Gore's Nobel Win Greeted With Cheers by Europeans

At a conference on global warming this week in Potsdam, many scientists were openly rooting for Gore to win. The German government had invited 15 Nobel Prize laureates from a variety of disciplines to attend the event, including Rajendra K. Pachauri, the U.N. climate scientist whose panel shared the peace prize with Gore on Friday.

Gore has critics as well in Europe, including a man who filed a lawsuit in Britain objecting to the film, which is being sent to 3,500 schools in England and Wales. The judge in that case ruled this week that while the basic premise of the film was correct, Gore had made nine errors of scientific fact.

"I say, Al Gore should go for it, but get your facts right first," said Billy Dunworth, 41, a construction worker browsing in a London bookshop. "He's like Princess Diana and gives attention to good causes. But he must get his facts straight."

Michael White, a political columnist at the Guardian newspaper who has written widely on American politics, said he suspected Gore was more popular abroad than at home. In his view, the former vice president doesn't appeal to a minority of Britons who are "pathologically hostile to the United States." But he said Gore is popular among the much larger number "who want to think well of America."

"Al Gore is like Michael Moore for grown-ups," White said, citing the controversial maker of the film "Fahrenheit 9/11." "For better or worse, he's the kind of priggish American we approve of."

Correspondents John Ward Anderson in Paris and Craig Whitlock in Berlin contributed to this article. Special correspondents Karla Adam in London and Sarah Delaney in Italy also contributed.