic that he will be consulting companies to work the the regulatory maze that he himself created!

But what does he know about the world of start-ups? Having worked in venture capital I can tell you that trailblazing around the world and meeting with world leaders at Davos, isn't how to build a successful company. Hard-work and boot-strapping it are the way to go. No first class international business trips on the company's tab. That perk went away with the hi-tech bubble burst of 7 years ago. While it was easy for the former senator to waste taxpayer money in Washington, DC, the private sector is a different ballgame. Investors expect accountability.

Until actual science proves that there is such a thing as man-made global warming, let's hope Mr. Gore goes the way of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who joined KPCB two years ago as a part-time partner, never to be heard from again. Maybe that will end the mania.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. He holds no position in any stock mentioned as of 11/13/07.

Not long ago, Al Gore seemed like a has-been. Then he snagged both an Academy Award and the Nobel Peace prize.

Will these accolades persuade him to run for president again?

Perhaps not. Perhaps there are more effective ways to enact sweeping change. To wit: Gore has become a partner at the esteemed venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The firm has invested in such game-changing companies as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Looking at global warming, water scarcity, increasing pollution and population, and declining natural resources, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that these problems are too large and intractable, no matter how much money and effort we throw at them. Stuart Hall's Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth and Humanity, with a foreword by recent Noble Peace Prize recipient Al Gore, provides reason for cautious optimism. Just as concentrated human creativity and large-scale changes in behavior helped address holes in the ozone layer, so Hall provides a framework for how multinational corporations, not governments, can lead the efforts to guild a "sustainable global network," each word being equally important.

Hall is well known for his efforts to help businesses develop products and policies to serve the needs of the 4 billion people in the world who live at "the base of the pyramid." Rather than think of the 80% of the global population who live in the developing world as "the poor," Hall provides numerous examples of how businesses can use the developing world as a lab to develop clean technologies using sustainable practices, then scale those results up to the middle of the pyramid.

Now that "going green" has entered mainstream corporate thinking. Hall offers us plans to move "beyond green." It is not enough for the developed world merely to moderate its carbon footprint. We must rethink how we use the world's natural rsources to meet our needs in ways that do not make it impossible for future generations to meet theirs. Investors will want to read this book to learn which companies are on the leading edge of developing profitable sustainable technologies to create long-term value for the triple bottom line: social, environmental and economic.

Overnight, a barrel of crude hit $86.79 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to MarketWatch. The news site says, "Among the bigger news items impacting oil, Turkey's government asked parliament late Monday to approve a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq."

But it now appears that almost any excuse will move oil up.

And this is not the end of it. OPEC is only lifting production by 2% in November, while Chinese demand for imported oil rose 18% in the first eight months of this year. Turmoil in areas where oil is produced is growing. Nigeria and Venezuela are not considered stable. It will not take much of another "little war" in the Middle East to move crude higher. The only good news is that hurricane season is winding down and production interruptions in the Gulf of Mexico are less likely.

With a tip of the hat to Al Gore, the rotund champion of the environment, former Vice President, and current Nobel winner, big economies are still their own worst enemies in the arena of energy consumption. There is no reason to believe that supply can keep up long-term, and OPEC sees no reason to help out. Higher oil prices are an excellent money-making proposition.

Oil is moving higher. There are too few forces to move it down. And, with winter setting in around the Northern Hemisphere, a bit of oil is going to be needed to keep us warm.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

I had a notion once to start a guerrilla marketing company, offering to destroy competing brands by dressing the ugliest, most loathsome people I could find in that competing brand's product.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that Dean Cain (Superboy) or G.W. Bush (Superpresidenter guy) fall into that category, but Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) has to be a little concerned when the brand shows up on C-list actors and unpopular politicians.

This caused me to jot down a list of Crocs-killers -- people who, by adopting the footwear, could trash the brand. In no particular order --

• Kim Il Jong
• Larry King
• Ziggy
• Mike Tyson
• Osama bin Laden (only in U.S., however)
• Draco Malfoy
• Joan Rivers
• Al Gore
• Tom Barlow (if you knew me, you'd understand.)

There's a reason trendy nightclubs have doormen to weed out us dweebs. Perhaps Crocs should consider the same.

Former President (and potential First Man) Bill Clinton is taking another stab at authorship. Possibly following the humanitarian lead of his former right-hand man, Al Gore, the former commander in chief is publishing a book on citizen activism, titled Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

The book will be released on September 4, according to Knopf Publish Group (a division of Random House ... which is a unit of the privately held Bertelsmann AG). The initial print run will total 750,000 copies.

In an accompanying quote, the sax-wielding democrat noted that his observations of workers' devotion to various charitable organizations around the world have proven to him that "almost everyone -- regardless of income, available time, age and skills -- can do something useful for others and, in the process, strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity."

Clinton already has a good track record in the nation's bookstores. His 2004 memoir, My Life, was a leading seller for Knopf; the 957-page book sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and was printed in more than 30 countries. According to The Washington Post, it managed a fist-day nonfiction sales record of 400,000 copies.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

As comedians, personalities, and musicians worldwide joined together to promote the cause of environmental awareness, interested viewers took to their computers, collectively generating more than 9 million internet streams, according to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s MSN service.

The previous record was set in 2005 during Live 8 - another philanthropic concert aimed to fight global poverty. "We have exceeded any other online entertainment event," MSN's product manager noted in a Reuters piece. "It's really exciting to see the enthusiasm for the concert."