C
Captain Compassion
Guest
Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008; A04
Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million
campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for
aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks
as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in
U.S. history.
The Alliance for Climate Protection's "we" campaign will employ online
organizing and television advertisements on shows ranging from
"American Idol" to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." It highlights
the extent to which Americans' growing awareness of global warming has
yet to translate into national policy changes, Gore said in an
hour-long phone interview last week. He said the campaign, which Gore
is helping to fund, was undertaken in large part because of his fear
that U.S. lawmakers are unwilling to curb the human-generated
emissions linked to climate change.
"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that
are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to
be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there
is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this
crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way
to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."
Private contributors have already donated or committed half the money
needed to fund the entire campaign, he said. While Gore declined to
quantify his contribution to the effort, he has devoted all his
proceeds from the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth,"
the best-selling companion book, his salary from the venture capital
firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and several international
prizes, such as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which add up to more than
a $2.7 million. Paramount Classics, the documentary's distributor, has
pledged 5 percent of the film's profits to the group, and some of the
money raised through the 2007 Live Earth concerts will help the
campaign, along with Gore's proceeds from an upcoming book on climate
change.
While "An Inconvenient Truth" urged viewers to fully inflate their car
tires and to install compact fluorescent light bulbs to combat global
warming, Gore said he is now focused on ensuring that the United
States enacts a national carbon emission cap and ratifies a new global
pact on climate change in the next three years.
"The simple algorithm is this: It's important to change the light
bulbs, but it's much more important to change the laws," he said. "The
options available to civilization worldwide to avert this terribly
destructive pattern are beginning to slip away from us. The path for
recovery runs right through Washington, D.C."
The new effort comes at a time when the three remaining major party
presidential candidates -- Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Rodham
Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- have all endorsed
federal limits on greenhouse gases, virtually ensuring that the next
occupant of the White House will offer a sharp break from President
Bush's climate policy.
All three have discussed global warming with Gore in phone calls over
the course of the past few months. While McCain backs a more modest
plan than that favored by the Democrats -- he supports a 60 percent
reduction in greenhouse gases from 1990 levels by 2050, compared with
Obama and Clinton's vow of an 80 percent cut during that period -- the
presumptive Republican nominee emphasized during a recent stop in
Chula Vista, Calif., that he had pushed for a federal cap-and-trade
system before either of his opponents came to the Senate.
"Neither have proposed legislation or played any public role during
their time in the Senate," McCain said, sidestepping the fact that
Clinton and Obama both back climate legislation, up for a Senate vote
in June, that he has yet to endorse.
Gore, who backs a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by
mid-century, said that while he's "encouraged" that the remaining
candidates back mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, they still need
to be pushed: "What happens after the election will depend on whether
or not we win enough hearts and minds in the country as a whole."
And former Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), a board member of the
two-year-old alliance, said the candidates' commitment to a
cap-and-trade system does not negate the fact that the majority of
Americans fail to see climate change as a compelling political issue.
"Most Republicans, along with most Democrats, are focused almost
exclusively on Iraq, the war against terrorism and the economy,"
Boehlert said. "That leaves little room for anything else."
In an effort to penetrate Americans' consciousness and change
lawmakers' political calculus, the group aims to enlist 10 million
volunteers through a combination of network and cable commercials,
display ads in magazines ranging from People to Real Simple, and
online social networks. By contrast, the civil rights and antiwar
movements in the 1960s each boasted about 5 million activists.
Cathy Zoi, the Alliance for Climate Protection's chief executive, said
the group will focus on individuals known in the advertising world as
"influencers" who talk to a disproportionate number of people in their
communities. While some ads will target inside-the-Beltway
policymakers, the bulk of their efforts will focus on the general
public.
"This is modern organizing," Zoi said, adding that the campaign aims
to convince voters that "this is a solvable problem."
In an effort to broaden the campaign's appeal, the alliance has
already forged working partnerships with groups including the Girl
Scouts and the United Steelworkers of America. One of its early ads
will feature the unlikely alliance of clergymen Pat Robertson and Al
Sharpton sitting on a couch on Virginia Beach, talking about their
commitment to address climate change.
Its first ad, which is narrated by the actor William H. Macy,
highlights American's collective responses to historical challenges.
"We didn't wait for someone else to storm the beaches of Normandy,"
Macy intones. "We didn't wait for someone else to guarantee civil
rights." The commercial will run several times Wednesday on shows such
as "Good Morning America," "Today," "American Idol," "Larry King Live"
and "Anderson Cooper 360."
League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski, whose group is
supporting the effort, said he's optimistic the "we" campaign will
succeed in a way that traditional environmental groups have not. "It
heightens both the urgency and the sense we can get the job done with
the broad middle that will make the difference," Karpinski said,
"while having the resources to communicate in a sophisticated way, in
a more expansive fashion than the community has done before."
