By Jerry James Stone •
October 30, 2008
The Magical World Of Disney And Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth Are Bringing Teens Across America To The Front Of The Line In The Fight Against Climate Change.
About 2,000 teens have signed on with an organization called Inconvenient Youth to tell their friends, neighborhoods, generation and anyone who will listen that the time to take action is now. Why? The founder of Inconvenient Youth, Mary Doerr, believes the young people “can solve it.”
By Adam Williams •
October 16, 2008
Some days my hope wavers that this polarized American society can get anywhere meaningful. The communication gap is so wide and prickly. That goes for environmental issues, political ones, cultural ones and any other kinds of ones. Sometimes it just seems hopeless to me. Or at least very fatiguing.
Consider my most recent sustainablog post — NASA Maps Global CO2 Patterns; Produces More Science for Nonbelievers to Dispute.
I showed some exasperation in that post, too. I wondered how science, a system based on factual discovery as means of proving (or disproving) a hypothesis, is so controversial as it relates to environmental matters. I wondered — and continue to wonder — how two people can look at facts of science and pick and choose what to believe and then vehemently disagree with each other.
By Adam Williams •
August 13, 2008
On a more uplifting note than the one of balance-teetering dismay I struck the other day with a post – CNN’s Glenn Beck and Other Doubters Need More Faith – here’s why I think the green side of mankind may be moving in a good direction.
It cheers me to realize that “green” is a common term these days. Sure, it is arguably over- and mis-used as it’s become a buzz word for marketers. But we’ll get past that, around it, through it…whatever.
Walking on the bright side of life for a bit, I think the fact that environmentalism, global warming, recycling, alternative energies and so on are in the broader public discussion at all shows that the long-timers who’ve been making this argument for decades have gained some ground for us all.
By Sam Aola Ooko •
July 24, 2008
The British Media regulator, Office of Communications or Ofcom has affirmed that a documentary on UK’s Channel 4 last year debunking Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and the theory about human influence on climate change was out of touch with reality.
The watchdog this week ruled The Great Global Warming Swindle unfairly portrays several scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and that it broke rules in the Broadcasting Code.
Ofcom’s investigation found that the IPCC, the former government chief scientist, Sir David King, and Professor Carl Wunsch, were treated unfairly in the documentary that attempted to use a cast of the world’s top scientists to debunk the global warming theory.
Can kids really influence their parents to reduce carbon emissions? Apparently so, says Cool the Earth, a new climate-change enrichment program, launched by a mom in Kentfield, California. The program has already saved more than 8 million pounds of carbon from going into the atmosphere and has influenced 6,000 households to take 10,000 positive actions to reduce carbon emissions. With additional funding in place and a web-based delivery system available this summer, this program—currently running in 25 Northern California schools–expects [...]
By Joshua S Hill •
May 15, 2008
For a long time now we’ve spoken about the continuing effort by US and other environmental and animal rights groups to get the polar bear listed on the United States Endangered Species Act.
Polar bear populations have been declining over the past few years, attributable, some claim, to man-made global warming. Al Gore helped the plight of the polar bear by including in his award winning An Inconvenient Truth a cartoon of a polar bear swimming, unable to find land. The cartoon was inspired by evidence that some polar bears had drowned – a hitherto unforeseen occurrence.
So it is good news that on Wednesday the Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the polar bear has finally been listed as “threatened” under the ESA. However he was certain to ensure in his announcement that the decision should not be “misused” to regulate global climate change.
By Joshua S Hill •
April 15, 2008
It has been one of the most polarizing movies of cinematic history, and it didn’t even feature Brad Pitt. Rather, Al Gore, for the majority of An Inconvenient Truth, stood in front of a crowd of people – or journaled from the road – and told people that global warming was bad, and that we had done it.
From that moment on, the global warming debate waged hotter and longer than ever before.
Some have said that science plays no part in what Gore decided to impart to us. Others contended that while he may have put an emotional spin on it, there was still plenty of validated science in there. Regardless of what you believe, you can’t deny that global warming is now on everyone’s lips thanks to what Gore did.
So it’s nice to see scientists come out, not in heated attack of the movie, but rather, in calm scientific debate; the way it should be.
By Jennifer Lance •
December 5, 2007
Laurie David, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, and Cambria Gordon have written an extensive resource for parents and children, “to know the truth about this problem and what they can do to help solve it.” The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming helps readers understand the causes of our climate crisis and offers suggestions for change in a very kid-friendly format. The book is also constructed from 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper and printed with soy inks.
The way The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming is written appeals to the short attention span of children. The book is divided into four chapters:
- It’s Getting Hot in Here
- Weird, Wacky Weather
- Extinction Stinks
- What You Can Do to Stop Global Warming
By Kelli Best-Oliver •
September 6, 2007
When giving your kids, "the talk", it always helps to have a book as back-up. It justifies your broaching a sensitive, potentially uncomfortable topic like…global warming. And although conservation and environmentalism is a topic for all ages, those children in pre-adolescence are just about ready to hear about the big guns of climate change. Three recent children’s books broach the topic of climate change to your middle-grades children (ages 9-12); two
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By Wendy Laird •
March 1, 2007
Photo credit: UPI Photo/Phil McCartenEditor's note: Wendy Laird is our resident humor columnist. Remember, folks, it's all in fun…
Allow me to begin by saying that the Oscars are a bloated display of lopsided wealth and navel gazing. But I love fashion. There’s nothing that makes me feel as good as donning a well-cut hemp pinafore over a clean, crisp unbleached organic cotton tee, my long kitty-cat earrings just brushing the tops of
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Love Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth? It’s about to get a sequel, which will give readers an update on the climate crisis.
