Right message on climate

Al Gore's claim that Pacific Islanders are fleeing to New Zealand en masse as seawaters rise has been cut from a presentation touring Australia and New Zealand based on his award-winning documentary.

Randall Pearce, handpicked by the former United States vice-president to present the live slideshow in Australia and New Zealand, will deliver it at Te Papa tonight with a strong focus on the southern hemisphere.

In the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Mr Gore said low-lying Pacific atolls were being inundated by higher seas caused by global warming.

"That's why the citizens of these Pacific nations have all had to evacuate to New Zealand."

The mistake was one of several errors pointed out by British High Court judge Michael Burton in October, as he ruled the film could be screened in British classrooms, with new guidance notes for teachers. "There is no evidence of any such evacuation having yet happened," he wrote.

Mr Pearce said the slideshow was amended to fix the mistake and some other criticisms made by the judge, "who by the way, found the film was broadly accurate".

"I guess that's an advantage I have, I didn't have to commit my presentation on to film where it's locked in time."

Mr Pearce became a climate messenger last year, one of 75 chosen from 1800 applicants.

A social researcher based in Australia, he spent two days in Sydney with the other messengers being trained by Mr Gore.

Mr Pearce promised a strong focus on New Zealand in his version.