Al Gore launches "Climate Reality Project" aimed at "rejecting lies" about climate change
Former Vice President Al Gore announced on Tuesday the launch of the "Climate Reality Project," a new initiative that aims to raise awareness about the global climate crisis, and "take meaningful steps to bring about change" - in part by helping to "reject the lies" about climate change the group argues oil and coal companies are propagating worldwide.
In a Tuesday op-ed promoting the initiative Gore, a well-known environmental advocate and the star of 2006's "An Inconvenient Truth," emphasizes that "climate change is a reality" and says that the project means to combat the influence of power players propagating misinformation.
"The climate crisis is a reality, and we are seeing its impacts in extreme weather all around the world," Gore writes. "Using the same deceitful playbook as big tobacco used years before to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking, oil and coal companies and their allies are now deceiving the public about climate change. They have nearly unlimited resources to sow doubt, but we have one critical advantage: Reality is on our side."
The project will kick off on September 14 with a worldwide, 24-hour event that will be livestreamed on the group's website. According to a statement on the site, the launch will "consist of a new multimedia presentation created by Al Gore and delivered once per hour for 24 hours, in every time zone around the globe."
"Each hour people living with the reality of climate change will connect the dots between recent extreme weather events -- including floods, droughts and storms -- and the manmade pollution that is changing our climate," according to the website. "We will offer a round-the- clock, round-the-globe snapshot of the climate crisis in real time. The deniers may have millions of dollars to spend, but we have a powerful advantage. We have reality."
Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on climate change, was a harsh critic of the George W. Bush administration - and he recently lambasted President Obama for failing to take what he described as "bold action" on climate change during his time in office.
In a 7,000 word article for Rolling Stone published in June, the former vice president argues that, despite having made some progress in environmental policy, "President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change."
The Climate Reality Project will replace Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization Gore started in 2006 to raise global awareness about climate change.
