We might start hearing exchanges like that in 2011 when Al Gore's book-cum-documentary film An Inconvenient Truth takes on yet another form. As an opera.

Italian composer Georgio Battistelli will write the score and lyrics for Mr. Gore's cautionary lecture about global warming, set to debut at Milan's La Scala opera house.

Gore's film was the fourth most popular documentary of all time in the US, after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, and Sicko, and earned $49 million at the box office.

La Scala's director, Stephane Lissner, was hired three years ago when its previous director of 20 years left, and those three years haven't been easy. Change never is. But Lissner's plan to reinvigorate Italy's once-premier opera house through unconventional projects -- and writing arias to the rhetoric of Al Gore isn't even the most daring effort afoot -- might turn things around, provided people want to sit through a 29-hour opera, see contemporary politicians swimming in a pool of Iraqi oil, and of course, be educated on how we can decrease our carbon footprint and protect our precious ozone.

Hey, why the hell not? When I was 15, I saw an opera version of my favorite children's book, Where the Wild Things Are (which, incidentally, is being made into a film by Spike Jonze to be released next year).

Besides, operas have always dealt with tragedies and tales of woe.

I just wonder who will play Al Gore.