Al Gore launches ’24hr of Reality’ about climate
AL GORE, FORMER US vice president and environmental activist is launching a new campaign this week to urge action against climate change with a day-long internet broadcast from around the world.
The project, called 24 Hours of Reality, will feature a multimedia presentation viewable online that aims to showcase recent science on climate change and reveal how money motivates those who deny it.
Hourly broadcasts will take place in various locations around the world, including Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta, London, Dubai, Istanbul, Seoul and Rio de Janeiro. The campaign will begin in Mexico City at 1000 (AEST) Thursday and end with the final presentation by Gore starting at 7pm local time in New York.
The Australian presentation will be given from Canberra by former ABC broadcaster, Vanessa Morris.
Climate change crisis
The goal is to “focus the world’s attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis”, said Al Gore in a statement about the project. “Today, climate change is no longer a prediction: It’s a reality. Yet around the world, we are still subjected to polluter-financed misinformation and propaganda designed to mislead people about the dangers we face from the unfolding climate crisis.”
The broadcasts, each led by a local “citizen activist personally trained by” Al Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his efforts on climate change, will be followed by information on how viewers can help in their area. A slideshow presented by him about the dangers of climate change was the basis of the popular 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which grossed $US49 million worldwide.
Climate change presentation goes global
According to a Gallup poll released in March, Americans have become less concerned about global warming over the past two years, with 48 per cent saying they think “the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated”, up from 41 per cent in 2009.
In an impassioned essay in Rolling Stone’s June issue, the former US presidential candidate accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead on climate change and warned that the very survival of civilisation was at stake. Al Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W Bush, credited Obama with moving the US “slightly” forward on the issue but said the US president “has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change”.
The local Australian presentation will be held at 7pm on September 15.
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LINKS
Canberra climate presentation
24 Hours of Reality website
