When an American is Given a Hero's Welcome in France!

Next week, a teacher in my high school is taking all her senior class to see "An Inconvenient Truth" ("Une vérité qui dérange" in French)by Al Gore and the students are pretty excited about it. The issue of the environment and global warming is very popular among the young.

But one must note that beyond the fade, the former US Vice-President (and the ex-future president) has had a sort of hero's welcome in this country. He's been in all the media here as the movie just came out here and it is likely to be a success.

Last week, he was welcomed at the French National Assembly for a special screening of his movie in front of the French representatives. Apparently, he made quite an impression on the Parliamentary President Jean-Louis Debre (the French equivalent of the Speaker of the House) who said:

"This movie must be the starting point for a new awareness regarding the seriousness of global warming, including for French politicians.". (Libération via WatchingAmerica)

Al Gore also saluted his "ally", French president Jacques Chirac. I guess that was the polite thing to do because in reality if Chirac has been big on words, he got nothing done - like with anything else.

Apparently, the French Parliamentary President was so impressed by the movie and by Al Gore’s visit that he has in mind to implement a carbon compensation measure – which consists in compensating for CO2 emissions by financing projects that release far lower levels of CO2.

French newspaper Libération calls it “a novel and difficult task for a place as ossified as the Assembly”.

The French newspaper also notes that “unfortunately, Gore’s film is only being screened in 60 theatres in France, including 20 in Paris. A pitiful number for reaching the whole of France.”.

I could not agree more but hopefully it will be a popular success nonetheless and will incite more theaters to show it.