The Chinese version of The Future.

Every summer, when Al Gore was still a boy, he worked on his family's farm in Carthage, Tennessee. The former American vice president under Bill Clinton is so familiar with agricultural life there that, in his latest book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, he tells a simple story about a once-familiar sight in rural Tennessee.

Al Gore with running mate Bill Clinton Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

Many years ago, on farms across the state, tortoises could be seen perched on top of the fences that lined the fields. Gore explains that before the invention of chemical pesticides, since local farmers regarded tortoises, birds and bats, agriculturally beneficial creatures, as their loyal companions, they felt responsible for protecting them from injury. Therefore, before farmers started to till the fields, they would first walk around and pick up all the tortoises they could find to put them out of harm's way until they finished their work, when they would then return the tortoises to the ground.

Of course, with the advent of modern farming and agribusiness, this scene is no longer visible.

Al Gore with presidential opponent George W. Bush Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

Gore famously likes to joke that he "used to be the next President of the United States." In fact, since his controversial loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 elections, Gore has been one of the most influential former vice presidents in living memory. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental advocacy in 2007 and an Oscar for his widely viewed 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Gore now sits on the Board of Directors of Apple and is a senior partner at one of the world's leading venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

In The Future, Gore dons the hat of a senior strategist and uses his foresight and sagacity to take the long view. He expands his horizons to survey the whole world and explores a comprehensive range of issues including the global economy, technology, population problems and gene development.

Among the six drivers of global change that Gore outlines in the book's six chapters - "Earth Inc.," "The Global Mind," "Power in the Balance," "Outgrowth," "The Reinvention of Life and Death" and "The Edge" - China is mentioned in almost every chapter, appearing over one hundred times.

Al Gore with Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth director David Guggenheim. Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

A poster for An Inconvenient Truth Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

Although many cutting-edge ideas, like custom babies, robo-sourcing (the devouring of jobs by machines) and big data, described in the book were not dreamt up by Gore himself, he spent the past eight years integrating these concepts and producing a big picture analysis.

Roughly six months after The Future hit bookshops in the West, the Chinese translation was released here by Shanghai Translation Publishing House (STH) on July 24.

"It is a book that is especially closely related to China and Chinese people," Shi Lingkong, the chief editor of STH said at the press conference for the book's Chinese release, which is one of the main reasons why they decided to import Gore's book.

"References to China are found throughout the book and the content involves almost every aspect of Chinese society, including politics, economics, technology, population, the environment and so on," Shi added.

Al Gore with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

In Shi's opinion, he believes that now is exactly the right time to release the Chinese version, and points out that it has a particular significance for Shanghai.

Shi told the Global Times, "Recently, an experimental free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai was announced, signaling that a new global economic trend is rising here, and Gore's book offers real enlightenment."

Shen Dingli, executive vice dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, called The Future a textbook for every citizen in this world. Gore himself stated that the book is not just for national leaders or elites, but for everyone.

"Anyone who has a social conscience and concern about the future should read the book," Shen said. He believes that a simple but important point that the book makes is that people must bear in mind that their actions today will have an impact on the future.

Al Gore with talk show host Oprah Winfrey Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Translation Publishing House

Shen says that Gore's analysis illustrates the expansion of globalized capital's disrespect for people. This disrespect is manifested in the unequal distribution of wealth and power, which leaves capital in the hands of a privileged minority, and unsustainable economic development, which occurs at the cost of enormous damage to the environment. Gore points out that China ought to care much more about this problem and avoid copying the past mistakes of the West.

Although Gore presents many serious problems in his book, he still holds an optimistic attitude about the future of the world and expects a global effort to solve them.