FERGUSON TO HELP SAVE THE WORLD

The scientists have warned of the dangers and the politicians have promised to act, but Al Gore is still not satisfied the world is taking climate change seriously enough. The answer, the former US vice-president has reasoned, could be Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager was one of 150 or so high-level individuals brought to Cambridge this week to meet Mr Gore, who taught them to deliver their own version of An Inconvenient Truth, his Oscar-winning film on global warming.

His other "climate leaders" included Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, Vivienne Cox, chief executive of BP, and Father Sean McDonagh, a priest and eco-theologian. In a letter to each, Mr Gore says: "I hope that you will be first of many deeply concerned citizens who will receive this training in the UK and spread the message to deal with this looming threat to our planet, neighbours and way of life."

Gore's campaign has won him legions of new admirers. But the world is a big place, the peril urgent and he has limited time. And some believe he could have other things on his mind, such as another crack at the White House.

So he is recruiting an international army to complete his work. Nearly 1,000 people in the US and Australia have already been given the materials to present his slide show on the basics of global warming, on which An Inconvenient Truth is based. He is now drawing up plans for China (including, he jokes, how to stop speakers being arrested).