President-in-waiting Barack Obama met with failed presidential candidate and climate guru Al Gore yesterday, and declared “the time for denial is over”.

Obama said both men believed “what the scientists have been telling us for years now” about the need to deal with climate change (AFP). The New York Times says the meeting was at Gore’s request but that Al is not pencilled in for a job by once Obama moves into the White House.

Obama does seem to be taking things seriously though. “[Climate change] is a matter of urgency and of national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way,” he says (Reuters). “That’s what I intend my administration to do.”

Another man who failed to become president has also been making climate change noises. John Kerry said this week that the change of US governments and the economic meltdown must not derail attempts to forge a new global warming treaty. “We need to keep it on track, we need to make sure that the slow pace of the [Bush] administration doesn’t downgrade people’s sense of possibility,” he told the Boston Globe.