From Reuters:

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will publish a follow-up to his global warming awareness bestseller “An Inconvenient Truth” on November 3. The book will be called “Our Choice” and will describe solutions to global warming, the environmental crusader and U.S. publisher Rodale Inc. said in a statement

All of the proceeds will be donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Image via Kjetil Bjørnsrud.

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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

1. It’s Getting Hot in Here
2. Weird, Wacky Weather
3. Extinction Stinks
4. What You Can Do to Stop Global Warming

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Following on the heels of the successful An Inconvenient Truth of almost the same name, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming (Penguin Young Readers, $23.00), aims to present the same ideas from the documentary to a younger audience. The text of this book is excellent: it simplifies the ideas of the original film without talking down to young readers.

An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David and Cambria Gordon’s The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming (Scholastic $15.99) aims to educate kids about why global warming is happening, how it is affecting our planet, and what kids can do to protect our earth. The book is packed with gorgeous photos, graphs and charts, making it accessible to visual learners, and little jokes scattered throughout the pages might be amusing to adults, as well. The Guide is even printed with soy ink on 100% FSC-certified, post-consumer recycled paper.

Finally, Gas Trees and Car Turds (Fulcrum, $16.95), written by Kirk R. Johnson, curator or the Denver Natural History museum, and illustrated by Colorado naturalist Mary Ann Bonnell, is a quick read that breaks down the science behind global warming and carbon dioxide so that children can understand it. While not as high-profile as the other two books, it does focus on explaining carbon dioxide as an invisible something that connects almost everything.

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 my shoulders. Which is why I read with interest the Oscar red carpet round-up Monday in someone else’s copy of the local paper. Once that person threw the paper down and ran away, I could really delve into the sartorial splendor that is Hollywood’s biggest event.

And I was not disappointed. Well, I was disappointed in the sheer waste of silk. And the fabrics that were obviously chemically processed. But I was not disappointed in the wealth of things to shake my head at. And believe me, I shook my head long and hard (not too hard; that’s a carbon suck) when I learned that An Inconvenient Truth won an Academy Award® for best documentary.

That movie puts me off my tempeh, with its hopeful ending and upbeat can-do message. I haven’t seen it, but I know enough about it to condemn it outright. It’s a salve for people who want to believe they can alter the history of our ecosphere by driving a Prius and reusing paper bags. They can’t. Their mere existence all but guarantees the doom of carbon-negative earth lovers like myself.

Here we are, drowning our glorious eco-orb with globo-refuse, and Al Gore’s mincing around about how we might all get our feet a little wet if we don’t consider driving smaller cars and turning off the occasional light. He had a real opportunity to frighten the living crap out of everyone in the Western World, and he let it go. What a wuss. Give me an Orson Welles, who didn’t bat an eye when the American public wet its collective pants at his War of the Worlds broadcast.

Even the title leaves untapped fear and misery on the table. An Inconvenient Truth, indeed. How about ‘We’re All Going to Die And It’s Your Fault (I’m Talking To You, China)’? Imagine that coming out of Jerry Seinfeld’s mouth as he read the list of nominees.

But no, Al Gore chose to add to the atmosphere of waste at this year’s Oscars. Wasted resources, wasted fabric, wasted opportunities for worldwide guilt and abject fear. But I have to admit I liked Reese Witherspoon’s dress.

It's an interesting move — and as the site Ecostreet points out — one that will most likely create a new wave of young environmentalists. It has always been voiced that the key to change happens with youth; and regardless of where you stand on global warming, the environmental stewardship expressed in the movie is inspiring. The move in Scotland is being sponsored by Scottish Power — a major wind farm producer, but also owner of a coal-burning plant. Beyond getting the video into the classrooms, they've also been proactive in sending copies of Al Gore's book to education staff as well.

From the article, "The film, which is very well put together, is not only a powerful message - it’s also been put together in a very easily understandable way. And Al Gore is not just a former vice-president. I think he’s established in his own right an international reputation as a very powerful advocate on environmental matters.” Ross Finnie, Scottish Environment Minister"

Source: The Scotsman via Ecostreet