Think of the possibilities. Lisa Friedman of Environment & Energy Publishing reports:
Former Vice President Al Gore today will announce a new 24-hour global campaign aimed at recharging the climate change debate.
Dubbed “24 Hours of Reality,” the Sept. 14-15 event will feature messages from more than 3,000 scientists, celebrities, activists and Gore himself on the dangers of rising global temperatures. Speaking in dozens of countries in every time zone, they will be live-streamed worldwide, and their messages will be translated into several languages.
“The climate crisis knows no political boundaries. Ferocious storms and deadly heat waves are occurring with alarming frequency all over the world. We are living with the reality of the climate crisis every day. The only question is, how soon can we act?” Gore said in a statement.
The climate change campaigner and Nobel laureate last month skewered the White House, the oil industry and the national media for Congress’ failure to pass legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. In a 7,000-word Rolling Stone article, Gore warned that the current climate course is “suicidal for global civilization.” He railed against attention paid to climate deniers and charged that President Obama has not confronted them directly or strongly enough.
“President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,” Gore wrote. “He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.”
Several leading climate change activists at the time questioned Gore’s approach, noting that other factors — like the tanking economy — contributed to the death of cap and trade.
“Gore seems to think that the facts and the evidence [of climate change], had President Obama spoken about that, would have changed things,” said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “Quite honestly, we now have a lot of people in the Congress for whom the facts and the evidence don’t seem to matter at all” (ClimateWire, June 23).
To launch the 24 Hours of Reality program, Gore renamed his nonprofit advocacy group from the Alliance for Climate Protection to the Climate Reality Project. The daylong live and online event will focus largely on the connection between extreme weather events and rising global temperatures.
“Fossil fuel companies and their allies will go to great lengths to deny the fact that climate change is happening now,” Maggie Fox, president of the Climate Reality Project, said in a statement. “But we have one powerful response: Reality. We will dedicate our resources toward educating and engaging the public about the reality of the climate crisis and helping build the global movement for change.”