President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has received warm praise from Nobel winning crusader Al Gore for his "historic" bid to spark a French "green revolution" after months of climate negotiations with green groups, unions and big business.

	Al Gore and President Sarkozy at today's announcement

The former US vice president congratulated Mr Sarkozy for his "leadership" in getting opposing lobbies to talk to each other that the world could emulate.

"Today you become known as a great friend of the people of this planet," said Mr Gore, 59, who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change.

"I want to offer my congratulations to the French people. This is the beginning of an historic process."

Mr Gore said the French forum - dubbed the "Grenelle of the environment" after a Paris district - had given "a tremendous boost" to efforts to fight climate change.

Since the development of plastic earlier this century, it has become a popular material used in a wide variety of ways. Today plastic is used to make, or wrap around, many of the items we buy or use. The problem comes when we no longer want these items and how we dispose of them, particularly the throwaway plastic material used in wrapping or packaging. Plastics are used because they are easy and cheap to make and they can last a long time. Unfortunately these same useful qualities can make plastic a huge pollution problem. The cheapness means plastic gets discarded easily and its long life means it survives in the environment for long periods where it can do great harm. Because plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is steadily increasing.

Studies done locally show about 3 500 particles of plastic per square kilometre of sea off the southern African coast. Surveys of 50 South African beaches from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town show that in five years to 1989 plastic pollution has increased by 190%. More than 90% of the articles found on these beaches contained plastic. Plastic is now found on virtually all South African beaches, even the most remote, and researchers are now also finding plastic rubbish in Antarctic regions.

The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other goods. On remote rural beaches the rubbish tends to have come from ships, such as fishing equipment used in the fishing industry.

The gradual, accelerated warming of our planet will have disastrous consequences for America's national parks. Glaciers in the national parks of Alaska as well as North Cascades and Mount Rainier National Parks will continue to disappear; Joshua trees will no longer exist at Joshua Tree National Park; and a rising sea will drown Everglades National Park and portions of historic sites such as Colonial National Historical Park, site of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.

But all is not lost. Although the situation seems dire, NPCA's report, Unnatural Disaster, says we can still halt the most severe effects of climate change if we take action now. NPCA offers recommended actions for federal, state, and local governments, along with individuals, to take to slow, and in some cases, halt the damage to our national parks. The national parks offer a unique opportunity to draw attention to America’s priceless resources at risk, and to showcase opportunities to act to protect them.