Interesting commentary now coming up on the challenging polemic on climate change An Inconvenient Truth starring the once and maybe future presidential candidate Al Gore.

The film has profound implications for everyone, including business, which is why the Exxon Mobil-backedCompetitive Enterprise Institute has put out its ludicrous ads countering the claims as alarmist ("carbon dioxide: they call it pollution, we call it life"

But is Gore undermining his case by exaggeration?

That's the case made in Ronald Bailey's piece in Reason. Bailey, Reason's science correspondent, argues that the scientific jury is still out on whether the rate of global warming will lead to catastrophe or not.

Bailey says:"On balance Gore gets it more right than wrong on the science (we'll leave the policy stuff to another time), but he undercuts his message by becoming the opposite of a global warming denier. He's a global warming exaggerator."

Still, commentator Sebastian Mallaby makes the excellent point that the oil industry and Republicans have turned Gore into a hero, albeit unintentionally.

"Ordinarily, this film would never have been made, let alone scheduled for release in hundreds of theaters. But President Bush and the congressional Republicans have created a Ross Perot moment: a hunger for a leader with diagrams and charts, for a nerd who lays out basic facts ignored by blinkered government.
"By their contempt for expert opinion on everything from Iraqi reconstruction to the cost of their tax cuts, Republicans have turned Diagram Gore into a hero. By their serial dishonesty, Republicans have created a market for 'An Inconvenient Truth.'"

Certainly, it's been good for Al Gore. The former politician, who seemed completely washed up after the Florida debacle, is now raking in big bucks. He's been signed up as a senior advisor to Google, he's taken a seat in the Apple boardroom, he now plays with the market and charges $75,000 to $150,000 for paid appearances on the lecture circuit, according to Forbes.

For his part, Gore says any money he makes from the movie will be donated to Alliance for Climate Protection, the organisation he founded.

As Forbes wryly notes: "He doesn't need the extra money. Unless he wants to run for President."