Al Gore in Japan

NHK reports that Al Gore has urged Japanese business leaders to play a leading role in the fight against global warming.

Mr Gore, who "used to be the next president of the United States", is in Tokyo to promote his documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, which deals with global warming. The film will be released on January 20 in major Japanese cities:

In a lecture on Monday, he told some 400 Japanese business leaders that the crisis is not political problem, but a moral one. Mr Gore urged Japanese companies to help boost worldwide action against global warming, saying that Japanese private firms have cutting-edge technologies for environmental protection and energy conservation.

Al Gore in Japan and global warming previous

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Meanwhile, in Federal Way, Washington (State), a school board is banning Gore's film - unless a film of equal length is shown that offers "an opposing view" because some of the parents are fundamentalist (emphasis on the "mental" in my opinion) Christians and think the earth is only 14,000 years old and that Gore's film is nonsense.

And people wonder why I left the USA?
4:26 pm, January 17, 2007
Martin J Frid said…
If I understand you correctly, kids who are not Christian will be forced to sit through that "opposing view" film of equal length, even if the entire point of that film is to show a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint?

Scary.
6:25 pm, January 17, 2007
Pandabonium said…
It doesn't say Christian, just an "opposing view". So I guess that could be a film by Exxon denying the climate change problem exists or some fundamentalist film claiming the Bible describes the facts of the matter - as one parent told reporters.

Here's an article about it:
Gore's 'Truth' restricted at schools.

...and people wonder why I left the 'states.
7:36 am, January 19, 2007
Martin J Frid said…
Actually this part is the most scary:

"The National Science Teachers Association turned down an offer from the film's producers for 50,000 free DVDs for classroom use. The association said it didn't want to be seen as politically endorsing the film or open itself to requests from other special interests."

So, in the US, MacDonalds and Exxon can sponsor school textbooks, but a video about global warming is now officially taboo.

Sweden should stop giving Nobel prizes to Americans!

(Joking)
10:58 am, January 19, 2007
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