Without question, the campaign represents one of the most far-reaching
public advocacy initiatives in recent years. The American Legacy
Foundation, an anti-smoking campaign that arose out of the massive
1998 tobacco settlement, made $100 million in ad buys its first year,
but its funding quickly dwindled and it now spends $30 million
annually. The Ad Council -- which runs public service announcements
ranging from the "Just Say No" anti-drug message to the "Smokey the
Bear" commercials -- receives an average of $40 million a year in
donated media for the 50 campaigns it operates and only occasionally
hits the $100 million annual mark for its campaigns.
The climate alliance's initiative, however, will not go unchallenged
by climate change skeptics. Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a
nonprofit funded by the coal industry and its allies, is spending
about $35 million this election to bolster support for coal-generated
electricity. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based
think tank that receives part of its funding from oil and gas
companies, recently spent close to $35,000 to run a television ad both
in the District and in scattered cities throughout the country
attacking Gore, and plans a follow-up campaign. The ad argues that
Gore and his allies in Hollywood use plenty of energy but that "Al
Gore wants to cut our energy use, putting our jobs and our future in
jeopardy."
Myron Ebell, who directs energy and global warming policy for CEI,
said the fact that Gore feels compelled to run such an elaborate ad
campaign highlights the extent to which his conservation message has
failed to resonate with the American public. "He's spending a hundred
million dollars to convince the American people to make sacrifices
that he and his elite friends are not willing to make," Ebell said,
adding that while many Americans may now blame humans for causing
climate change, "the American people are not there with other
alarmists" when it comes to supporting deep cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions.
John Podesta, president of the progressive think tank Center for
American Progress, said the fact that independent groups are already
advertising on the issue underscores how much more politically
relevant climate change is in the 2008 election, especially because
Congress is unlikely to send a bill to Bush for signing this year. It
is unclear whether the Senate has 60 votes to pass a cap-and-trade
bill this summer, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee has yet
to produce a companion climate bill.
"This will be played out on the candidate level, but also among an
array of parties who have a stake in the outcome," Podesta said.
"Without presidential leadership, you're left with a regional division
and a partisan division [in Congress] that's likely to produce
movement, but not the bold kind of change that's needed. You need a
president for that."
--
If you disagree with the theories and dogmas of Marxism or Scientific Socialism
then you are a tool of Capitalist interests. If you disagree with the theories
or dogmas of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming then you are a tool of
Capitalistic interests. Notice a pattern here? -- Captain Compassion
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
"...the whole world, including the United States, including all that
we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark
Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights
of perverted science." -- Sir Winston Churchill
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008; A04
Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million
campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for
aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks
as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in
U.S. history.
The Alliance for Climate Protection's "we" campaign will employ online
organizing and television advertisements on shows ranging from
"American Idol" to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." It highlights
the extent to which Americans' growing awareness of global warming has
yet to translate into national policy changes, Gore said in an
hour-long phone interview last week. He said the campaign, which Gore
is helping to fund, was undertaken in large part because of his fear
that U.S. lawmakers are unwilling to curb the human-generated
emissions linked to climate change.
"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that
are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to
be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there
is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this
crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way
to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."
Private contributors have already donated or committed half the money
needed to fund the entire campaign, he said. While Gore declined to
quantify his contribution to the effort, he has devoted all his
proceeds from the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth,"
the best-selling companion book, his salary from the venture capital
firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and several international
prizes, such as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which add up to more than
a $2.7 million. Paramount Classics, the documentary's distributor, has
pledged 5 percent of the film's profits to the group, and some of the
money raised through the 2007 Live Earth concerts will help the
campaign, along with Gore's proceeds from an upcoming book on climate
change.
While "An Inconvenient Truth" urged viewers to fully inflate their car
tires and to install compact fluorescent light bulbs to combat global
warming, Gore said he is now focused on ensuring that the United
States enacts a national carbon emission cap and ratifies a new global
pact on climate change in the next three years.
"The simple algorithm is this: It's important to change the light
bulbs, but it's much more important to change the laws," he said. "The
options available to civilization worldwide to avert this terribly
destructive pattern are beginning to slip away from us. The path for
recovery runs right through Washington, D.C."
The new effort comes at a time when the three remaining major party
presidential candidates -- Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Rodham
Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- have all endorsed
federal limits on greenhouse gases, virtually ensuring that the next
occupant of the White House will offer a sharp break from President
Bush's climate policy.
All three have discussed global warming with Gore in phone calls over
the course of the past few months. While McCain backs a more modest
plan than that favored by the Democrats -- he supports a 60 percent
reduction in greenhouse gases from 1990 levels by 2050, compared with
Obama and Clinton's vow of an 80 percent cut during that period -- the
presumptive Republican nominee emphasized during a recent stop in
Chula Vista, Calif., that he had pushed for a federal cap-and-trade
system before either of his opponents came to the Senate.
"Neither have proposed legislation or played any public role during
their time in the Senate," McCain said, sidestepping the fact that
Clinton and Obama both back climate legislation, up for a Senate vote
in June, that he has yet to endorse.
