Former Vice President Al Gore warned that civilization might be doomed within the next 100 years if nothing is done to stop global warming.

Speaking to Motherboard last week, Gore said action needs to be taken now in an effort to save humanity.

“What’s at risk is if we did not take action truly is the survival of civilization as we know it. And that will sound like an extreme statement to many people, but literally that is the case,” Gore said. “You know, we have seen global warming thus far of just a little bit less than one degree Celsius and look at what has happened: Superstorm Sandy, Boulder, Colorado, all these fires, Hurricane Irene one year before Sandy — how many billions was that?”

Gore blamed special interest groups as to why there continues to be global warming deniers.

“Our democracy belongs to the people but now it is being controlled by special interests,” Gore stated. “You cannot change that over television because access to television is controlled by gatekeepers who charge lots of money.”

Gore called for an “Occupy Democracy” in an effort to beat out special interest groups.

“We as U.S. citizens need to pay careful attention to the fact that our democracy has been hacked,” Gore said. “Big money has perverted our democracy, hacked it, taken it over and twisted it to serve the purposes of special interests.”

Despite everything, Gore is still optimistic things can turn around for the environment.

“We have the opportunity to make some wise choices, to transform the global economy to a low-carbon economy. And if we make that choice we can create millions of new jobs in the fields of solar energy and wind energy and energy efficiency,” Gore said. … And we can have a more vibrant economy and instill a sense of hope in people’s hearts that the future is going to look good. I am optimistic, but I see these trends that are going to go one way or the other depending on the choices we make. “

Gore, who has been accused of being a “carbon billionaire” by his critics, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his campaign against global warming.