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• International
• North America
• Science and Technology
• Politics and Government
• 02 / 25 / 2007

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore doesn't know if his climate change documentary will win an Oscar on Sunday night - but he has Cuba's vote.

Sunday's Union of Young Communist's newspaper reported acting Cuban President Raul Castro "recognized the effort of the former vice president to denounce" global warming during a two-hour meeting with youth leaders on Friday.

Cuba's official and only television media showed Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" on prime time this month and an update by Gore, giving the one-time presidential contender more positive publicity than any other U.S. leader in decades.

Truth, a big-screen adaptation of Gore's slideshow lecture calling for urgent action to curb man-made greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming, has been nominated for an Academy Award as a best documentary feature.

The nomination technically goes to the film's director and its producers, but Gore is the star and narrator of the film, which also profiles his efforts to raise environmental awareness.

The book version of An Inconvenient Truth was published last year as a follow-up to his 1992 bestseller Earth in the Balance.

Official praise of former U.S. presidents and vice presidents is rare in Cuba, which has considered itself at war with the United States since a trade embargo and other sanctions were slapped on the Caribbean island soon after Fidel Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution.

Defense Minister Raul Castro is second in the Cuban hierarchy after his older brother, Fidel Castro, 80, who temporarily ceded power to his brother in July.

Source: eitb24