Gore, who backs a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by
mid-century, said that while he's "encouraged" that the remaining
candidates back mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, they still need
to be pushed: "What happens after the election will depend on whether
or not we win enough hearts and minds in the country as a whole."
And former Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), a board member of the
two-year-old alliance, said the candidates' commitment to a
cap-and-trade system does not negate the fact that the majority of
Americans fail to see climate change as a compelling political issue.
"Most Republicans, along with most Democrats, are focused almost
exclusively on Iraq, the war against terrorism and the economy,"
Boehlert said. "That leaves little room for anything else."
In an effort to penetrate Americans' consciousness and change
lawmakers' political calculus, the group aims to enlist 10 million
volunteers through a combination of network and cable commercials,
display ads in magazines ranging from People to Real Simple, and
online social networks. By contrast, the civil rights and antiwar
movements in the 1960s each boasted about 5 million activists.
Cathy Zoi, the Alliance for Climate Protection's chief executive, said
the group will focus on individuals known in the advertising world as
"influencers" who talk to a disproportionate number of people in their
communities. While some ads will target inside-the-Beltway
policymakers, the bulk of their efforts will focus on the general
public.
"This is modern organizing," Zoi said, adding that the campaign aims
to convince voters that "this is a solvable problem."
In an effort to broaden the campaign's appeal, the alliance has
already forged working partnerships with groups including the Girl
Scouts and the United Steelworkers of America. One of its early ads
will feature the unlikely alliance of clergymen Pat Robertson and Al
Sharpton sitting on a couch on Virginia Beach, talking about their
commitment to address climate change.
Its first ad, which is narrated by the actor William H. Macy,
highlights American's collective responses to historical challenges.
"We didn't wait for someone else to storm the beaches of Normandy,"
Macy intones. "We didn't wait for someone else to guarantee civil
rights." The commercial will run several times Wednesday on shows such
as "Good Morning America," "Today," "American Idol," "Larry King Live"
and "Anderson Cooper 360."
League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski, whose group is
supporting the effort, said he's optimistic the "we" campaign will
succeed in a way that traditional environmental groups have not. "It
heightens both the urgency and the sense we can get the job done with
the broad middle that will make the difference," Karpinski said,
"while having the resources to communicate in a sophisticated way, in
a more expansive fashion than the community has done before."
Without question, the campaign represents one of the most far-reaching
public advocacy initiatives in recent years. The American Legacy
Foundation, an anti-smoking campaign that arose out of the massive
1998 tobacco settlement, made $100 million in ad buys its first year,
but its funding quickly dwindled and it now spends $30 million
annually. The Ad Council -- which runs public service announcements
ranging from the "Just Say No" anti-drug message to the "Smokey the
Bear" commercials -- receives an average of $40 million a year in
donated media for the 50 campaigns it operates and only occasionally
hits the $100 million annual mark for its campaigns.
The climate alliance's initiative, however, will not go unchallenged
by climate change skeptics. Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a
nonprofit funded by the coal industry and its allies, is spending
about $35 million this election to bolster support for coal-generated
electricity. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based
think tank that receives part of its funding from oil and gas
companies, recently spent close to $35,000 to run a television ad both
in the District and in scattered cities throughout the country
attacking Gore, and plans a follow-up campaign. The ad argues that
Gore and his allies in Hollywood use plenty of energy but that "Al
Gore wants to cut our energy use, putting our jobs and our future in
jeopardy."
Myron Ebell, who directs energy and global warming policy for CEI,
said the fact that Gore feels compelled to run such an elaborate ad
campaign highlights the extent to which his conservation message has
failed to resonate with the American public. "He's spending a hundred
million dollars to convince the American people to make sacrifices
that he and his elite friends are not willing to make," Ebell said,
adding that while many Americans may now blame humans for causing
climate change, "the American people are not there with other
alarmists" when it comes to supporting deep cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions.
John Podesta, president of the progressive think tank Center for
American Progress, said the fact that independent groups are already
advertising on the issue underscores how much more politically
relevant climate change is in the 2008 election, especially because
Congress is unlikely to send a bill to Bush for signing this year. It
is unclear whether the Senate has 60 votes to pass a cap-and-trade
bill this summer, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee has yet
to produce a companion climate bill.
"This will be played out on the candidate level, but also among an
array of parties who have a stake in the outcome," Podesta said.
"Without presidential leadership, you're left with a regional division
and a partisan division [in Congress] that's likely to produce
movement, but not the bold kind of change that's needed. You need a
president for that."
--
If you disagree with the theories and dogmas of Marxism or Scientific Socialism
then you are a tool of Capitalist interests. If you disagree with the theories
or dogmas of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming then you are a tool of
Capitalistic interests. Notice a pattern here? -- Captain Compassion
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
"...the whole world, including the United States, including all that
we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark
Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights
of perverted science." -- Sir Winston Churchill
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
