Barack Obama, in a town hall meeting while campaigning in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, said that if he were elected president he would enlist the help of Al Gore, the former Vice President and Nobel Laureate, to help develop policy to battle global climate change.

U.S. Dept. of Interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne passed on an invitation to testify before a senate committee about why the department has been slow to decide whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, accused the Bush administration of delaying any action so it could finish oil lease sales in Alaska.

Al Gore, the Nobel laureate and former Vice President, along with the Alliance for Climate Protection, which he chairs, has launched a $300 million advertising campaign to raise awareness of the issues surrounding global warming and inspire action.