Al Gore has launched a £300m advertising campaign in order to recruit a 10 million strong Green Army to force politicians to act on climate change. The proposed Alliance for Climate Protection will use the money to generate television advertising and online organising to push the debate on climate change to the forefront of the upcoming US elections.
Although Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth managed to raise awareness among the public, the same amount of force has yet to move into the political sphere. Chris Miller, director of US Greenpeace's global warming campaign said "This [campaign] is going to reinforce that there are steps we can take in our personal lives, but that ultimately it will take political leaders to solve the problem."
Last January, the League of Conservative Voters analysed transcripts of television interviews and debates with all the Democratic and Republican contenders for the White House. By January 25, the candidates had been asked 2,975 questions on a range of issues. Only six of those mentioned the words "climate change" or "global warming". That is not much greater than the level of media interest in the candidates' positions on UFOs.
They were asked three questions on UFOs in the same study.
Gore is planning to play a big part in financing the campaign, donating his Nobel peace prize money and a matching sum, along with profits from the book and film, An Inconvenient Truth.
Along with Gore's worldwide recognition as an environmental pioneer, such resources have so far proved useful, as the Alliance has already reached out to organisations as diverse as the Girl Scouts and the steelworkers union to try to broaden its appeal.
The first television advert, depicting the Reverend Al Sharpton sharing a sofa with the conservative preacher Pat Robertson, who acknowledge that they agree on almost nothing, except the issue of climate change. Support from such conservative figures, along with evangelical Christians and those on the left, marks a victory in the campaign to make global warming a cause for all Americans.
Gore said he hopes to persuade Americans that protecting the planet transcends the usual political divisions. " - we have to awaken to the moral duty that we have to do the right thing and get out of this silly political game-playing about it. This is about survival."
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This post was written by Natasha Barnes on May 16, 2008