Europe News

Czech president features in Gore-bashing ads in US press

Sep 11, 2007, 14:53 GMT

Prague - A conservative US think-tank, the Chicago-based Heartland Institute has enlisted Czech President Vaclav Klaus to feature in a series of advertisements lambasting global warming activist and former US vice president Al Gore, the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes reported Tuesday.

One of the advertisements in the series features Klaus challenging Gore under a slogan reading 'Global Warming is No Crisis.'

Klaus, a vocal global-warming sceptic, said in a newspaper interview earlier this year that only Al Gore, and not a sane person, would say that mankind is ruining the planet.

The Czech president is one of the few world leaders to publicly express doubt on what scientists deem very likely - that global warming is caused by humans.

Klaus also said that rising temperatures may not matter enough for governments to throw funds at halting the process.

According to the Czech president's earlier statement, 'other top- level politicians' do not express their doubts over global warming because 'a whip of political correctness strangles (their) voice.'

To the displeasure of the junior ruling Czech Green Party, Klaus is scheduled to voice his opinions on the issue in a UN-sponsored climate change conference in New York in late September, reports said.