Midway through a visit to Tokyo to promote his environmental documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth," former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Monday made sure to praise Japan as the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol.
Yet, earlier in the day Gore also prodded business leaders here to grapple harder with what scientists agree is a potentially catastrophic rise in temperatures -- namely by acting as a role model to his own United States.
Though it is the world's No. 1 source of greenhouse gases, the U.S. has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which assigns mandatory targets for cutting such emissions.